RSS
Home
Movie review: Year One - Jack Black, Michael Cera, 4 out of 10
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Year One movie poster
4 out of 10
Year One rates a 4 out of 10. As usual, this review will be as spoiler-free as possible; though for a comedy like this there is not much that could be given away. Let’s look at the Good, the Bad, and the Bottom Line.
The Good
The most important thing for a summer comedy is, well, comedy. Year One does have some very funny scenes, though a good majority of them were already shown in the trailer. The film does try to blend in elements of humorous dialogue with some physical comedy, but it tends to come off as if they couldn’t make up their minds.
Jack Black was decently funny, and several of his scenes were undoubtedly adlibbed; which certainly helped. Michael Cera was exactly the same as he always is. Once again, it was pretty humorous, but he is getting dangerously close to being typecast for life. What helped this film out tremendously was a vast cast (say that 10 times fast). The great mix of characters, and short screen times were beneficial because none of the characters were funny enough to carry a bulk of the film. Thus, the short, quick scenes with them fit the overall theme of the movie perfectly. It’s reminiscent of Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian; it even has Hank Azaria just like the Stiller sequel. Azaria was nowhere near the show stealer that his was in "Museum 2", but funny nonetheless.
The Bad
Writer/Director Harold Ramis seemed to pick random biblical stories and mesh them all into the exact same time period. Comedies are not exactly known for their historical accuracies, but the film seemed like a jumbled mess and an excuse to poke fun at many different religious beliefs. There’s nothing purely offensive about the style, and Ramis seemed to be merely having some fun with the idiosyncrasies and ancient practices or beliefs. The problem doesn’t lie in the material, but the execution. Similar to Land of the Lost, the randomness of the scenes is tied together with nothing but the fact that the characters walk from one scene to the next.
The movie was only about 100 minutes long, but felt much longer as the scenes seemed to drag on longer as the film went on. The time between the truly funny scenes also contributed to this feeling of dragging on and on. As far as comedies go, it wasn’t too long in reality, but “felt” long based on lulling the audience nearly to sleep at times.
As stated earlier, this film gave away many of the best scenes in the trailer. There were some funny scenes with Oliver Platt and Hank Azaria that were saved for the actual movie, but other than that, the trailer will give you the bulk of the humor.
The Bottom Line
Save your time and money and wait for the rental. It is funny enough to justify a few bucks at the rental store or Red Box machines, but nowhere near funny enough for $7-12 a person in the theater. There are far too many movies already out, and coming out soon, to bother with this one.
For W.B. Dalton (comments) and all other parents: please check out the article and interview I did with fellow movie critic Nell Minow, aka Movie Mom. She adds content reviews and rates movies as they are appropriate to certain ages groups. Her site in invaluable for parents and can be found here.
____________________________________________________________________________________
See what all the talk was about on Fark.com: Biggest Box Office Bombs list.
Which actors have made the most at the box office in their career? Top 10
Here is some information about films coming out in 2010.
Check out some reviews:X-men Origins: Wolverine, Angels & Demons, Terminator Salvation, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, Star Trek, Land of the Lost, The Hangover and The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3.
Related Articles:
Comments
