Sony Pictures | 2009 | 100 mins. | Unrated
Directed by Harold Ramis, produced by Judd Apatow and starring Jack Black and Michael Cera, Year One should have at least been funny. Unfortunately, the film is just one big mess. Zed (Jack Black) is an Omega hunter in a primitive tribe who, after eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and burning down the village is sent to the unexplored region just beyond the mountains. He takes along his best buddy and gatherer, Oh (Michael Cera), the two travel from one chapter of the Old Testament to the next, in a bid to find out what life’s all about.
They first meet Cain (David Cross), who slays his brother Abel (Paul Rudd) over a silly disagreement that Zed and Oh unintentionally start. Fearing Cain’s wrath, the two men cautiously follow him home. There, they meet Cain’s parents, Adam (Harold Ramis) and Eve (Rhoda Griffis) as well as his sister and brother Lilith and Seth. Then it’s off to stop Abraham (Hank Azaria) from sacrificing Isaac (Christopher Mintz-Plasse). When they get to Sodom, they instantly run afoul of a crazed military man (Vinnie Jones) and a fey high priest (Oliver Platt) who has enslaved several members of their tribe, including the guys’ 0bjects of desire, Maya (June Diane Raphael) and Eema (Juno Temple). It’s up to Zed, who believes he is God’s “Chosen One,” to save the day.
Year One is reminiscent of Mel Brooks’ History of the World Part I, in that Ramis takes an “anything goes” kind of approach to the story. However, unlike Brooks’ film, Year One is painfully unfunny and the story seems to have no particular point. Things just drag along, with awkward transitions from one event to the next. Jack Black and Michael Cera are two of the funniest guys working in Hollywood today, so they do what they can with the script written by The Office’s Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg, but the material is so bad even those two are forced to serious overacting. I’m also forced to admit, as much as I like Jack Black, he’s starting to get into a rut of playing a Neanderthal man, in one form or another.
If I had to point out something redeeming about Year One, it would be the performance of Hank Azaria. He is pretty darn funny as Abraham; playing him as a total freak, hellbent on circumcising every man he sees. The almost unrecognizable Oliver Platt tries to bring a real comedic flair to his portrayal of the fey High Priest, but the character relies on too many overused gay jokes and sexual innuendos to be truly funny.
Year One is one of those films where the trailer was the best part of the project. Viewing that two minute snippet in the movie theater, it really looked like this story about prehistoric Neanderthals just might be this summer’s big breakout hit. However, like many films before it, that two minutes encapsulated the best the film had to offer. If you’re a huge Jack Black fan, you might want to pick up Year One when it hits the bargain bin; otherwise, pick up a copy of History of the World Part I instead.
Year One comes to Blu-ray with a high quality 1080p, 1.85:1-framed transfer. Though flesh tones have a red tint in several scenes, the transfer serves up a nice array of high quality imagery. There’s no evidence of digital manipulation. Year One takes on a nice film-like appearance and sports generally excellent detail, particularly in bright outdoor scenes. The individual needles on evergreen trees, tall wavy grass, and animal fur all appear nicely defined. There’s not much color in the film; clothes are of a mostly neutral shade — browns and tans — and blend in with the similarly-colored terrain. A few splashes of color do manage to impress, including Abraham’s blue and yellow robe and several more ornate garments and decorations found in the film’s final act. Black levels are fairly good throughout, and on the whole, Year One delivers a solid1080p transfer.
Year One sports a DTS-HD MA 5.1 encode. Gowever, this time of movie doesn’t really show of this type of audio. Most of the films sound effects are placed directly up the middle and occasionally spread out from side to side. Some tribal beats as heard in chapter three deliver a fair bit of power from the low end, but it never truly rattles things. A clap of thunder in chapter six is probably the loudest things get. Booming loudly and reverberating throughout the entire soundstage, it offers a clear, powerful, and lifelike moment in an otherwise dull soundtrack. Also featuring flawless dialogue reproduction, Year One sounds as good as its limited source material allows.
Year One has the following special features:
• Commentary Track with Director Harold Ramis, Jack Black and Michael Cera: Ramis handles the technical side of things, while Black and Cera chime in with humorous anecdotes.
• The Year One Cutting Room: An interactive feature that allows users to cobble together their own series of scenes from the film; users can edit scenes, add music, title their creation, and share it with the world via the disc’s BD-Live page.
• <em>Year One: The Journey Begins (1080p, 17:52) is a basic making-of featurette that looks at how the film evolved, its brand of humor, the work of the cast, the process of shooting several scenes, and more.
• Sodom’s Got ‘Em! (1080p, 1:52) is a mock television commercial pitching the joys of living in Sodom.
• Leeroy Jenkins: The Gates of Sodom (1080p, 2:08) recreates the famed “World of Warcraft” epic mishap using characters from the film.
• Line-o-Rama (1080p, 5:10) features the actors delivering alternate and improvised takes of their lines.
• Alternate Ending (1080p, 8:13)
• Deleted Scenes (1080p, 4:02): There are two of them.
• Extended and Alternate Scenes (1080p) Ten in all.
• Theatrical Trailer: (1080p, 2:17)
• CineChat: Allows users to chat with their friends in a text box that overlays a portion of the screen while the movie is playing.
• MovieIQ: Offers live, up-to-date details about every scene, including cast and crew filmographies and biographies, soundtrack listings, and more.
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