I remember seeing a trailer for this “masterpiece” back in 2012/13. And I couldn’t believe my eyes for two reasons. Number one, this might be, without any exaggeration, the most star-studded film of all time. I won’t even list them here; just go on IMDb’s profile for this movie and see how many names you recognize. And this isn’t one of those “before they were famous” cases either; most of the A-listers in this movie were already A-listers back when this film was being made. Some blew up even more now (like Jason Sudeikis or Bobby Cannavale). The second reason I couldn’t believe what I saw was this film looked downright insane. The trailer even gives you a sneak peek of all the sketches; therefore, you can tell this might either be one of the greatest comedies ever; or one of the biggest misfires in Hollywood’s history. It is unfortunate it became the latter.

The failure of Movie 43 can’t be summed up into one word or sentence. I can’t say all sketches went on too long, or they all were unfunny. No, that’s not the problem. The main issue I had with this film was the incontinency where some sketches dragged on way too much for an “alright” punchline (sketch “Homeschooled”) some weren’t funny at all (“The Proposition” or “Happy Birthday” sketches) and that one sketch I actually liked turned really fucking weird/racist (sketch “Truth or Dare”).

I think this film is the perfect example of how times have changed, and this came out in 2013! I can’t imagine a movie like this being released today, especially with some of these questionable elements, and I am somebody who always said nothing should be off the table, especially in comedy. But here’s the thing, this movie doesn’t show some racist elements to make any kind of point, it just does it to be edgy, and that is the difference.

While watching this film, I thought about this kind of “everything goes” comedy. There seems to be only one avenue that delivers it regularly and can still thread the line between offensive jokes and making a point – South Park (1997 – ?, my reviews can be found here and here). We can talk about the quality of the show now, sure. But one thing they have managed to do consistently over the years is never to go “low for nothing”. When the creators/writers had to delve into some questionable territory (and boy, did they do that over the years), there was always a point, some payoff. They never make a cheap joke for more serious topics without that joke or punchline going someplace else. And that is the difference. Context matters, and what you wanted to say matters too, and Movie 43 has some awful things for the sake of pure shock, trying to solicit laughter out of you.

There isn’t much else to say about this film, to be honest. This film will go down in history as one of the most insane examples of “what were they thinking?”. What makes me sadder than anything is the wasted talent. Imagine for a minute movie like this with all of these stars, what if it was any good…? Maybe if it had an actual interesting story connecting all of these sketches, this film could have been something fascinating. What if the title itself actually meant something? That is right, even the title of this film, Movie 43, doesn’t mean anything at all. It was just a random idea for a movie based on random sketches, where the core concept seems to be: “What if we got a bunch of celebrities in some sub-par sketches? Like those ones even SNL (1975 – ?) would be ashamed of?”

If there is one redeeming quality about this film, it must be the enormous cast where you inevitably find at least one of our favourite actors (for me, it was Halle Berry). And as luck would have it, she was a big part of the one sketch I liked until the very end. That is another thing I need to give to Movie 43; some jokes were funny. But in a film full of random sketches, 100 jokes per minute performed by some of our most talented comedic actors… something has to stick eventually. Even a broken clock is right twice a day, and in this film, for 50 bad jokes and 10 “meh” ones, you get one that gets you. That ratio, however, is poor, and I would not recommend you to watch this film unless you are a weird person, kind of like me. Somebody who has heard about this film and is fascinated with movies; and just had to watch this disaster for himself to see how bad it truly was. As you can tell, yeah, it was pretty bad.

Overall, Movie 43 is one for the books, that is for sure. However, not for any good reason. I can understand how some executives greenlit this idea; after all, why not get 70% of current Hollywood stars, and put them in sketches where they all make clowns out of themselves? People will love it! Unfortunately, not if you don’t get the people something to chew on too. I could possibly see this working as a TV show, possibly airing weekly for most of the year, commenting on what’s happening… and I have just pitched SNL, haven’t I? Yep. On paper, it doesn’t seem like a bad idea, but when you think about it for more than two minutes and then read the script for those sketches, you might quickly go to the “yeah, we possibly shouldn’t have done it” camp. Movie 43 is an equivalent of a trash bin on fire that somehow manages to vomit all over you, and when the fire finally gets under control, the trash bin says one or two racist remarks. I can’t recommend this film to anybody.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke