New Release Review - Movie 43

Directed by: Elizabeth Banks, Steven Brill, Steve Carr, Rusty Cundieff, James Duffy, Griffin Dunne, Peter Farrelly, Patrik Forsberg, James Gunn, Bob Odenkirk, Brett Ratner, Jonathan van Tulleken

Starring: Elizabeth Banks, Kristen Bell, Halle Berry, Leslie Bibb, Kate Bosworth, Gerard Butler, Bobby Cannavale, Kieran Culkin, Josh Duhamel, Anna Faris, Richard Gere, John Hodgman, Terrence Howard, Hugh Jackman, Johnny Knoxville, Justin Long, Stephen Merchant, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloë Grace Moretz, Chris Pratt, Liev Schreiber, Seann William Scott, Emma Stone, Jason Sudeikis, Uma Thurman, Naomi Watts, Kate Winslet

Star-studded comedy anthology.

A pair of teenage stoners decide to play a prank on one of their younger brothers by telling him of a mythical film, ‘Movie 43’, buried in the deepest and darkest recesses of the internet. Accepting the challenge, the kid browses various web videos in his search. These videos comprise a series of skits featuring numerous Hollywood A-listers in “comical” situations. (This is the premise from the European version I saw. From what I’ve read online, the U.S version seems to instead be framed around a storyline involving Dennis Quaid pitching movie ideas to Greg Kinnear.)
‘Movie 43’ essentially amounts to little more than a vanity project for some of contemporary cinema’s hottest talents. Along with the usual comedy stalwarts like Faris, Sudeikis and Merchant, we get appearances from award winning thespians like Winslet, Berry and Gere. Why the latter group deemed to take part is bewildering, let alone the former. There are hundreds of low budget films which could benefit from a cameo by a star name but these hypocritical cretins would rather take a day out of their schedule to appear in what will likely be at the top of most critics “Worst of 2013” lists.

John Landis did this type of thing twice, with ‘Kentucky Fried Movie’ and ‘Amazon Women on the Moon’. Those films were somewhat amusing, unlike this turkey which is so tortuous it should only be screened in Guantanamo Bay. The skits mainly consist of one joke, unfunny to begin with, hammered to death before ending suddenly without even the courtesy of a punchline. More than a few are based around bodily functions, most disgustingly the faeces laden Faris segment. The film wraps up with the end of civilization and if this is what currently passes for entertainment we may not have too long to wait for such an event.

0/10

 6.0/10

---

The Movie Waffler