'Movie 43' is a string of slightly humorous vignettes starring mostly familiar actors from other movies. It reminded me of 'The Kentucky Fried Movie' back in '77. This film feels like an experiment gone wrong, though, and I more than likely will never see any of it ever again. It's a black comedy, but it shoves the gross-out humor to a level where it starts to be very unfunny and particularly mundane and monotonous. There were a few moments of redemption for the audience, but for the most part, it was just awful.
To start off, the movie is patchworked into 14 separate segments (not really even short stories) written by relatively unknown writers and a handful of familiar directors. Peter Farrelly is probably the most well-known of the directors, and his trademark physical-makeup work is prevalent in the opening scene with Hugh Jackman and Kate Winslet. I like Bob Odenkirk's as an actor and comedian, but I didn't see any comedy in his directing of his segments with the kids looking for the most banned film in the world. Also actress Elizabeth Banks directed the "Middleschool Date" segment, which tries to invoke the comedy behind getting your first period but turns into a confusing car-wreck by the end. I think if they stuck to one or two directors for the whole project, it might've made more sense to have the same vision throughout.
The music and camera-work was typical comedic fare, except for (in my opinion, the funniest segment, which was) "Machine Kids," which was shot like a serious PSA in black and white with kids put in disparaging situations, which made me laugh at how sad and screwed-up it was. That segment was an excellent example of how black comedy is supposed to be made. So other than that segment, Halle Berry's "Truth Or Dare" segment (really good), and the look on the face of the Riddler during the "Superhero Speed Dating" segment, the movie is lacking in any real laughs.
'Movie 43' is still better than most of these spoof movies being written by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer ('Date Movie,' 'Meet the Spartans,' 'Disaster Movie'), but it's not worth your time away from sites like FunnyOrDie(dot)com to go see in a theater...or even on DVD. It was made for the comedy historybooks, not for human consumption.
To start off, the movie is patchworked into 14 separate segments (not really even short stories) written by relatively unknown writers and a handful of familiar directors. Peter Farrelly is probably the most well-known of the directors, and his trademark physical-makeup work is prevalent in the opening scene with Hugh Jackman and Kate Winslet. I like Bob Odenkirk's as an actor and comedian, but I didn't see any comedy in his directing of his segments with the kids looking for the most banned film in the world. Also actress Elizabeth Banks directed the "Middleschool Date" segment, which tries to invoke the comedy behind getting your first period but turns into a confusing car-wreck by the end. I think if they stuck to one or two directors for the whole project, it might've made more sense to have the same vision throughout.
The music and camera-work was typical comedic fare, except for (in my opinion, the funniest segment, which was) "Machine Kids," which was shot like a serious PSA in black and white with kids put in disparaging situations, which made me laugh at how sad and screwed-up it was. That segment was an excellent example of how black comedy is supposed to be made. So other than that segment, Halle Berry's "Truth Or Dare" segment (really good), and the look on the face of the Riddler during the "Superhero Speed Dating" segment, the movie is lacking in any real laughs.
'Movie 43' is still better than most of these spoof movies being written by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer ('Date Movie,' 'Meet the Spartans,' 'Disaster Movie'), but it's not worth your time away from sites like FunnyOrDie(dot)com to go see in a theater...or even on DVD. It was made for the comedy historybooks, not for human consumption.