Movie 43 Review

What is Movie 43?  It’s a series of short films not really strung together by anything.  The film is vile, vulgar, amateurish and stupid but boy did I laugh.  I laughed hard.  If you like your comedies smart, with heart, with a deeper meaning and not riddled with toilet humor, then go and see something else.  This is a film that isn’t afraid to go overboard and stay floating in the water and it isn’t afraid to make you feel bad for laughing at it.  This is a balls to the walls, or face if that’s how you like it, comedy that lays its cards right out on the table within the first five minutes. 

I can’t really give you the plot synopsis to this film but I can give you an understanding of the film.  Dennis Quaid plays a man pitching crazy movie ideas to an executive, Greg Kinnear.  Each crazy movie idea he pitches is brought to life by one of twelve directors attached to this film.  The amount of highly regarded actors in this film is high; mix that with the amount of comedians and you’re in for a good time.  You have a skit about a homosexual male cat, parents cruelly homeschooling their child, a truth or dare game that goes way too far, a girl having her first period and more offensive stuff. 

The sight gags stay in your face for quite sometime, never letting up, making you endure the scene no matter how uncomfortable you may feel.  I like a comedy to make you feel terrible for laughing because if you don’t laugh, you’re part of the joke.  Everyone in the film looks like they are having a grand ole time and you can feel that chemistry.  There was one skit that felt too forced, which was the Emma Stone Kieran Culkin skit about their love for each other.  The only punchline in that skit wasn’t very effective and fell flat. 

Thinking more and more about the film, it feels like a satire on the state of the film industry.  There is a line said by Common that he tells Greg Kinnear.  He says that he doesn’t have enough balls to greenlight a film on his own.  Which meant nothing to me when I first saw it but resonated with me hours later.  Movie 43 is about how Hollywood treats new ideas.  The ideas said by Quaid’s character are extreme but are something Hollywood treads away from; something new.  It’s a bit of a stretch I see it.  Once they hear something they are unfamiliar with, they dismiss it to be never heard of again. 

The film is quite funny and will have some wondering where the laughs are coming.  I enjoy toilet humor but that won’t stop me from giving this an average rating.