Movie 43 (Blu-ray) (2013)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Trailer-Start-up trailers Deleted Scenes-Deleted Short -“Find Our Daughter” (4:45) More…-Digital Copy
Rating
Year Of Production	2013
Running Time	94:05 (Case: 99)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Bob Odenkirk Elizabeth Banks Steven Brill Steve Carr
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Elizabeth Banks Dennis Quaid Hugh Jackman Greg Kinnear Seth MacFarlane Common Kate Winslet Charlie Saxton Chloë Grace Moretz Will Sasso Halle Berry Odessa Rae Richard Gere
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$29.95	Music	Tyler Bates Christophe Beck Leo Birenberg

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Unknown	English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, Beezel sketch is after segment credits.

     Comedy anthology movies have been around since the 1970s, the best examples being The Groove Tube and Kentucky Fried Movie. Making an anthology movie is always fraught with danger because sustaining laughs over a series of sketches can prove difficult if you use the same director, cast and crew; however, if you use different directors, cast and crew for each sketch, you are surely courting disaster!

     And so, Movie 43 attempts to avert disaster and buck the trend, being a comedy anthology overseen by Peter Farrelly and linked by a unlikely story about a long-unemployed scriptwriter Charlie Wessler (Dennis Quaid) trying to pitch a movie project to a film executive, Griffin Schraeder (Greg Kinnear). The pitched ideas become the individual segments of the movie. Ultimately, Wessler forces Schraeder, at gun point, to consult his boss, Bob Mone (Common) to approve the film. Schraeder is humiliated in the middle of a meeting between Mone and Seth MacFarlane (playing himself), so he confronts Mone in the parking lot and tries to humiliate him. Wessler then pitches more story ideas, and the segment ends with the revelation that it is part of the movie, filmed with a camera crew and assistants. How does this 'reveal' impact upon the overall film? Answer: I don't know, and neither will you, no doubt!

     Movie 43 received notorious critical reviews which were scathing in general. Richard Roeper famously called it, "the Citizen Kane of awful". It holds a metacritic score of 19 out of 100. Fans were a bit kinder as it holds an IMDb rating of 4.4 out of 10, and there are many more movies with a lower IMDb rating! Movie studios balked at the idea of the film and it was shot over a period of 4 years with many different A-list actors. Relativity Media eventually picked it up in 2009 at a cost of $US6 million, it has since recouped $US 8.8 million gross worldwide.

     The cast of Movie 43 is highly impressive, with most signing on after Hugh Jackman and Kate Winslet shot the first sketch. These include Jason Sudeikis, Halle Berry, Emma Stone, Chloe Grace Moretz, Gerard Butler, Kristen Bell, Naomi Watts, Chris Pratt, Anna Faris, Richard Gere (who tried to distance himself from the project), Uma Thurman, Patrick Warburton, Liev Schrieber, Kieran Culkin, Justin Long, Kate Bosworth, Johnny Knoxville, John Hodgman, Terrance Howard and Stephen Merchant. How exactly did these stars all lend their wasted talents to this over-the-top crude banality? Peter Farrelly waited for years for some stars to free up their schedules, but even he couldn't convince George Clooney, Matt Stone and Trey Parker to be involved. None of the stars promoted the film either.

     There's also quite a few shorts here that are demeaning to women, especially in relation to bodily functions, which tends to be the main theme of these shorts. Chloe Grace Moretz getting her period for the first time is met with angst from all of the men around her. Then we get a fake commercial where a shark eats a woman because she's on her period. Then there's a few sketches about the "iBabe," which is an iPod that looks like a naked woman, available in different colours, black and white.

     I thought the sketch where Stephen Merchant and Halle Berry on a blind date skipping formalities and playing an ever-increasing bizarre game of truth and dare, where each dare is more outrageous than the last, was the best of the lot. At least this sketch won't leave you feeling pangs of disgust.

     Movie 43 is bad, but not so bad that it is good. Personally, I found most of the sketches dumb; there were too many crude jokes, especially concerning sexual acts. Below is a short synopsis of each of the 13 short films, taken from the IMDb FAQ page:

     The Pitch.

     A fallen from grace film screenwriter (Dennis Quaid) pitches a risky idea to a producer (Greg Kinnear). The ideas mentioned are the sketches that are shown throughout the film.

     The Catch.

     A gorgeous couple (Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet) is dating, until the man is revealed to have testicles hanging from under his chin. No-one seems to notice, except the woman it seems!

