- There is a wraparound story, called “The Pitch”, where a nutty
screenwriter (Dennis Quaid) attempts to pitch a number of script ideas to a
Hollywood producer (Greg Kinnear). These ideas are the sketches that make up
the movie.
- The first sketch is “The Catch”, where Beth (Kate Winslet)
goes out on a blind date with rich bachelor Davis (Hugh Jackman). She is
shocked to find out that he has a set of testicles hanging from his neck, but
she’s the only person who seems to notice them.
- Second is “Homeschooled”, in which a couple (Naomi Watts and
Liev Schreiber) discusses the homeschooling techniques they use for their
teenage son with their new neighbors, which includes hazing, humiliation, first
kisses and cruel detentions.
- Third is “The Proposition”, where Jason (Chris Pratt)
discovers that his girlfriend Vanessa (Anna Faris) wants him to defecate on
her.
- “Veronica” features Kieran Culkin as a night shift employee
of a grocery store who has a run in with his ex (Emma Stone) that leads to them
having a seriously demented argument about their past relationship which unbeknownst
to them is being broadcast throughout the store.
- “iBabe” introduces an MP3 player in the shape of a full size
nude woman, and the creators of the device (Richard Gere, Jack McBrayer, Kate Bosworth
and Aasif Mandvi) have a hard time figuring out how a cooling fan placed in the
groin region consistently mangles the penises of teenagers across the globe.
- “Machine Kids” is a commercial spoof which shows that all mechanized devices are really run by a gaggle of kids locked inside them.
- “Middleschool Date” involves a young girl (Chloë Grace
Moretz) having her first period while at her boyfriend’s (Jimmy Bennett) house,
and along with his brother (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) try to figure out a way
to stop her from bleeding to death.
- “Tampax” is a short commercial parody of tampon commercials.
- “Happy Birthday” stars Johnny Knoxville as a guy who kidnaps
a foul mouthed leprechaun (Gerard Butler) so he can gift his pot of
gold to his roommate (Seann William Scott) in order to make up for sleeping with his girlfriend.
- “Truth or Dare” follows a couple out on their first date
(Halle Berry and Stephen Merchant), and to keep things fresh they play Truth or
Dare while at a restaurant. Their dares get more and more out of control as the
date goes on.
- “Victory’s Glory” is about a high school basketball team
comprised of all African Americans in the 50s whose coach (Terrence Howard)
attempts to convince his players that their “blackness” is all they need to
defeat the all-white team they are playing against.
- Finally there is “Beezel”, which stars Elizabeth Banks as a
woman becoming increasingly frustrated by her boyfriend’s (Josh Duhamel) attachment
to his animated cat companion who hates her with a passion.
There are a lot of sketches in this film, but none last more
than 5 minutes, some less than 30 seconds. The big question is… are they funny?
Some are and some aren’t. The problem is that each and every one of them aims straight for the toilet. While I do find that sort of thing funny when
done right (Kingpin), I thought that
there would be a little more variety mixed in. Instead we have vagina blood
being smeared all over a wall, masturbating cartoons, jokes about Supergirl’s bush,
racist makeovers, talk of foot and a half long dicks, shit being sprayed across
a car, a mother making out with her own son and people eating pubic hair soup.
I did find some of these ideas humorous, sometimes even hilarious, but when you’re
constantly being bombarded by non-stop vulgarity it can get a little tiresome.
Sadly some of the humor of Movie 43
wore itself thin pretty quickly.
Of all the sketches I found “The Catch” the funniest not
because of the subject material, but because of who starred in it. I have never
seen either Kate Winslet or Hugh Jackman in anything quite like this before,
and the fact that they are hardly known for comedy made this even funnier than
it ever could have hoped to be. Both stars looked like they were having a blast
and it was quite infectious.
Another standout was “Veronica” due to the enthusiastic performances
of Kieran Culkin and Emma Stone. They pretty much do nothing but spit venom at
each other for 4 minutes, but the lines they are given are actually pretty
funny (“What about that time you sucked off that hobo for magic beans?” – “He
was a WIZARD!”) and the payoff is worth it.
“The Proposition” is one of the most disgusting of the
bunch, but I’ll be damned if I didn’t laugh at the lengths Chris Pratt’s
character went through to make sure his girl’s wish of being pooped on was all
she ever dreamed of.
“Superhero Speed Dating” and “Victory’s Glory” would have
been funnier if all the good lines weren’t ruined in the trailers. In “Superhero
Speed Dating’s” case all the good lines were shown in the trailer but left on
the cutting room floor for the actual feature.
“Happy Birthday” is funny due to the extremes it goes to,
but all it really boils down to is that it stars a Leprechaun with a fondness
for four letter words.
All the others (“The Pitch”, “Homeschooled”, “iBabe”, “Machine
Kids”, “Middleschool Date”, “Tampax”, “Truth or Dare” and “Beezel”) are pretty
lame or are just crass for the sake of being crass. “Tampax” and “Machine Kids”
(the tamest of them all) are both one joke sketches, and the rest all rely on
the fact that they feature one or more major stars doing effed up stuff for a
few minutes. The sad part is that they could have been a lot funnier with a
little extra effort.
Add everything up and you have a pretty uneven comedy. There
are highs (“The Catch”) and lows (“Homeschooled”) and everything in between.
For the most part I’d say it’s worth watching at least once. Comedy is
subjective for everyone. What I may find hysterical another might find to be
offensive or unfunny. Whatever the case may be I found this to be a mixed bag.
But give it a watch and find out just how far your internal good taste meter
will stretch before it gives you whiplash.
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