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Year One
(2009)
Directed by
Harold Ramis
Review by
Terry Plucknett
Posted - 6/19/09
When I viewed the trailer for this film, I was
really excited for when it was going to reach theatres.
After viewing the film, I realize that the reason the trailer
looked so good is because they put every highlight of the film in that
trailer.
I want to go back
to a time when I still thought
Year One had the potential of being good.
I was much happier then…
The film centers around two friends, Zed (Jack
Black) and Oh (Michael Cera).
After Zed, a complete screw-up, decides to eat from the Tree of
the Knowledge of Good and Evil to get smarter, the two companions are
banished from their village.
From there, they begin a journey through Biblical history
witnessing about 1000 years of history in a week.
First, they witness Cain (David Cross) killing his brother Abel
(Paul Rudd).
Cain takes
them home where Zed spends the night with Adam’s lesbian daughter and Oh
stays with a flatulence-loving son.
After the night, Cain leads the two into town where he sells them
into slavery with the rest of inhabitants of their former village.
When they escape, they meet Abraham (Hank Azaria) as he is about
to sacrifice his son Isaac (Christopher Mintz-Plasse).
They escape this family as Abraham is threatening to circumcise
them.
They head off to
Sodom where the their villagers, and love interests, are now slaves.
There, they fumble around and eventually save the day and get the
girls.
How else would it
end?
From the very first scene, I knew this movie was
going the wrong way.
The hunters
are going after a boar.
They are just about to get him when Zed throws his spear and hits
another hunter and scares off the animal.
Where this film could have been very smart and witty, it instead
relied on crude and stupid humor overplaying the prehistoric setting of
the film in the first five minutes.
Now what I am saying about this film has nothing to do with the
Biblical depictions and inaccuracies.
I knew coming in that it was going to be inaccurate and didn’t
care.
I also thought that
the depictions of the Biblical stories were some of the highlights of
the film.
There is no
religious bias against this film.
It’s just bad.
Like
I said, instead of being a smart, biting comedy, it insults the audience
by going for stupid, crude, simple humor.
It doesn’t need to take itself seriously, but do we need to know
about Adam’s lesbian daughter, or the eunuch who was castrated and keeps
his testicles tied to his belt, or an extensive and continuing joke
about Oh rubbing oil on the very hairy high priest?
The answer is a resounding no.
Looking at the minds behind this film, and the
premise, it sounds like it would be a quality film.
It was produced by the king of comedy in recent years, Judd
Apatow, and directed by Harold Ramis, who along with being Egon in the
Ghostbusters movies, also has
directed such classic comedies as
Caddyshack,
National
Lampoon’s Vacation, and
Groundhog Day.
A great
comedic cast was put in place as well, with Jack Black, Michael Cera,
and others.
The formula for
a good film was in place, but something went catastrophically wrong.
I was hoping Sodom would be destroyed at some point to bring the
movie to an end earlier without having to see the ending because I
really didn’t care.
At no
point do you really feel a need to root for the characters because you
never necessarily like them, especially Jack Black’s character.
Michael Cera does the best with what he has, and does have some
moments, but Jack Black’s character is one that should be a villain, yet
we are supposed to root for him as the hero.
There are just so many things that don’t work with this film.
I wish the trailer had portrayed the movie for what it was.
I hate when I get my hopes up for a movie, and then get
disappointed, especially to this extent.
Rating:
|
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