Below is the spectacularly unfunny trailer for The Year One. I’m sure the idea was a good one at some point: Put Michael Cera and Jack Black into prehistoric civilization, bring in a few of the usual suspects to lend it some more comedic credibility (David Cross and Paul Rudd, in his 764th role this year), and let them riff. Unfortunately, Harold Ramis clearly doesn’t have it anymore — the trailer makes The Year One look like a bad Movie Movie, and either the casts’ improvisation skills were lacking, or else the script was truly atrocious. I mean, when you can’t even make a decent trailer, you’re in trouble.
And you know what’s even more terrifying about how miserably unfunny this movie looks? Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg co-wrote it with Harold Ramis. You know what they’re writing next? Ghostbusters III.
Someone didn't get his Rice Crispies this morning. Granted it's not going to make any classic movie lists but it certainly looks amusing.
Assuming of course, these aren't the best jokes in the whole movie.
Posted by: Neodiogenes at March 19, 2009 9:57 PM
I giggled. And I still believe in George Michael Bluth.
Posted by: Optimus Rhyme at March 19, 2009 10:53 PM
I think both of them are pretty played out... but I still don't think it looks horrible. I've seen another trailer that was funnier; the extended fight between Cain and Abel is pretty good.
Posted by: Eep at March 19, 2009 11:31 PM
i can't wait til opening night when i can totally not go see this and just watch history of the world part 2 or caveman instead.
michael cera can suck it!
(and not in the good way)
Posted by: gp at March 19, 2009 11:32 PM
Wait, weren't you all back on the Michael Cera bandwagon? When was the bandwagon disbanded? Why do you hate him now?
How do I miss these things?
Posted by: Smokin at March 19, 2009 11:37 PM
"Wait, weren't you all back on the Michael Cera bandwagon? When was the bandwagon disbanded? Why do you hate him now?"
I don't hate Michael Cera. Then again, I was never on any bandwagon or love train or other conveyance of affection, either.
The only thing I've ever seen Michael Cera in (at least that I remember) was Superbad, which I did hate, so I just kind of don't care about him.
Smokin, I never got back on the bandwagon. Here we have more of the same; Michael Cera playing Michael Cera and Jack Black playing a fat mouthy fuck.
I couldn't even giggle.
Posted by: admin at March 20, 2009 12:37 AM
Never, ever found Jack Black remotely funny. He reminds me of the quintisential colossal bore that arrives at a party, loud,not not funny, in love with the sound of his own voice. F'n asshole of the first order. Why this guy has a career is beyond me. I would rather have a root canal than see this guy for free, let alone pay a dime to see anything he is in.
Posted by: wayne moores at March 20, 2009 12:47 AM
It wasn't as bad as Dustin said, but its gonna be boring as hell. There's nothing there I haven't seen, but it's not Movie Movie bad.
As a general rule I'm with Sarina. He didn't build enough credit with me for AD, and while Nick and Nora was decent enough, it still didn't sell me. And I think you're right admin, he's just Michael Cera playing Michael Cera.
Maybe he's one of a series of replacement clones.
Posted by: Smokin at March 20, 2009 1:43 AM
Maybe he's one of a series of replacement clones.
Well that's a relief. So, according to Sci-Fi literature and the possibility of genetic drift, we should expect him to develope a personality within the next 1000 years?
Posted by: admin at March 20, 2009 2:23 AM
*Puts up dukes* I'll be the one to defend these two.
Did you forget High Fidelity so soon? And School of Rock? The man is good at what he does.
And Michael Cera is making pale awkward man-boys acceptable so he's good in my book.
Posted by: Optimus Rhyme at March 20, 2009 3:23 AM
Jack Black should start to work on the next Tenacious D album instead of making crappy movies.
Posted by: FabMax at March 20, 2009 4:04 AM
Did you forget High Fidelity so soon? And School of Rock? The man is good at what he does.
