Three daring teenagers journey into the darkest corners of the internet in search of the world’s most banned film, ‘Movie 43’, and encounter a series of gloriously offensive videos along the way, each becoming more and more uproarious as they tentatively venture into the unknown! From ‘The Catch’ where Kate Winslet stars as a woman on a blind date with the ever-so charming Hugh Jackman, who is by all description perfect. He’s talented, immensely handsome, successful in his career and has shown a lot of balls for a man on a first date. Quite literally so! To ‘Veronica’, where Emma Stone and Kieran Culkin star as former lovers who’s final farewell swiftly turns into a sexual discussion and humorous lament over their relationship with topics including HPV and fingers up the bum, the teenagers can only dare to imagine what the mystical ‘Movie 43’ will behold and what the consequences of watching it will be!
Movie 43 revolves around 11 key skits, which are as follows (There are some minor spoilers in this bit so you may want to skip them) –
‘The Catch’ stars Kate Winslet as a woman on a blind date with a charming gentleman played by Hugh Jackman, who is, by all description, perfect. He’s talented, immensely handsome and successful in his career. He does have one flaw though that wasn’t to be expected: a pair of testicles dangling from the bottom of his chin…
‘Homeschooled’ focuses its attention on the unorthodox teaching methods of Liev Schreiber’s and Naomi Watts’ characters as they guide us through the extreme techniques they use on their son. Mathematics, English Literature, Science…so far so normal… Losing your virginity, getting ridiculed for size of your genitalia in the showers and getting bullied in the basketball courts…ah that’s more like it!
‘The Proposition’ stars Anna Faris and Chris Pratt as a couple ready to take the next step in their relationship. Before the wondrous joys of marriage and children though comes the greatest shared moment in lover’s history… the romantic gift of a burrito-ridden explosion of faeces to your wife’s chest. And who said romance is dead!
‘Veronica’ features Emma Stone and Kieran Culkin as star-crossed lovers who must say their final farewell. Their embrace over a grocery store checkout till results in an argument that swiftly turns into a sexual discussion and humorous lament over their relationship with topics including HPV and Neil’s passion for having “fingers up his butthole”. Unbeknownst to them both, Neil’s intercom microphone broadcasts the entire explicit conversation over the store’s tannoy.
‘Superhero Speed Dating’ sees Robin (Justin Long) and Batman (Jason Sudeikis) at a speed dating establishment in Gotham City whilst seeking out a bomb placed by arch-nemesis Penguin (John Hodgman). Whilst Robin’s uncomfortable encounters include Lois Lane (Uma Thurman) and Supergirl (Kristen Bell), Batman bumps into his ex-girlfriend Wonder Woman (Leslie Bibb). But is all as it seems in Gotham City tonight?
‘Truth or Dare’ stars Stephen Merchant and Halle Berry as two hapless beings on a first date in a restaurant. Tired of all the first date clichés, Donald (Merchant) decides to start a game of Truth or Dare. As the game ensues the dares begin to get weirder and wilder! Such extreme dares include humiliating tattoos, facial reconstruction and an unconventional way of making guacamole…
‘Happy Birthday’ finds Gerard Butler playing a potty-mouthed leprechaun who has been kidnapped by Pete (Johnny Knoxville) as a gift for his roommate Brian (Seann William Scott). Tying the leprechaun up in their basement, Brian and Pete interrogate him for a pot of gold coins but little do they know that they are no match against the ferocious temper of this Irish mystical creature!
‘iBabe’ centres on a board meeting for a company who have recently developed the ‘iBabe’, a life-sized and realistic replica of a nude woman that functions as an MP3 player. The boss (Richard Gere) listens to his employees discuss the dangers of the fan that was built in near the genital region of the ‘iBabe’ and decides to inspect the issue hands-on.
‘Middle School Date’ sees Amanda (Chloë Grace Moretz) in a sticky situation whilst on a date round at a boy’s house. She has come to a point in her life where she is no longer a girl but not yet a woman… out with the old and in with the new, if ‘the new’ means her date’s brother (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) believing she is bleeding to death thus causing a huge debacle of the whole pubescent situation!
‘Beezel’ examines the relationship between one pet and its owner; the respect they have for one another, the adoration that blossoms between them both and the perverted downright sexual jealously the pet beholds when its owner (Josh Duhanel) enters into a relationship elsewhere, in this case with Elizabeth Banks! The pet in question? Lovable cat Beezel. The issue? Elizabeth Banks is no match for Beezel in his eyes. The outcome? Beezel will do what it takes to stay the apple of his owner’s eye, no matter what!
