Imagine an anthology film directed by people like Brett Ratner (director of “Rush Hour,” “Hercules”), Peter Farrelly (director of “Dumb and Dumber”), upcoming Superman director James Gunn, or Bob Odenkirk, aka Saul Goodman. Or, a movie with more than fifty star casts, including Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Emma Stone, Anna Faris, Chris Pratt, Stephen Merchant, Chloë Grace Moretz, and so on. Literally the biggest cast assembly for a movie. An arrangement like this is supposed to make one of the best movies. Instead, “Movie 43” is considered a disaster, with a 4.3 IMDb rating and a 5% Rotten Tomatoes score.
I’ve been seeing audiences bashing this movie on IMDb and Letterboxd with negative reviews. Is “Movie 43” really that bad? To understand why this movie is hated so much, we need to have a small overview of the plot. It doesn’t have any. “Movie 43” is an anthology film consisting of 13 short films without any real interconnection between these stories. These short stories contain disturbing dark jokes that are clearly not suitable for everyone. A guy from Letterboxd summed up the contents of this movie in his short review.
I agree with the fact that Ryle did a great job listing all kinds of jokes used in the movie. But what I don’t agree with is, the movie is not entertaining in any way. While I won’t claim it’s a great movie or one of the best comedies ever, I don’t think it’s that bad either. I believe “Movie 43” is somewhat funny and even quite hysterical in some scenes.
What upset most people about the movie is that the most serious and talented actors played the most absurd, silly characters. I understand hanging a pair of balls from the throat is not something one can expect to see from Hugh Jackman or Emma Stone cracking vagina jokes. According to reviewers, “Movie 43” is a waste of talented artists. But that’s the whole point, right? I mean, how often do you find actors and actresses like them being in stupid (but funny) plots?
Not gonna lie, the incest or poop jokes in the movie are hard to watch. Some of those jokes will make you uncomfortable or cringe. But it has some killingly funny bits as well. The problem is, that the bad bits get all the attention, overshadowing the good bits, which makes the movie seem worse than it is. However, I would suggest you check the movie out with friends (not family) while having some drinks and popcorn. You’ll have a good laugh.
Watch it without thinking about what critics said and what the ratings are. Instead, give the movie a fair chance. The worst that can happen is you’ll find out that you haven’t seen anything like it before.
