Movie 43

Starring: Dennis Quaid, Greg Kinnear, Seth MacFarlane, Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Liev Screiber, Naomi Watts, Anna Faris, Emma Stone, Richard Gere, Justin Long, Uma Thurman, Kristen Bell, Gerard Butler, Seann William Scott, Halle Berry, Terrence Howard, Elizabeth Banks, Common, Charlie Saxton, Chris Pratt, Kieran Culkin, Kate Bosworth, Jack McBrayer, Aasif Mandui, Jason Sudeikis, John Hodgman, Leslie Bibb, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloe Grace Moretz, Patrick Warburton, Johnny Knoxville, Stephen Merchant, Josh Duhamel
Directed by: Bob Odenkirk, Elizabeth Banks, Steven Brill, Steve Carr, Rusty Cundieff, James Duffy, Griffin Dunne, Peter Farrelly, Patrik Forsberg, Will Graham, James Gunn, Brett Ratner, Jonathan van Tulleken
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy
2013

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A wanna-be scriptwriter (Dennis Quaid) pitches a series of disgusting, over-the-top ideas to a studio exec (Greg Kinnear).

Review:

Tim: It really doesn't surprise me that so many people hated Movie 43. This is not a film that easily lends itself to the majority of viewers, and it contains enough offensive material to anger just about anyone. This is a controversial, purposely-challenging film. I appreciated some of these qualities, which is why I didn't hate the film.

This is the basic approach I imagine the film took- "Let's find the biggest, most impressive cast of Hollywood actors and actresses we can possibly find, and put them in an anthology-type movie where every segment is designed to shock and offend." It's such an absurd, "Are you kidding me?" idea that I love the courage it took to make such a polarizing film. And make no mistake about it, this film will certainly offend. There's really no other reason (except to make you laugh) for some of the vile, disgusting sequences.

I probably won't talk about all the segments, because there is a lot, and some are very forgettable. I do want to run down a few of them. The film is held together loosely by the story of Dennis Quaid pitching these ridiculous movie ideas to Greg Kinnear. I appreciated there was at least some attempt to explain all these disjointed, unconnected stories. I felt like Quaid came across as a bit forced, but Kinnear was mostly enjoyable.

The opening story, quite frankly, disgusted me. Kate Winslet goes on a date with Hugh Jackman, who seems perfectly, except for the fact that he has balls hanging from his neck. Why he has balls hanging from his neck, I have no idea. It was so, so nasty. I had to pause the movie and finish my dinner because it was just gross. This is a great microcosm of the whole film- there's no point to the story, except to offend. As nasty as it was, I appreciated that the film made me feel something, even if the feeling was disgust.

One of the funniest sequences involves Anna Faris and Chris Pratt. For some reason, Faris wants Pratt to defecate on her during their lovemaking. This is never explained, and it's beyond gross. It's absurd, and the segment takes this idea to the utmost level of nastiness, which also happens to be really, really funny. I laughed almost the whole time, despite my reservations. It was juvenile and stupid, but really funny. Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts worked well in a segment that just made me cringe continually, as they play perhaps the most disturbing, psychotic parents of all time. Again, there's no point, but it is memorable. I really disliked the Emma Stone - Kieran Culkin segment. It just wasn't funny. I also disliked the whole ibabe thing with Richard Gere, Jack McBrayer, and Kristen Bell. There was a few funny moments, but the overall idea was really, really stupid. I should have hated the Johnny Knoxville/Seann William Scott/Gerard Butler leprechaun segment, but it was so stupid and so unexpected that I couldn't help but laugh. The Halle Berry and Stephen Merchant thing started slow, but did amount to a few laughs on occasion. The Terrence Howard basketball segment was one of my favorite- it's a great spoof of coaches' motivational speeches in Hollywood films. Elizabeth Banks and Josh Duhamel were in a weaker segment, but Banks did have some very funny moments, and I appreciate the level she went to in the film. The Jason Sudeikis/Justin Long segment wasn't particularly funny at all. I like Chloe Grace Moretz, but thought her segment was one of the weaker ones. I'm exhausted typing this all up, and I didn't even cover all the sequences.

Movie 43 isn't a very good movie, I want to stress that. It's ridiculous, disgusting, and juvenile in its humor. However, I didn't hate it as much as many people. I applaud this massive cast for coming together and willingly play characters who are so controversial and opposite to what we often see them play. The cast's willingness to go to obscene lengths for a laugh is what makes this movie better than it would have been. In this film, we see a man with balls on his neck, a mother give her son his first kiss, a man trying to defecate on his wife after consuming burritos, a marketing firm contemplating how to prevent consumers from suffering severe damage to their penises after using their product, we see two friends murder a leprechaun, we see an animated cat make out with a male cast member, we see Batman depicted as a total jerk, a girl having her first period at the worst possible moment, two exes have an inappropriate personal conversation over a grocery store loudspeaker, and much, much more. It's almost unfathomable that this much takes place in one film.

As I said, Movie 43 isn't good. However, it's fun to see this gigantic cast acting in a foul, offending film. I admit this movie is flawed, but I laughed far too much to hate it.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



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