‘Victory’s Glory’ is a heart-rending story about a determined basketball coach (Terrence Howard) as he lectures his down-trodden team into victory with an awe-inspiring speech at half-time that covers pride, courage, the future and the fact that all the players are African-American black! As he so poetically puts it, the team have to win because their opponents “are all white” and “you are all black!”
Presented in a 1080p AVC encode, the picture looks great which is something you would expect from a newly made movie. Detail is spot on in all areas, with close up shots really shining through showcasing all fine details. Wrinkles look more prominent than ever, making you realise how much the likes of Kate Winslet have aged over the years. The hairs on Hugh Jackman’s chin-balls never looked so good! I’ve never seen Emma Stone’s piercing eyes look as glorious as they do in this film!
Black levels are very good adding some good depth to the picture, as does the more lighter scenes. Colours do pop off the screen again showing the very good detail shown in the film. Very little grain at all in the picture, but due to the age of the film there wouldn’t be any grain present unless some was added intentionally. A little bit of motion blur here and there, but nothing major and nothing that detracts from the good presentation on this disc.
Just the one option here of a DTS-HD MA 5.1 track.
For such a random movie, to be fair the track on the disc is very good. The 5.1 track is very rich in sound with a great surround mix. All speakers are used to full effect with a good engaging sound mix. The dialect isn’t lost in the soundtrack at all and always comes across clean and clear. It’s hard to say too much about the soundtrack itself as it changes with every skit that there is, but what is there is decent enough and suits each individual skit. The sub isn’t used much, but when it is used does it job very well and kicks out a punch when needed.
Also featured are optional English subtitles.
There are two cuts on the film, one standard theatrical cut and an alternate cut which runs 4 minutes shorter than the theatrical cut. I have chosen to review the theatrical version.
Only two extras here, a theatrical trailer and an extra sketch called ‘Find Our Daughter’. This is an extra skit featuring Julianne Moore and Tony Shalhoub trying to find her daughter. I can’t say if it would really add much to the film as it’s just as random as the rest of it; but it does have a lot of boobs.
I have also watched the alternate cut, and it seems as if the whole sub-plot of the teenagers trying to find ‘Movie 43’ has been replaced by Dennis Quad pitching the idea of the movie to ‘Movie Exec’ Greg Kinnear. The annoying teens are gone completely and this runs much better as a ‘sketch-show’ type movie. Serves as a much better movie in my opinion.
I remember seeing the trailers for the theatrical release and thinking that this looked absolutely mental; having missed the the theatrical run I was quite looking forward to this review disc. Is it mental? Oh yes! It’s a completely stupid, full of bad language, over-the-top, offensive movie that if you are easily offended I’d highly advise giving this movie a miss. If, however like me, you’ve got a childish sense of humour then give it a go. Some scenes I was laughing out loud, some I was disgusted at and some where eye-rolling bad, but it’s just so random that in some instances it kinda works, but then again it doesn’t.
I really didn’t like the main story arc of the stupid teenagers trying to find ‘Movie 43’, which then led to the skits being shown. To me this gave it a much more lower budget feel, plus it didn’t help that the ‘actors’ were extremely annoying on screen. Since watching the ‘Alternate Version’, I have come to the conclusion that for me this ran much better as a movie, flowing better and having some great cameos thrown in also (the inclusion of Seth MacFarlane is always a winner in my books) and when I watch this again, this will be the version I go for.
I can’t say I had high expectations for this so I can’t say I was disappointed with the movie but I was more surprised at how very random and bizarre the movie was. I certainly hadn’t seen anything like that before. I was also amazed at the amount of actors thrown into the mix. Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Emma Stone, Justin Long, Elizabeth Banks, Richard Gere, Halle Berry and Gerard Butler to name a few!! They must’ve been paid a lot of money to do the short amount of work that they did for ‘Movie 43’.
As an overall Blu-Ray package, whilst the picture and sound are very good it’s let down by a distinct lack of extras with perhaps only one saving grace being the alternate version, which I much preferred to the theatrical version. This is a movie that you will never forget, but more than likely for all of the wrong reasons. If you want to sit down and watch a film that will make you laugh and probably disgust you at the same time, then this is a film for you.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jDp2D2zWMI