Until he doesn't do Jack Black. Have you forgotten: Tropic Thunder, Kung Fu Panda, Be Kind Rewind, King Kong....?
And Michael Cera is making pale, awkward man-boys even more pale and awkward.
Rise up you fumbling ivory heroes! Rise up and cast off your manacles of dull!
Posted by: admin at March 20, 2009 4:09 AM
Michael Cera and Jack Black are two people I can't get enough of. You fools would do well to love them.
Posted by: Julius at March 20, 2009 5:11 AM
I'll be honest, I 'heh'd' a few times, not in a 'yes I will pay money' to see this movie kind of way, more of 'if it came on TV, and nothing else was on, and it was a cut that had 90% more Rudd and Cross, I might tune in for their scenes'
Like..for one I cant figure out the time line, are Black and Cera immortal or something?Maybe I'm being intentionally dense, are they saying Cera and Black are living in the same time as the Romans but are isolated so seem as if they're older?
And how can they eat from the tree of knowledge, then go out and meet Cain and Abel, then go out and meet fucking Romans?
Intellectually you could argue that its been some time since Adam and Eve where banished from Eden so Obv. Other civilisations have grown up, Cain and Abel have grown up etc, but why would Cera and of all people fucking Jack Black be living in the presumably now abandoned Eden? Eden was sealed off to all Mankind god damn it.
Fuck that, I'm not watching this stupid, sub par shit. Cera, Get new Shtick boy. It's fine in AD, it was fine in Juno, but you're starting to piss me off now. You Diva'd around about the AD movie for no good reason, YOU ARE NOT THAT IMPORTANT.
And Jack Black needs to fucking die. He is not now, nor has he ever been funny.
The obvious 'Pacino, I will suck your dick right now if you untie me' joke in Tropic Thunder, was okay, but thats it.
Some one STOP giving this man money.
Posted by: nadine at March 20, 2009 7:30 AM
I'm sorry. I laughed. I can't help it! I was amused!!
What's wrong with that, Dustin? It looks about as funny as "10,000 B.C." was. And that was HI-larious.
Oh...shit!
Well, maybe this will knock Michael Cera down a few pegs and give him back some perspective (except you know it's going to make a billion dollars, right?).
Posted by: Armando at March 20, 2009 8:08 AM
Someone didn't get his Rice Crispies this morning
Nope. Looks like he had his Surly-Os instead.
Saaaaay, isn't this a rerun? Didn't we already see this? It's suspiciously familiar.... Or was that like a teaser-trailer, and this is a trailer-trailer? Anyway, I seem to recall finding it meh until the David Cross/Paul Rudd scene, at which I laughed like a motherfucker. Oh, Comedy Central, when will you start playing this movie incessantly so I can see it without paying for it?
In other news, today is the first day of spring. I am looking at the snow falling outside my office window. What the crap, stupid nature?
You idiots. Of course cavemen and Romans co-existed. They had to band together to hold off the dinosaurs and of course, the giant bugs. Then we fought World War I and defeated the Nazis followed by the Viet Nam war where Rambo and Chuck Norris defeated Robin Williams and that evil guy. Then Saddam attacked the towers and the war on Terror was started.
Shit, this movie was written by G.W.
Posted by: Mrcreosote at March 20, 2009 9:24 AM
Feh. I want to take Cera's lunch money and stuff him in a locker.
Posted by: Tracer Bullet at March 20, 2009 9:28 AM
I like Michael Cera. I would LOVE to see him play a villain. You know, halting, quiet delivery, blow someone away, look sheepish.
Posted by: Henry at March 20, 2009 9:33 AM
As long as we're positing Sci-Fi theories, Michael Cera's career was put in stasis during Arrested Development. What was spring-time fresh then has become limp and stale upon repetition. But give him 20 years to grow up and a couple of stints in rehab, and I predict he'll be "rediscovered" in some awesome movie, and then we can all claim we knew he always had it in him.
