Despite Ugly Facade, ‘Year One’ Has Positive Message About Religion

The new film Year One is definitely taking a beating from the critics, especially conservative ones.

Two reviews by my colleagues at Big Hollywood exemplify the complaints. Comedienne Victoria Jackson expresses immense disappointment with the film’s high proportion of obscenity and vulgarity (she reports that she left the film in tears of frustration and sadness), and John Nolte observes that it lacks a sensible story line, excessively indulges in its performers’ ad libs, manages to have scenes that are both overlong and end too abruptly, has a nonsensical timeline, and is just sloppy and poorly executed overall.

Both of these critics’ observations are quite accurate, but I think there’s more to this story. (more…)

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Tags: "Year One", Abraham, Bible. Sodom, Harold Ramis, Jack Black
Posted Jun 28th 2009 at 3:02 pm in Entertainment, Politics, Religion | 167406One Commenthttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/stkarnick/2009/06/28/despite-ugly-facade-year-one-has-positive-message-about-religion/Despite+Ugly+Facade%2C+%27Year+One%27+Has+Positive+Message+About+Religion2009-06-28+22%3A02%3A27S.T.+Karnick

Why I Walked Out of ‘Year One’ Crying

I had a date with Judd Apatow.  It was around 1991 and I was between husbands: the out-of-work-Jewish-Gypsy-fire-eater-musician, and the high-school-sweetheart-Baptist-helicopter-police-pilot.  I needed a date to a premiere.  I knew the rules of engagement for a Hollywood career, and I tried to follow them.  It’s difficult to do this when you carry the burden of ethics around with you, but I tried to do it and stay within the bounds of morality.

1) Go to the right places.  I went to the Playboy Mansion to find an agent, and I did.  I was 21 and a Baptist virgin, and I found Betty from the William Morris commercial department there.  Check.

2) Wear something provocative to a Hollywood premiere so you can get free publicity.  I did that.  When I was an SNL castmember trying to increase my movie roles, I attended some Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan premiere (go figure – it was a flop!) in a see-through black shirt with a flowered bra underneath.  I felt ashamed, but I did get my picture in a few magazines.  All press is good press, and press leads to opportunity.

(more…)

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Tags: "Juno", "Year One", bestiality, blasphemy, circumcision jokes
Posted Jun 19th 2009 at 7:15 pm in Featured Story, Religion, Reviews | 16542616 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/vjackson/2009/06/19/why-i-walked-out-of-year-one-crying/Why+I+Walked+Out+of+%27Year+One%27+Crying2009-06-20+02%3A15%3A06Victoria+Jackson

Review: Year One

“Year One” is one of those rare movies that can’t possibly be as bad as the trailer makes it look … but is. Actually it’s kinda worse. Sex jokes, gay jokes, incest jokes, lesbian jokes, poop jokes, urine jokes, bestiality jokes, no story, an episodic plot, fewer laughs and dialogue that’s mostly ad-libbed, makes extra sure of that.

Zed (Jack Black) and Oh (Michael Cera) play hunter-gatherer cavemen who don’t quite fit in with their small tribe. Both are clumsy, intensely disliked and in unrequited love with a couple of lovely cavewomen. After Zed breaks rule number one and tastes the forbidden fruit, he’s exiled. For some reason, Oh follows along and they set off on a series of tedious antics involving Biblical characters, the city of Sodom and whole lot of wondering as to what director Harold Ramis, the genius behind “Groundhog Day,” “Analyze This,” “Caddyshack” and “Vacation,” was thinking.

Judd Apatow is one of the producers, so that explains the overlong scenes full of unfunny, self-indulgent ad-libbing, but there’s practically no story. Like a foul-mouthed, sex-obsessed Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, the duo heads off on the Road to Interminable drifting from one “comedic” set up to the next riffing along the way in that annoying, hesitant-enhanced, post-modernspeak that passes for clever dialogue nowadays: “Yeah, I know, but … you know, if you were … because I could … and then we would – you know what, forget it.”

Beyond plodding, many of the individual scenes are also choppy. Scenes end abruptly as though what the makers had on film was so bad there was no other choice. The whole affair reeks of sloppy, laziness or plain old poor planning that couldn’t be salvaged in the editing room. (more…)

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Tags: "Caveman", "Year One", Barbara Bach, Harold Ramis, Jack Black
Posted Jun 19th 2009 at 4:31 pm in Reviews | 1653143 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2009/06/19/review-year-one/Review%3A+Year+One2009-06-19+23%3A31%3A53John+Nolte