"Movie 43" Review

Title: Movie 43

Directed by: Brett Ratner and Elizabeth Banks

Screenplay by: Various writers

Year: 2013

What is Movie 43? This was the question on everyone's mind before this film's release. Upon its release, Movie 43 was critically panned and has been titled one of the worst films ever made. Needless to say, I was not exactly in the mood to watch this movie but my curiosity overtook me. I just had to know what this movie was and if it truly is one of the worst ones ever made. And what did I find?

Movie 43 is essentially about a man who is trying to pitch a film to a company. The man's script consists of several sketches, which comprise most of Movie 43's runtime. This film is really just a bunch of comedy sketches played back to back.

Now, I am not going to sugarcoat this. Movie 43 is an awful movie. It is horrendously bad. I honestly don't know where to begin with this one. I'll start with the main selling point: the actors. The main promotion for Movie 43 centered on its cast. This film is filled to the brim with big-name actors such as Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Kristen Belle, Naomi Watts, Kate Winslet, the list goes on. From what I've heard, the filmmakers were able to acquire two of the actors because they knew them well. They used those two names to get more famous actors and it became a cycle until the makers acquired the desired talents. And contrary to popular belief, the titular 43 does not refer to the number of actors, but I'll address that later. The actors, I believe, try their best to give a good performance but none of them can accomplish anything with such a horribly written script. I would go so far as to say that Movie 43 is the lowest point of all the actors involved. There is not a single good performance in the movie but I believe this to be a result of the god awful writing.

This is probably the worst screenplay I have ever seen. None of the jokes are funny and the entire film centers on disgusting humor. I would love to go skit by skit and rip each one apart individually but there is just no point in doing so because they all have the same issue: the jokes are forced and grotesque. Movie 43 covers the spectrum rather well. From ball jokes to "shit" jokes, from period jokes to racist ones, this film has it all. It even has a mother and her son have a sexual interaction. And not only are these jokes in bad taste, but not a single one sticks. I did not laugh at all while watching this. In fact, I cannot count the amount of times I wanted to stop watching the film. However there are one or two skits I would like to mention

Right off the bat, the film shows poor quality. The first skit is a warning of what is to come. It stars Kate Winslet whose character is going on a date with Hugh Jackman's character. The man seems perfect until he removes his scarf which reveals that hanging from his chin are a pair of testicles...The comedy in this skit is that Winslet's character seems to be the only one who notices this physical feature. Now, I understand that the film is possibly highlighting the fact that people tend to look for flaws in others but the way this idea was executed does not get this message across at all. It just fills the audience with disgust and the joke about no one else noticing quickly gets old.

Another skit involves Chloe Grace Moretz getting her period for the first time while with at her boyfriend's house. Yes, Movie 43 attempts to turn a girl getting her period for the first time into a comedic situation. One of the jokes is that the boyfriend is so oblivious to what has happened that he believes the blood to be juice. Again, the emphasis on the joke is too much.

However, quite possibly the worst skit involves Chris Pratt and Anna Faris. When Pratt proposes to Faris, the Faris reveals that she is a coprophiliac. She asks Pratt to Pratt to defecate on her to show his love for her. Pratt's character is very hesitant about this but eventually agrees to go through with it....Who approved this skit? Who thought moviegoers would want to go see a man defecate on a woman? And who thought the audience would find it funny?

There was only one skit in my opinion that had any potential and that was the penultimate one titled "Victory's Glory" but the writers manage to screw this one up too. The joke seemed like it would be funny at first but it is just so forced that it feels like it is being shoved down our throats. The one and only joke is that a team of black basketball players is worried about losing their next game to a white team but their coach is telling them they will win simply because they are black. However, the team does not exactly understand what the coach means. This is the only skit that had a decent set up but the execution was just terrible.

And the overarching story is terrible too. Every scene about the outer narrative is pretty much the same and only serves as filler before the next skit. But near the end of the film comes one the film's greatest stupidities. It is revealed that the overarching narrative is in fact a skit of its own and that Movie 43 is in fact about a movie about a man pitching a movie. This adds nothing to the film and only served to fuel my hatred for the film even more.

Movie 43 is arguably the worst film ever made and probably the worst I have ever seen. There is not a single redeeming quality to this film, not even its incredible cast because they cannot show their true talent with such a horrible script as this. It infuriates me, it really does, that this film was green lit. The fact that someone gave this film the "go-ahead" just shocks me. I would avoid this film like the plague unless you are insanely curious or want a crash course on what not to do when making a film. I believe Richard Roeper said it best when he claimed that Movie 43 was "the Citizen Kane of awful."

Grade: F