And dammit, I still like Jack Black. Maybe it's because if I see him in a movie that I know I'm going to hate, I just...stay away. Some things you just don't want to think about, like your parents having sex. Jack Black in Kung Fu Panda is that thought. I like to remember him as the brother in Orange County.
Posted by: Wednesday at March 20, 2009 10:17 AM
I'm willing to say the reason my unique blend of nerditude and quiet charm even works is because the trail was already blazed by the likes of Lloyd Dobler and Michael Cera. Yes. I just mentioned them in the same breath. Paulie Bleeker- Recognize.
Posted by: Optimus Rhyme at March 20, 2009 11:38 AM
Oh. I've seen Juno, so I guess I've seen two movies with Michael Cera in them. But one of them was a movie I motherfucking hated, and I forgot he existed in the other one. So... yeah. I still don't hate him, but I really don't care about him, either.
Ok, that made me laugh harder than anything in the trailer, though I did chuckle a few times. I'm with AvB, I'm waiting for it to show up endlessly on cable, which'll be the perfect way to watch it.
Posted by: tamatha at March 20, 2009 1:19 PM
Henry, I think Michael Cera as a villain is a great idea. Whatever he does, he needs to drop the George Michael schtick right now. I love AD as much as the next person, but you can't keep playing the same young and uncertain character for the rest of your life.
That trailer was painful, but I think I will still see this movie at some point. There are history costumes! And Romans! And Bible jokes! And History of the World Part I had only about 10 minutes of true comedy anyway.
"Oh, Comedy Central, when will you start playing this movie incessantly so I can see it without paying for it?"
---
Stealing cable, AvB? Didn't the judge tell you you'd do REAL time if you got caught again? Then how would you make you noon Tuesday appointment? I'd have to find somebody else to ... Hmmm ...
*sets "Line Forms Here, Ladies" sign outside Stately Buc Manor*
Posted by: bucdaddy at March 20, 2009 2:47 PM
Posted by: Optimus Rhyme at March 20, 2009 11:38 AM
Oh, Optimus, I *heart* you. Precious pale nerdy man-boy.
Heh, bucdaddy, not stealing, *borrowing*. I always give it back when I'm done. Tuesdays are still mine, ladies, so you can just un-form that line.
I'm just going to say it: I don't find that trailer particularly unfunny. In fact, I find it fairly amusing. There were several scenes within the trailer that pulled a few chuckles. I don't think it was the best trailer ever, by any means, but I think you're being unnecessarily melodramatic to make yourself sound more hip, because hating on Michael Cera has become popular, and hating on Jack Black has been for a while now, despite the fact that I find them both hysterical in nearly everything I've seen them in. So, you know what? You stop it. I'm tired of phonies, and there seems to be a lot of them around here these days. And people need to stop sucking up to the writers so they can get on the eloquent eloquence. I've done it. We've all done it. It's not worth it.
That's not so much a rant about this particular article, just some things that have been bugging me lately. I'm sorry.
Okay, admin, you just listed four movies I love. Why are ANY of those bad? At all?? I don't understand the Kung Fu Panda hate! I laughed harder at that movie than any animated film in years. I enjoyed it more, on a humor level, than Wall-E (though that was certainly a better movie, I won't claim otherwise).
And all of you who say you haven't seen Michael Cera in anything good: HAVE YOU NOT WATCHED JUNO?!?!?! Why the FUCK have you not seen that movie?! God, you claim to hate the man so much, but you haven't seen his best work? Fuck. That's like someone saying they hated Marlon Brando because of the last film he made, but they haven't seen The Godfather.
I dunno, I guess I'm just feeling really confrontational today.
You know what, screw it - I don't care if it makes me part of the uncool set here. I like Jack Black.
Posted by: Shane at March 21, 2009 6:37 PM
I thought Jack Black was hilarious in "School of Rock." As to Cera, I liked Juno but seriously can't even call to mind one scene he was in. He was merely competent.
How...unfortunate.