A dreary, groan-inducing comedy that fails to be funny or entertaining under even the most lenient terms.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Sep 4, 2023

It may go slightly beyond the blueprints for a formulaic parody movie, but it has all the same symptoms.

| Original Score: 5/10 | Nov 29, 2020

Year One relies almost solely upon bawdy, sophomoric humor.

| Original Score: 1.0/4.0 | Aug 31, 2020

Year One buckles at the first bad gag and it's downhill from there.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Oct 30, 2019

Unfortunately, all the talent doesn't translate on the screen. Sure, there are a few mildly amusing moments (most coming courtesy of Cera), but for the most part Year One was one big dud.

| Original Score: D | May 16, 2019

Considering Year One is likely to flop, there's little point in giving it the benefit of controversy by protesting too much.

| Mar 3, 2019

All in all, this is a sloppy, unoriginal, brain-dead mess that can't even be bothered to get itself out of trouble.

| Aug 29, 2018

In the beginning there was light, which was closely followed by the fart joke.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 21, 2014

Stretched painfully thin to feature length, it's a concept that's gestated for 34 years but hasn't evolved a microbe. It also proves that the Harold Ramis of '09 has nothing on the Harold Ramis of '75.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 29, 2012

| Original Score: C | Apr 21, 2012

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 17, 2011

Dudley Moore once made a pretty forgettable comedy giving various well-worn bible stories a light irony wash by reacting to them with the skepticism and confusion a person of today might. Year One is basically that, but dumber.

| Original Score: 4/10 | Dec 28, 2010

From its ill-concieved concept to its timing-free chemistry and embarrassingly-bad characterisations, Year One is a major misfire in every respect.

| Aug 9, 2010

a lazy excrescence of a film. Crude, sloppy, flat, and singularly uninspired, its only redeeming virtue is proving that Michael Cera is capable of rising above even this abominable material

| Original Score: 1/5 | Jul 4, 2010

Only big fans of Cera and Black need catch this film, and even then, it's far from a must-see.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 15, 2010

What's even more depressing than the never-ending stream of sub-sixth-grade toilet humor is the sad fact that Year One is helmed and co-produced by two of the best laughmeisters in the business.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Jan 5, 2010

Not everything Judd Apatow touches is gold.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Jan 5, 2010

Creatively it's a giant step backwards, with Jack Black and Michael Cera playing to the kids as inept hunter-gatherers who stumble across various Old Testament characters.

| Jan 5, 2010

The problem is not the historicity, or lack thereof, in a comedy, but the uneven pace of the humor.

| Original Score: D+ | Dec 6, 2009

Producer Judd Apatow has gone from comedy gourmand to McDonald-izing in four years. And when in doubt, director Harold Ramis makes Jack Black eat his own feces and Michael Cera pee in his own mouth. Yes, this is at the level of YouTube monkey comedy.

| Original Score: .5/4 | Dec 3, 2009