     Home-schooled.

     A kid's parents (Liev Schreiber, Naomi Watts) home-school him, up to the point of bullying and harassing him.

     The Proposition.

     A young woman (Anna Faris) asks her boyfriend (Chris Pratt) to defecate on her.

     Veronica.

     A girl (Emma Stone) and her boyfriend (Kieran Culkin) discuss their sexual relationship in public and in detail unaware that others can hear them.

     iBabe.

     A Steve Jobs-like CEO (Richard Gere) is evaluating the troubles his new kinky gadget is having, as teenage boys try to have sex with their product, resulting in mangled genitalia.

     Super Hero Speed Dating.

     Some superheroes and supervillains (Justin Long, Jason Sudeikis, Uma Thurman, Bobby Cannavale, Kristen Bell, John Hodgman, Leslie Bibb and Will Carlough) troll each other in flash dates.

     Machine Kids.

     A faux commercial which regards people's impatience to machines, all while hurting the feelings of the young kids that work inside of them.

     Middleschool Date.

     Two young boys (Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jimmy Bennett) and their young girl friend (Chloe Grace Moretz) panic over her first menstrual period.

     Happy Birthday.

     A man (Johnny Knoxville) catches a leprechaun (Gerard Butler) as a gift for his best friend's (Seann William Scott) birthday and demands for it to give them gold, causing a debacle.

     Truth or Dare.

     The most outrageous truth or dare game ever between two grown-ups (Halle Berry, Stephen Merchant) is about to begin following a blind date.

     Victory's Glory.

     In 1959, basketball coach (Terrence Howard) motivates his high school team to blast an all-white team because they are black.

     Beezel (shown after the end credits, with animation).

     A woman (Elizabeth Banks) discovers her boyfriend's (Josh Duhamel) animated cat is trying to break apart their relationship, all while trying to harm her.

Video

     Despite the various directors and cast, the movie maintains a consistent appearance, shot mostly with Red One digital cameras.

     Movie 43 is presented in an aspect ratio of 1:78:1 in 1080p using the MPEG-4 AVC code. The theatrical aspect ratio was 1:85:1.

     The image is clear and contains good detail.

     Colours are natural-looking and contrast is neutral, except for the Victory’s Glory sketch which was desaturated to achieve a 1950s look.

     There is no digital noise reduction or edge enhancement, excepting the Victory's Glory sketch which has intentional film grain.

     Subtitles are available in English.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Audio in these sketches tends to be restrained, without much supporting musical soundtrack.

     The main audio track is a DTS-HD Master Audio English 5.1 track. A Descriptive Audio track is available in English for the hard of hearing in Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo, encoded at 256 kbps.

     The dialogue is clear and the audio is synchronised.

     There are barely any musical interludes as a result of the sketches been so short I guess!

     Surround channel usage is limited to the front channels, there is little engagement from the rear channels.

     The subwoofer is fairly quiet.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Start-up trailers

     Start-up trailers for 21 and Over (2:33), The Last Stand (2:02) and Silver Linings Playbook (2:20) play sequentially before the opening menu.

Deleted Short -“Find Our Daughter” (4:45)

     This is a discarded skit which has Julianne Moore and Tony Shalhoub discussing their missing daughter with an off-camera private detective (voiced by the segment's writer-director Bob Odenkirk). The daughter is shown in various photos flashing her boobs.

Digital Copy

     Although not included with my review copy, the Blu-ray of Movie 43 includes a Digital Copy of the movie on a separate disc with a redeemable code to activate it for use with portable devices.

     The Region A Blu-ray includes an alternate cut that was pitched at the United Kingdom and European market. Instead of the pitch involving Quaid and Kinnear tying the film together, another segment titled, The Thread sees a group of three teenagers searching for the most banned film in the world, Movie 43, which will ultimately lead to the destruction of civilization. The same 13 sketches as the theatrical cut are used in this alternate cut and it is about 4 minutes longer. The Region A Blu-ray also includes the theatrical trailer, the same Finding Our Daughter deleted skit and a DVD and Digital Copy.

     Movie 43 is like a series of failed Saturday Night Live sketches put together, only more gross. In fact, it's a bit over-the-top in its use of gross-out humour and some scenes are just dumb; with more script revision and time to shoot, who knows what could have been made? The video and audio presentations are serviceable and the extras are minimal. Skip this, like the start-up trailers.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall