Movie review: ‘Movie 43’ adds up to twelve star-powered dirty jokes
Twelve gross, sketchy sketches in search of the bottom of the barrel, “Movie 43” expends an incredible amount of poop and big-name talent in the service of an all-star embarrassment.
Aiming for the raunchy, anarchic spirit of such ’70s relics as “Kentucky Fried Movie” and “The Groove Tube,” this hodgepodge omnibus draws together a cabal of directors (ranging from big guns such as Brett Ratner and Peter Farrelly to actor/directors like Griffin Dunne and Elizabeth Banks) to cobble together a dirty dozen “SNL”-style skits whose only unifying factor seems to be a devious determination to offend.
Employing a lame framing narrative with Dennis Quaid as a desperate, down-on-his-luck filmmaker pitching increasingly wacky projects to a timid, midlevel studio exec (Greg Kinnear), the film reels off a progressively gross sting of vignettes whose shock value decreases with each insult. Eventually and inevitably, the thing just becomes tasteless and boring.
Just a few sanitized synopses will give enough flavor to let you know if this is your cup of meat.
In Farrelly’s “Catch,” Hugh Jackman shows up as a blasé playboy on a blind date with the delicious Kate Winslet. At one point in their repast at an upscale café, romantic sparks fly and he removes his scarf to reveal a shriveled scrotum protruding from his neck.
Steve Carr’s “The Proposition” has Chris Pratt’s plan to propose to girlfriend Anna Faris sidetracked by her request to be defecated upon.
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