YEAR ONE
RYAN: I always look forward to a new Jack Black movie because he’s one of the funniest men in Hollywood. “Year One,” however, was not all we’d hoped it would be.
CAROLINE: I’m saying it’s the worst movie of the year thus far. Painful. Horrible. Excruciating.
RYAN: Oh honey. It wasn’t that bad.
CAROLINE: Yes, it was. I might have giggled once at one of Michael Cera’s lines, but that was it. Jack Black was totally over-the-top and oppressively unfunny. I know that’s kind of his shtick, but I so wasn’t having it in this movie.
RYAN: I completely disagree. There were some damning moments because of the juvenile humor – it definitely seems to target 12-year-old boys – but it also had some redeeming moments.
CAROLINE: Sure, if you like poop, fart, masturbation, circumcision and virginity jokes.
RYAN: True, those jokes were bad. But I loved Paul Rudd’s cameo, and I thought Oliver Platt and Hank Azaria were brilliant.
CAROLINE: I fell asleep for most of Hank Azaria’s part because I was so overwhelmed with boredom. I did like Bill Hader’s cameo, even though you can barely tell it’s him because of all that makeup. I’d recognize his voice anywhere though.
RYAN: He’s so fab on SNL. You can’t deny it’s a great cast.
CAROLINE: Sure, but they were all totally wasted in this crappy movie. I know the pairing of Michael Cera and Jack Black is supposed to be quirky and comedic due to their wildly different body types and styles of humor, but it only worked as a funny visual a couple of times. For the rest of it, I was just thinking, “I can’t believe I’m watching this horrible movie.”
RYAN: I thought you’d like that the girl who plays Michael Cera’s love interest and was in one of your favorite movies, “Atonement.”
CAROLINE: OMG is that was she was from!? I couldn’t place her for the entire movie. I’m so glad you just said that.
RYAN: You’re welcome.
CAROLINE: I just couldn’t get into one frame of this movie. And the audience I saw it with was barely laughing either. There were only a few mild chuckles.
RYAN: That’s weird, because at the screening I saw, people were really into it and laughing a lot. I’m not saying I loved it, by the way; but I certainly didn’t detest it like you did.
— BOTTOM LINE —
RYAN: It’s not a great comedy, but it had some moments I enjoyed, and a lot of the performances were great. I still think Jack Black and Michael Cera had good chemistry and I wouldn’t mind seeing them together again in another movie. But I really didn’t appreciate the dumb, childish humor in this one.
CAROLINE: The premise of this movie is very thin. It seems like they set it in ancient times just so Jack Black and Michael Cera could wear funny costumes like loincloths. There’s no real historical relevance. And it jumps around in time a lot. Basically, it makes no sense.
RYAN: It definitely missed a lot of caveman stuff that I was expecting. Instead it turned out to mostly be about Biblical times and Ancient Rome.
CAROLINE: I was appalled by this movie. I can’t not recommend it enough.
— RATING —
