Movie 43 is a complex cat, my friends. It really is. It's hard to understand why its actually in existence in the first place. For those who don't know, Movie 43 is basically an anthology film of a bunch of comedic shorts written and filmed by different directors. But, what sets this film a part is that it has somehow managed to rope in some of today's finest actors including but not limited to Kate Winslet, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Terrence Howard, Richard Gere, Greg Kinnear, Dennis Quaid, Gerard Butler, Emma Stone, Naomi Watts, Uma Thurman, Kristen Bell, and Elizabeth Banks. So, for this cast of fine actors, this movie should've been nothing short of painstakingly hilarious. And yet, the finished product is, well... not.
It began many years ago as an idea from Peter Farrelly (one of the two Farrelly bros, the guys that brought us Dumb and Dumber and There's Something About Mary) about having a bunch of comedic directors make a bunch of really funny, really raunchy, really disgusting short films and piecing them together. The reason it took so long to make is because it wasn't really more than just that... an idea. They'd film a segment or two and then a year would go by, another director would be free, film another short and once they had a finished product they could piece them all together to make one large comedic masterpiece. This was the thought. But what brings Movie 43 down is not just that the cast brings with it a higher expectation than say, a Scary Movie 5 would bring in, but it's also expected that with these big names comes big laughs.
The problem with making a movie composed of different shorts is that there's no good way to piece together any sort of storyline. They attempt a poor connection to bring them somewhat into the same universe but it doesn't actually make a whole hell of a lot of sense nor is that funny. The "story" is a man (Dennis Quaid) has come to a movie producer (Greg Kinnear) to pitch his movie ideas. His ideas end up being the fourteen separate vignettes that literally have nothing to do with one another. They're essentially Saturday Night Live sketches that are too filthy to be put on television. Some of them really hit with the laughs and some of them are painful to watch as the looming anticipation for a big laugh never really pans out. The first short entitled "The Catch" involves a woman (Kate Winslet) going out on a blind date with a handsome millionaire (Hugh Jackman). Now, I won't spoil anything for you, but the gross-out factor comes out swinging pretty early. This sketch, I found to be extremely funny, if not a bit juvenile. And it may have just been the novelty of seeing Winslet and Jackman doing things on screen you'd never expect from them, but it really did make me laugh.
The second short "Homeschooled" is a funny idea, but unfortunately if you've seen either trailer released for Movie 43, you've seen the entire short for this one. I think if the people behind the trailer had left a few of the scenes out, it would've added to the funny of the whole. While I still think it was more funny in the premise than the execution, it was still worthy of being in the film. Then comes Anna Faris and Chris Pratt in "The Proposition". I'm still undecided on this one. There's a big "joke" in this one that made the twelve-year-old in me chuckle, pretty hard actually, but the adult in me shake my head and go "what the hell were they thinking?" It starts to go downhill after that. Next up are a couple of short commercials that aren't too extraordinarily funny. I personally think the commercials on SNL are much more clever. But, a short entitled "iBabe" starring Richard Gere, Kate Bosworth and Jack MacBrayer really didn't hit hard enough. Again, it's another case of a funny concept with a poor execution. Richard Gere was wasted in a part that really could've gone to a nobody. "Veronica" with Emma Stone was just a little bit too weird and wasn't all that funny with a strange, abrupt ending.
But, I think the biggest disappointments in the film were the two back-to-back shorts "Superhero Speed Dating" and "Middleschool Date". "Superhero" had the best potential of the entire movie, but actually provided nearly no laughs whatsoever and left you wondering how such an intelligently funny group of actors came out looking foolish. It's not like they weren't given something to work with... it's superheroes in a coffee shop speed dating. I truly expected more from Jason Sudekis in this one. "Middleschool Date", which was actually directed by Elizabeth Banks, really just missed the mark on everything. Sure, it ups the gross out factor a bit, but the failed attempt at a commentary about how the male sex perceives the female menstrual cycle just felt a little too 90s, a little too archaic for us now. Same with how many times actors fart in this film. And, this may be the worst usage of Patrick Warburton, one of the funniest character actors of our time.
Then came Brett Ratner's "Happy Birthday" sketch with Johnny Knoxville, Sean William Scott and Gerard Butler about two friends who kidnap a Leprechaun (Butler) in order to get his gold. This sketch was sickeningly funny. It's over-the-top violence and horrifically filthy dialogue lend to one damn funny short. After that is Halle Berry and Stephen Merchant in "Truth or Dare" which was amusing, but should've been much better than it was. Terrence Howard's short "Victory's Glory" was another really funny idea that had all of its biggest laughs spoiled by the trailer. The last short, however, directed by James Gunn and starring Elizabeth Banks and Josh Duhamel, entitled "Beezel" may have been the funniest and best sketch of the film. Sure, it seemed like a ten-year-old boy wrote it to laugh at how much cat piss he could show on screen... but... it may only seem that way. This is a short that pushed the boundaries of both vulgarity and grossness. But, what it also did was bring something new to the table. It made us laugh at how unconventionally hilarious it was. While the rest of the sketches seemed like amateur hour, this sketch knew that in a film of comedic vignettes, there had to be something original and unique.
Peter Farrelly, God bless him, will always have a soft spot in our hearts for being the guy that brought us great comedies in the 90s. That's it. Just the 90s. The guy hasn't made me laugh since Me, Myself, and Irene. Dumb and Dumber and Kingpin are two of the funniest movies of all time. Why? Because they pushed boundaries. They showed us something we've never seen before. They made us laugh and they grossed us out. But, that's what that time was. The mid to late 90s was gross-out humor. That's why American Pie, Scary Movie, and There's Something About Mary are remembered. However, when that era runs dry of laughs, the comedy style evolves into something new. It used to be the slapstick Jim Carrey/Steve Martin/Eddie Murphy, then it was the gross-out, then it was the era of "smart" vulgar Apatow comedies. But, what people like Farrelly (and Adam Sandler) forget is to evolve with the rest of them. If you keep making the same movies, and keep trying to shock the audience, chances are you'll hit with a laugh or two, but you'll never make another movie again with the same lasting power as you did fifteen years ago.
What really made Movie 43 such mediocre film is how disjointed it is. None of the shorts connect and none of them really have anything to say. There's no messages in any of them, there's no commentary, there's nothing even a little bit intelligent or clever about any of the shorts in the film. They're immature, deliberately offensive, one-joke ponies by immature directors that got lucky enough to land the best cast of all time. The movie is actually better off as a trailer than as a movie because that's all it is... one big preview. When I first saw Jimmy Kimmel's fake trailer for Movie: The Movie it almost made me long for the actual thing. But I realized that it's only funny because it's a trailer. Because there's no need for plot or character or theme or any other conventions that make movies good because it's just there for the sake of a couple of quick laughs. That's what Movie 43 is in a nutshell. It's a very funny movie trailer, but a very mediocre movie. Yes, it will definitely make you laugh. But, there are such long lulls of silence between the laughter that you actually start to realize the wasted potential. It's probably the first movie that would've served better to have a laugh track behind it, and that's a pretty embarrassing thought.
C-
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