"Movie 43" Review

 

"Movie 43"

 

Directed by James Gunn, Elizabeth Banks, Peter Farrelly, Bob Odenkirk, Steve Carr

Starring Richard Gere, Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Emma Stone, Christopher-Mintz Plasse

RATING

4/10

Please excuse my lack of posts on this blog over the week. It's been a rough start to university, so I took a leave of absence. So after my preview for the much anticipated 2013 superhero juggernaut "Man of Steel" comes a review of a film... that starts the year off on a bad note. You know those big ensemble pieces that feature a bunch of actors that you may have heard of and got a string of very random occurences that have no meaning or purpose other than to showcase a ridiculous attempt at being a "big" movie? Yeah, this is one of those. And of course, hats off to "Valentine's Day" and "New Year's Eve" that fall in the same bracket. But "Movie 43" did something quite unexpected... it made me chuckle quite a bit. After seeing these endless reviews crucifying it, I was hoping it wouldn't be as bad as I imagined. This was a killer waste of talent, sure, but it did bring out the best and worst in comedy that plays out like a bunch of SNL skits just amplifying the profanity and crude humor.

 

"Movie 43" starts out with two loser-ish teenagers who want to get back at a cyber-geek for pranking them, so they invite him over to search for a seemingly impossible movie to find, titled "Movie 43", with the intention of intelligently uploading a virus onto his computer (I use the term 'intelligently' very loosely). Things don't go as planned, and they stumble upon a bunch of random viral videos. Kinda like "V/H/S", but without the integrity, sense of identity, or fun factor.

 

I will say that "Movie 43" is a lot of fun, despite it being a dump on the legacy of the names attached. You have some really big hitters here, featuring the likes of Hugh Jackman, Richard Gere, Naomi Watts, Kate Winslet, etc. That already seems like the ingredients for one hell of an Oscar film, but it's unfortunately a movie where Wolverine has testicles attached to his chin. And I think it was intended to be viewed as nothing more than a piece of woven comedy that misses a few loops most of the time. However, when the jokes do hit, they're quite cynical and sadistic, and at this point I can't really say if its actually a good job walking that tight rope between the two. There is an advertisement placed in there about child slavery, but with a really odd twist that I admittedly laughed at and I'm going straight to hell for it. Another placed advertisement was for a tampon, and I'm surprised this ain't an official commercial. It's pretty funny. However, the only sketch I genuinely found humorous was the "Homeschooled" segment in which real-life couple Naomi Watts and Liev Shrieber try to raise their homeschooled son and give him the 'ultimate high school experience', which means verbally and mentally abusing him, a lesson about sex (a rather umcomfortable scene to watch), and being excluded at college parties where his father sees it as an excuse to motorboat a young girl's breasts. It's not the slice of comedy everybody will appreciate, but it got me going. That's not to say the film maintains that level of comedy. Everything from there is downhill. The skits begin to feel more and more random, and less useful to actually making sense in the bulk of it all. Halfway through I started to realise that the film pretty much descended into gag and fart jokes to keep the steam rolling, and it doesn't pay off at all. The jokes become tired and you feel the actors do too. It's never a good sign when you start out on a good foot then end up gradually disliking a film. The directors attached don't matter when all you're seeing is what could've been, and not what is being shown right now. There was plenty of opportunity for clever comedic gold, but somewhere along the line got lazy, bloated, and so unwitty it resorted to antique poop jokes and star-power to keep audiences engaged.

"Movie 43" is wasted opportunity in the comedy genre, and doesn't go anywhere nor present a cohesive narrative. It's a muddled mess of SNL skits with increased toilet humor, and while at times it delivers some surprisingly funny and unexpected laughs with its offensive content, it ultimately never lives up to its potential of being an extreme comedy fest. See "Movie 43" while high for a great time, but if you're bored on a Saturday night, catch some cartoons instead.