Review of Year One (1974) by Alex S — 14 Dec 2013

First of all I must admit I only watched this because Michael Cera is in it. I?ve liked his work ever since I first saw him in Juno (2007); he has a great future ahead of him, if he chooses his roles wisely. But I digress, here?s a little flavour of the plot before I tell you what I really think.

Zed and Oh live in a village where Zed is a hunter, not a very good one, and Oh is a gatherer. Both have women they like but never seem to be able to get. One day Zed has had enough of being disrespected and, taking Oh with him, goes into the forest where he eats the fruit from the forbidden tree of knowledge. As a result the pair is banished from the village. After much travel they come across two brothers fighting, Cain and Abel? I think that?s enough of the plot, you can probably see it?s going to go downhill from here.

Although it?s had quite a lot of money spent on it, and there a few well known names in the cast, this one misses the mark by quite a long way. I will say though that the scenes with Michael Cera as Oh were the high points for me. He had all the best lines and delivered them in that dead-pan style of his perfectly. On the other hand, Jack Black as Zed was his usual gross-out self. It seems he can only play comedy in one way and we?ve all seen it too many times already. As far as the rest of the cast goes, honourable mentions go to Oliver Platt as the High Priest, David Cross as Cain, Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Isaac, Vinnie Jones as Sargon, Hank Azaria as Abraham and Juno Temple as Eema.

Over all, it?s a pretty bad comedy that, if it wasn?t for Michael Cera, I would not have bothered to see. I can only hope he chooses better scripts in future. Most definitely NOT recommended? unless you?re a huge Michael Cera fan.

My score: 3.7/10.