Movie 43

This one is a puzzler, being named by critics the 'Citizen Kane of awful', Movie 43 was released in january, and was instantly panned, and became known as the worst film of all time. The film was produced by Richard Bransons 'Vrigin Produced'. The film is an anthology movie, and consists of multiple short films, tied together with a narrative involving either a movie pitch, or a group of teenagers trying to download a fictional film entitled movie 43, depending on version. The film stars more Oscar winners than probably any other movie, but even its cast is not enough to save this movie from the inevitable bargain bin.

The film actually starts sort of well, once we get past the tiresome intro featuring irritating teenagers, the first short features Kate Winslet and Hugh Jackman, as a man and woman on a blind date, with her discovering a rather unsettling pair of testicles growing from the mans neck, which no one else seems to notice. The short is sort of funny, despite neither actor being known for comedy, and the idea is at least a little original.

The second short is also funny, starring Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts as a couple homeschooling their son, and trying to give him the complete high school experience, this short despite being based on a pitifully thin story is rather funny, and the leads have a sort of deadpan humor which kind of works. However from then the film falls faster than an anvil in a buggs bunny cartoon, with the next skit being a painfully unfunny story about a woman wanting her boyfriend to poo on her, really?

The rest of the film is aggressively unfunny, with only one exception, the film about Halle Berry going on a blind date and indulging in a game of truth or dare, which is sort of clever, and which has a mildly amusing conclusion; but the real problem with this film is that most of the shorts, even the funnyest ones would be rejected by saturday night live. The odd thing about this film is that the shorts involving real comedy actors are so much less funny than those starring Halle Berry and Kate Winslet, which is a little odd.

Overall Movie 43 is aggressively bad, with most of the shorts being painfully unfunny, and the ridiculous subplot involving trying to download movie 43, and some very obnoxious youths. So overall as much as my anarchic tendencies wanted to like this movie, it was a painful flop of atomic proportions, and was explosively irritating. Rating: D