Year One (2009)

User Rating:

5.1/10   

Director:

Harold Ramis

Writers (WGA):

Harold Ramis (screenplay) &
Gene Stupnitsky (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

19 June 2009 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Comedy

Tagline:

Meet your ancestors

Plot:

Zed, a prehistoric would-be hunter, eats from a tree of forbidden fruit and is banished from his tribe...

Plot Keywords:

Sodom | Hunter | Cain And Abel | High Priest | Bible Story

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Jack Black	...	Zed
Michael Cera	...	Oh
Oliver Platt	...	High Priest
David Cross	...	Cain
Christopher Mintz-Plasse	...	Isaac
Vinnie Jones	...	Sargon
Hank Azaria	...	Abraham
Juno Temple	...	Eema
Olivia Wilde	...	Princess Inanna
June Diane Raphael	...	Maya
Xander Berkeley	...	King
Gia Carides	...	Queen
Horatio Sanz	...	Enmebaragesi
David Pasquesi	...	Prime Minister
Matthew Willig	...	Marlak (as Matthew J. Willig)

Also Known As:

The Year One (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content throughout, brief strong language and comic violence. (edited; originally Rated R for some sexual content and language.)

Runtime:

97 min | 100 min (unrated version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

USA:PG-13 (certificate #44270) | Ireland:15A | Finland:K-11 | Iceland:7 | UK:12A | Singapore:NC-16 | Canada:G (Quebec) | France:U | Sweden:7 | Philippines:PG-13 (MTRCB) | Mexico:B15 | South Korea:15 | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

New Mexico, USA

Company:

Apatow Productions

Trivia:

The sheep in the movie are a threatened species known as Jacob Sheep. As you can see in the movie, this breed is a spotted multi-horned sheep. While they look strange, it is believed these sheep originate from Biblical times similar to what the movie depicts.

Goofs:

Continuity: When they enter the palace there is a peacock in the middle of the sidewalk that Maya has to step around. When Oh walks in he is in the middle of the sidewalk with no sign of the peacock.

Quotes:

Cain: [to his father Adam, while trying to flee on a slow-moving camel] Eat my dust, father!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Fred: Fred Gets Dissed at Bible School (#3.6)" (2009)

Soundtrack:

Kecak Dance

A movie about Neanderthals for Neanderthals by Neanderthals.

One knows going into this film that the comedy will be broad. That being said, Harold Ramis doesn't seem to be able to hit the broad side of the comedy barn. I might have expected at least some pithy and quotable dialogue, a la Judd Apatow (who produces), but alas, I can't remember a single phrase from this film. The jokes are stale (foreskin humor! Jews being bad athletes!) and the scenes are poorly edited. Some scenes don't even resolve themselves before moving on to the next. An early scene involving Michael Cera and a snake cuts to the next scene without any explanation as to what became of either. The actors display all the self-indulgence of a Judd Apatow film, without any of the comic rewards. If only the film makers had taken a bite from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they might have known how bad this movie was destined to be.