Distributor: Relativity Media
Opening Weekend Box Office: #7 with $4,805,878
Domestic Box Office Gross to-date: $8,760,314
Gross Revenue: $23,060,314
Production Budget: $6 million
Director(s):
Multiple
With no background knowledge of the project
whatsoever, I was simply expecting another high-profile romantic comedy when
Kate Winslet and Hugh Jackman popped-up in the trailer for Movie 43, but things took a drastic turn when irreverent humor was
teased, a huge ensemble cast was revealed, and My Chemical Romance’s addictive “Na
Na Na” started playing. In all fairness,
the red-band trailer warning should have been more of a giveaway, but the dramatic
shift in expectations only made this upcoming black comedy anthology all the
more interesting; clearly, Movie 43
wasn’t going for cinematic depth, but the project still looked fun. It is worth noting that, when it comes to
film marketing tactics, I adamantly believe that leveraging the star power of a
cast is an important but lately underutilized necessity to drawing an audience,
but strangely enough, aside from the trailer depicting Terrence Howard’s
racially-inappropriate pep-talk and a few sneak-peeks on Comedy Central, not
one cast member did any promotion of the film.
And between the nonsensical title and the recent abysmal track record of
ensemble casts (which has usually been relegated to the romantic comedy genre,
à la New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day), it was looking more
and more that Relativity Media was simply conducting a cinematic experiment
designed to push established talents outside of their respective comfort
zones. Late January release aside, some
raunchy comedy could be enough to break the winter lull and cash-in at the box
office, as long as both critics and audience members would have to go into Movie 43 geared more towards curiosity
than criticism; as anyone shocked with tastelessness was clearly in for a rude
awakening.
Broken into roughly a dozen independent comedy
shorts, Movie 43 uses an overarching
segment as its framing device, during which manic and wildly unsuccessful
screenwriter Charlie Wessler (Dennis Quaid) is pitching a passion project to
studio executive Griffin Schraeder (Greg Kinnear). Though it initially seems like Charlie might
have a bankable idea, after detailing a thoroughly unsettling blind date
between a single businesswoman (Kate Winslet) and an anatomically incorrect
bachelor (Hugh Jackman), the true insanity of the situation comes to
light. Desperate not to lose this
opportunity, Charlie rapidly fires through several idiotic scenarios that could
transform into a hugely successful blockbuster, including but not limited to
the world’s most literal homeschoolers (Live Schreiber and Naomi Watts), a
speed dating disaster involving Batman (Jason Sudekis) and Robin (Justin Long),
and a wildly escalating game of truth or dare (featuring Halle Berry as you’ve
never seen her). Understandably, Schraeder
realizes he is dealing with a lunatic, and the infuriated Wessler pulls a gun
and tries to force the studio’s main executive, Bob Mone (Common), to make a
deal. Before everything is finalized,
Wessler takes the opportunity to pitch a few more ideas, such as graphically
detailing a key moment in adolescence (Christopher Mintz-Plasse trying to help Chloë
Grace Moretz), or showing a couple (Josh Duhamel and Elizabeth Banks)
struggling to cope with their “Garfield-reject” cat…add it all together, and Movie 43 isn’t so much a film with a
cohesive story as it is a demented version of Saturday Night Live set to bewilder.
I realize that this might be a rather severe
indictment of my emotional maturity, but I actually found a few of the skits
within Movie 43 pretty funny, and all
the critics who found themselves horrified by the offensive humor need to
collectively unclench and realize that they only got exactly what was advertised. Admittedly, a few too many jokes relied
solely on shock value to get a laugh (and to their credit, it worked), but I
actually found it pleasantly surprising to see such high-profile celebrities
delve into crude and immature personalities; as a key example, Kate Winslet’s
reactions to Hugh Jackman were worth the price of admission alone. It was slightly disappointing to realize than
some of the funnier segments were detailed so heavily in the trailers (i.e. the
homeschoolers and the basketball team), but the fact remains that Movie 43 was nothing more than some
mindless fun, and luckily, I happened to be part of the limited segment that
would enjoy that kind of fun. And, in
speaking about what was revealed in the trailer, it was clearly detailed that
this was going to be a shocking and gross-out movie, so I cannot imagine what
anyone was expecting when they criticize the plot’s lack of depth or the
tasteless jokes. So, in the end, even
though Movie 43 isn’t a great
achievement of cinematic depth, it certainly isn’t as awful as the critical
reaction would have you believe; we were delivered exactly what was promised,
nothing more, nothing less.
Given this review thus far, it might seem like I am
a little too forgiving of Movie 43,
but even though I enjoyed small components of the film, I can still acknowledge
that there are some severely crippling shortcomings within this controversial
ensemble. First and foremost, even though
the range of comedy depicted will only appeal to a small demographic, it still
doesn’t excuse the fact that some of the segments are shockingly unfunny,
begging the question as to what the hell the writers or actors were
thinking. Granted, that kind of
crash-and-burn can usually be expected when you pair Johnny Knoxville and Seann
William Scott together, but I expect much better from the likes of Gerard
Butler and Emma Stone. And, you would
think that someone in post-production would have noticed the discrepancy
between the segments and decided to edit the final product so the funnier parts
were spread out, but unfortunately, after a few quick laughs out of the gate,
things stop dead and you begin to realize the true failure of this
experiment. Yes, Movie 43 could have been funnier and squanders some considerable
potential within the cast, but again, this film still should have never been
taken as something that could have premiered at Sundance…clearly, audiences
just aren’t ready for a feature-length NC-17 version of a severely misguided
sketch-comedy group.
From a box office perspective, before you go and
label a 7th place, sub-$5million opening a complete and utter
failure, take a minute to consider the fact that Movie 43 only had a production budget of $6 million, and has,
to-date, nearly quadrupled its costs.
Now, given my adamant support of star power marketing tactics, I am a
little surprised that one of the biggest ensemble casts in Hollywood history
wasn’t able to draw more of a crowd, regardless of quality. I may have to reevaluate my beliefs regarding
the mass draw of the celebrity culture, but I also think that there was still a
pretty big failure in generating widespread awareness…maybe people got it
confused with the upcoming Jackie Robinson biopic, 42. So, even though
Relativity may lose some credibility in terms of project choice, their
financial outlook isn’t ruined, and at the very least, I have a newfound
respect for Hugh Jackman’s sense of humor; it’s going to be hard to live this
project down if he takes the Oscar accolade in a couple of weeks. At the very least, Movie 43 stands as a gutsy, though failed, attempt at an
unconventional cinematic formula, but if you have a self-proclaimed “twisted”
sense of humor, or simply want to see Halle Berry try and gross you out, give
this “comedy” a chance when it comes out on Redbox.
Overall
Recommendation: Low
