Year One
PG-13 for crude and sexual content throughout, brief strong language and comic violence
My friends Collin told me that to get one bad movie out of your head you've got to watch nine good ones in a row. By that math, you're going need a couple of dozen good films on hand after watching "Year One." Or you could just skip it in the first place.
The Story
Story is probably too strong of a word for the series of apparently improvised sketches that make up this film. The joke of the movie is that cave men Zed (Jack Black) and Oh (Michael Cera) talk like a couple of regular, 21st century losers while hunting, gathering, and getting kicked out of the tribe after bumbling Zed defiantly eats from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and then accidently burns down the village.
After discovering that the world continues on the other side of the mountains, the wandering pair finally discover other humans, specifically brothers Cain (David Cross) and Able (Paul Rudd) in a fight over God's blessing. That leads to dinner with Adam's family, after which Zed is offered a bed with Cain's lesbian sister Lilith and Oh with Cain's sheep-obsessed brother.
Moving on, Zed and Oh next happen upon Abraham (Hank Azaria) in the midst of attempting to sacrifice his son Isaac (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) at God's command. Taking their intrusion as God's intervention, Abraham invites the pair home where he warns them of God's coming wrath on the city of Sodom for its wickedness and invites them to participate with the other Hebrews in the rite of circumcision (with much colorful language).
Zed and Oh quickly head straight for Sodom, where they hope to find and rescue two women from their village back home who have been kidnapped and sold into slavery. After bumping into Cain again, the pair become palace guards in Sodom. Zed gets conned into going into the "holy of holies" of the gods by Princess Inaana (Olivia Wilde), who wants to see if he'll really die. Oh is favored by the priest of the gods (Oliver Platt) and made to rub hot oil on his fat, hairy chest.
And then the movie still won't end.
The Verdict
What we thought of the movie on its own terms
What Works: Writer/director Harold Ramis seems to have had the idea that he could collect a handful of funny actors, set them in some ridiculous scenes, and let them improvise their way to funny town. They mostly just wander in the wilderness of awkward silences. In fact, it's tough to think of anything in the movie that really "works," other than a few chuckles provided by Michael Cera's dust dry deadpan one-liners and a couple of funny moments from Black's "enthusiasm is funny" approach to comedy.
What Doesn't Work: "Year One" achieves terribleness on several different levels. Assuming you could set aside the "can't believe it's not R-rated" crude and sexual humor and the outright blasphemy, the movie still fails at its primary task: being funny. It's one of the first times I've watched a whole row of people get up and leave the theater and I honestly couldn't guess whether they were offended by the objectionable content or the general lameness of the show.
Content: In addition to quite a bit of harsh language, the film includes a whole catalog of crude and sexual humor from onscreen poop-eating, vomiting, and upside-down urinating to numerous, obvious jokes about all the sexual body parts, sexual acts, and sexual orientations. I know the category of PG-13 has expanded, but I keep getting surprised by what it takes to get an R-rating now.
Worldview
How the film's take on life compares to a biblical perspective
The film's take on life seems to be that it's funny to mock the stories of the Old Testament and whatever God or gods might come along with them. I'm sure that's not exactly how director Harold Ramis and his team would put it, but that's what they end up doing.
They literally make a joke out of Cain's murder of Able, Abraham's faith in God and God's promises, and the many sins of corrupt Sodom that earned God's angry punishment. To be fair, they also mock the gods of Sodom that demand virgin sacrifices for rain right along with mocking the God of Abraham who demands "genital mutilation."
In the film, a doubtful princess sends Zed into the "holy of holies" of Sodom's gods to see if he'll really die, as she has been taught all along by the priests. Zed doesn't die, from which Oh concludes that there are no gods or God, probably.
The filmmakers seem to be up to something similar, mocking at least the literal idea of the God of the Old Testament (and the idea of faith, in general) just to prove, perhaps, that He either doesn't exist or doesn't care to protect His truth and His righteousness. If the movie wasn't so dumb, those with an anti-God worldview might even call it brave.
Those who believe the Bible will just call it foolishness: "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.' " (Psalm 14:1) Wisdom, Proverbs tells us, begins with fearing the Lord, respecting His infinite power, perfect goodness, and perfectly justified anger toward sin. We can't hope to understand life as He made it if we start our search for wisdom by mocking the idea of the creator and giver of life -- or by mocking His Word.
Questions
- Too harsh? Is comedy not meant to be taken so seriously?
- Do you think the Bible is ever fair game for this kind of comedy?
- What's the best response for a Christian when confronted with comedy that seems to be making fun of God or the teaching of the Bible?
- If you saw the film, were you surprised by all of the sexual content in a PG-13 film?
- What's your approach for moving on from a bad movie? Have you ever seen nine good movies in a row?
