Year One parents guide

Year One Parent Guide

Comedian Harold Ramis has put pen to paper once again and come up with what can best be called Neanderthal humor in "Year One".

Overall D

Zed and Oh (Jack Black and Michael Cera) find themselves caught between a rock and the Stone Age when they are banished from their village. Now the lazy, good-for-nothings are forced to fend for themselves in an evolving world that lives by "survival of the fittest" rules.

Release date June 19, 2009

Violence C
Sexual Content D+
Profanity D+
Substance Use C-

Why is Year One rated PG-13? The MPAA rated Year One PG-13 for crude and sexual content throughout, brief strong language and comic violence. (Edited; originally Rated R for some sexual content and language.)

Run Time: 92 minutes

Official Movie Site

Parent Movie Review

Comedian Harold Ramis (writer of Meatballs, Caddy Shack and Ghostbusters) has put pen to paper once again and come up with what can best be called "Neanderthal humor" in Year One. The central characters of the story are Zed (Jack Black) and Oh (Michael Cera), two primitive men living near the dawn of time. Residing in a village where the citizens are either hunters or gatherers, Zed and Oh are essentially failures on both counts. The former is a super slacker who believes he has access to divine revelation after he takes a bite off the tree of knowledge. Oh, on the other hand, is a timid male with a penchant for creating gourmet salads. Not surprisingly, the duo is run out of town.

With the vague objective of looking for the edge of the world, the outcasts begin a road trip within a script that pays no attention to historical timelines. Running into characters and events recorded in the Book of Genesis (from the Holy Bible), they witness a murder between two brothers named Cain (David Cross) and Abel (Paul Rudd). Determined his story be told the “right way,” Cain invites the wanderers home to his father Adam’s (Harold Ramis) house. After dinner, Adam commands Zed to be fruitful and multiply by sleeping with his daughter only she turns out to be a lesbian.

The next morning the cave boys leave with Cain in tow (he’s worried Dad will discover the body). Soon they encounter Abraham (Hank Azaria) and his rebellious son Isaac (Christopher Mintz-Plasse). With the biblical father just about to stab his son, Zed intervenes. Later, over dinner, Abraham warns the pair of the dangers and sexual perversions in the neighboring town of Sodom. Anxious to leave as soon as possible, the pair heads for the infamous city.

If you think the plot has reveled a too much in irreverent adventure already, just think what a bit of imagination can do with the land of sodomy. While very little on-screen activity is seen, the dialogue and innuendo flows through the streets as the boys experience all manner of sexual situations including orgies and discussions of bestiality and incest.

Scatological humor seems to be something the script particularly favors Ramis even manages to recreate his excrement-eating scene from the 1980s Caddyshack (remember Bill Murray cleaning the pool?) when Zed far-too-intently examines scat left on a trail. Violence is also an issue with decapitations (a dismembered head is seen) and sexual mutilations discussed at length (a man keeps his removed organs in a bag which he later throws during a town stoning). Not surprisingly, language is no better with frequent sexual terms and the use of a sexual expletive.

Although it clocks in at only 92 minutes, the film feels painfully long. Whether or not you find desecration of religious figures to be personally offensive, there is still nothing in this film worth your family’s time—or money. And if we are really lucky, we won’t have to endure a Year Two.

Starring Jack Black, Michael Cera, Olivia Wilde. Running time: 92 minutes. Theatrical release June 19, 2009. Updated

Year One
Rating & Content Info

Why is Year One rated PG-13? Year One is rated PG-13 by the MPAA for crude and sexual content throughout, brief strong language and comic violence. (Edited; originally Rated R for some sexual content and language.)

Continual and pervasive sexually oriented dialogue is the focus of this film about two “cave men” who travel and meet people from the Old Testament. Various sexual topics are discussed, especially those involving sodomy and circumcision, and the vast majority of “humor” in this film is derived from similar sexual remarks. While there is no overt nudity (some men are seen topless and some women are dressed in bikini-like outfits) an orgy is depicted and homosexual situations are alluded to, along with discussions of sexual mutilation, bestiality and incest. A sexual expletive, various crude terms for sexual anatomy and other profanities are used in the script. Violence includes human sacrifices (virgins—mainly women—are thrown into a fire, but they disappear and are not seen burning), hand-to-hand fighting (along with other skirmishes a man is beaten on the head with a rock until he dies and a man is killed with swords and knives), a decapitation, and the use of people as slaves. Drug references are heard. Biblical figures are presented in a way that may be perceived as sacrilegious and offensive.

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Year One Parents' Guide

As soon as Zed and Oh are warned about the sexual permissiveness in Sodom they are anxious to go. Why are things that appear wrong so enticing to some people? How does the media use similar tactics today to entertain and sell products?

Home Video

The most recent home video release of Year One movie is October 6, 2009. Here are some details…

Release Date: 6 October 2009

Year One on DVD includes:

- Theatrical Version of the film

- 2 Deleted Scenes

- Commentary with Director Harold Ramis, Jack Black and Michael Cera

- 10 Extended and Alternate Scenes

- Line-o-Rama

- Gag Reel

- Featurette: Year One: The Journey Begins

Year One: Unrated on Blu-ray or DVD offers:

- Both Theatrical and Unrated Versions of the Film

- 2 Deleted Scenes

- Commentary with Director Harold Ramis, Jack Black and Michael Cera

-10 Extended and Alternate Scenes

- Alternate Ending: Sodom’s Destruction

- Line-o-Rama

- Gag Reel (Unrated Version)

- Featurettes: Year One: The Journey Begins, Sodom’s Got’em and Leeroy Jenkins: The Gates of Sodom.

Year One: Unrated on Blu-ray also contains these exclusive bonus extras:

- Year One Cutting Room: Create your own video and share it via BD-Live.

- cinechat: Send on-screen instant messages to your friends.

- movieIQ: Real-time in-movie information about the cast, crew, music and production.

- A Digital Copy of the film for PC, PSP®, Mac or iPod

Related home video titles:

Year One takes a dark comedic look at the ancient world, as opposed to the same premise told in a serious way in the movie 10,000 BC. Rather than humans, the animated films Ice Age and Ice Age 2: The Meltdown follow the trials of a group of animals surviving in a prehistoric landscape. A Harold Ramis script you may enjoy is Groundhog Day.