Year One
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
Year One
Ramshackle road comedy in which two misfit hunter-gatherers (Jack Black and Michael Cera) set out from their prehistoric village and encounter a series of biblical figures, including Cain (David Cross), Abraham (Hank Azaria), Isaac (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) and the elite of Sodom (most prominently Oliver Platt). Director and co-writer Harold Ramis' lumbering journey is fuelled by sophomoric humor and smug irreverence. Profane treatment of scriptural figures and practices, pervasive sexual and some scatological humor, implied premarital sexual activity, at least one use of the F-word, much crude and crass language. O -- morally offensive. (PG-13) 2009
Year One (Full Review)
"Year One" (Columbia) is a ramshackle road comedy that sees its two main characters, prehistoric misfits Zed (Jack Black) and Oh (Michael Cera), embark on an anachronistic and -- far more significantly -- smugly irreverent ramble through Old Testament times.
Inept but fast-talking Zed yearns to encounter the world beyond the small community of hunter-gatherers where he and Oh both live. And he gets his chance when he's exiled for eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Director Harold Ramis' script, co-written with Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg, presents the prohibition on the forbidden fruit -- given as a divine mandate in Genesis -- as mere custom, and emphasizes that Zed's violation of it entails no consequences. "God wanted me to eat the fruit," he later says.
Timid Oh, who feels he has no future in the village, especially after Zed accidentally burned his hut down just before departing, reluctantly joins in his buddy's adventures. They encounter a wildly belligerent Cain (David Cross) and a fanatical Abraham (Hank Azaria), whose apparently senseless sacrifice of his son Isaac (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) they interrupt.
When Abraham announces that God has told him that they must all be circumcised, the others, including Isaac, treat the idea with scorn, dismissing it as the latest of crank Abraham's eccentricities. To avoid being subjected to the procedure, Zed and Oh set off for Sodom, lured by Abraham's denunciations of the sexual indulgences practiced there.
The pair mingle with the city's elite (most prominently Oliver Platt as Sodom's absurdly decadent high priest), and become entangled in a local power struggle.
Sophomoric humor -- constantly sexual and occasionally gross -- abounds throughout this lumbering journey. And a potentially sweet romance between Oh and his seemingly unattainable true love Eema (Juno Temple) -- few actors are as skillful as Cera at projecting shy vulnerability -- is marred by an off-screen encounter that's treated as a triumph for the lad.
The film contains profane treatment of scriptural figures and practices, pervasive sexual and some scatological humor, implied premarital sexual activity, at least one use of the F-word and much crude and crass language. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is O -- morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
Movies have been evaluated by the U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishop's Office for Film and Broadcasting according to artistic
merit and moral suitability. The reviews include the USCCB rating,
the Motion Picture Association of America rating, and a brief
synopsis of the movie.
The classifications are as follows:
- A-I -- general patronage;
- A-II -- adults and adolescents;
- A-III -- adults;
- A-IV**
- L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. L replaces the previous classification, A-IV.
- O -- morally offensive.
** Discontinued classification. All archived movies that were originally in the A-IV category are now classified as L.