Movie Review Rewind: Year One (2009)

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I thought this movie was going to be stupid…so stupid that it ruins the whole movie (like The Love Guru). Well, it was not. Year One is actually funny. It’s stupid, but not too stupid. Jack Black and Michael Cera are good together, but there does not seem to be much acting for the two. The movie appeared very easy to act in because very little was required.

The story is about two hunter-gatherers who are banished from their tribe. Well, Zed (Black) is the one that is banished for eating the forbidden fruit, but Oh (Cera) reluctantly goes as well. Either way, both guys go on a journey that travels through many biblical locations and ancient civilizations. However, if you are bothered with inaccurate times and history, then do not go see this. It jumps all over the place and you’ll be pissed.

The point of this movie is to try and make the beginning of time seem funny. And all these people we read about are made into characters that probably didn’t exist. But it’s fun to think that they did. Harold Ramis, the director, really put words of today into people of the past. Hopefully, the jokes that were used may have been jokes since the beginning of time. I doubt it, though.

Year One is easy to predict. You do not go to see how the movie ends. You go to see how funny it is. Maybe you are fans of Black and Cera. These guys are funny. But Cera’s character is the same person in Superbad and Juno. Black’s character is the same person in School of Rock and almost every other Jack Black movie besides Kung Fu Panda and King Kong. These characters are just in different costumes.

The biggest disappointment is the humor does not carry through the entire movie. It starts off well, but towards the middle, the jokes aren’t as funny as they once were. Only a few scenes will make you laugh towards the end. Year One is not as stupid and better than some comedies. But it will get lost in the mix because it is not a standout comedy. I can definitely say it’s not the best comedy of the year. That goes to The Hangover right now, but it’s not fair to compare Year One to it.

“Nature Boy” Brandon Vick is the resident film critic of the SoBros Network, and star of Brandon’s Box Office In Your Mouth. Follow him on Twitter@SirBrandonV and be sure to search #VicksFlicks for all of his latest movie reviews.

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