Movie 43

movie-43-poster

Directed by: Peter Farrelly, Elizabeth Banks, Steven Brill, Steve Carr, Rusty Cundieff, James Duffy, Griffin Dunne, Patrik Forsberg, James Gunn, Bob Odenkirk, Brett Ratner, Will Graham and Jonathan van Tulleken
Written by: Steve Baker, Will Carlough, Tobias Carlson, Jacob Fleisher, Patrik Forsberg, Will Graham, James Gunn, Claes Kjellstrom, Jack Kukoda, Bill O’Malley, Matthew Alec, Portenoy, Greg Pritikin, Rocky Russo, Olle Sarri, Elizabeth Wright Shapiro, Jeremy Sosenko, Jonathan van Tulleken, Jonas Wittenmark
Released: January 2013
Featuring: Dennis Quaid, Greg Kinnear, Seth MacFarlane, Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Naomi Watts, Anna Faris, Emma Stone, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloë Grace Moretz, Gerard Butler, Johnny Knoxville, Stephen Merchant, Halle Berry AND the rest of Hollywood.

Short review: It sucks. Don’t bother seeing it.

So it’s pretty much a series of skits, all directed and written by different people. The story line is how a crazed writer blackmails a producer to get his movie comprised of a series of short skits made. The finished product is the movie that is in the cinemas now, Movie 43.

KateWI mean, obviously this film was not going to be good, you could tell that from the trailer.

I can’t say I actually laughed at all in this movie… The funniest scene was the first short with Kate Winslet and Hugh Jackman but even so, I only giggled a little.

HalleBThe scene where Halle Berry is dared by Stephen Merchant to blow out a blind kid’s birthday candles before he does would have got a bit of a laugh too, if I hadn’t already seen the trailer and knew it was coming. Oh, and Merchant’s plastic surgery results were chuckle-worthy too.

If yEmmaSou want to be grossed out in a way where you also feel targeted and creeped out, skip the horror movie and watch Movie 43 by all means. But if you want to laugh at something… See an actual comedy.

I would like to take this moment to ask Kate Winslet and Emma Stone: “WHY!?”

There were many things that made me cringe, like in the homeschooling scene where the parents want to give their son every high school experience including his “first kiss”, or the entire “iBabe” sketch, or the superhero speed dating sketch. It’s not that I was necessarily offended, it just… Wasn’t funny.

Like, I understood where I was supposed to laugh and why it should be funny… But it just really wasn’t. Like when you watch an episode of Dora the Explorer and she makes a joke, you know why it is technically ‘funny’ but you don’t laugh because the jokes are simple and lame. Obviously the lame jokes in Movie 43 are R-rated humour though.

If you want to see a TON of famous people making fools of themselves, I’m sure you will enjoy this movie.

But it is rude, crude with lots of nude.

Jodie’s rating: 1.5/10 (.5 per time I chuckled)

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Directors: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller
Writers: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (screenplay), Judi and Ron Barrett (story)
Released: 2009
Starring: Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Andy Samberg, Bruce Campbell, Bobb’e J. Thompson, Mr. T, Benjamin Bratt, Neil Patrick Harris

Animated films have been growing in popularity because of the flexibility and ability to create elaborate sets. Fantastic films have been made thanks to the advanced technology now available from Toy Story 3 to Megamind to this film; Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

Bill_Hader_in_CloudyI was skeptical at first as it seemed like a silly and random storyline. However, after watching it from start to finish I found that the humour was similar to that of Megamind (one of my favourite animations) and the fantasy element like the 2009 animation Coraline.

It was the crazy gestures and facial expressions which I thought was the funniest element. Particularly the main character’s father who simply had a monobrow, a nose and a mustache. The creativity was pretty awesome in regards to the natural disasters formed by food, as well as the colour and realistic food which made me want to eat a hamburger so badly (despite being a vegetarian, so that shows how far graphics have come these days!).cloudywithachanceofmeatballs-sequel

Typically there are mostly stereotyped characters, but that wasn’t really a surprise for a film which is targeting a younger audience. Having said that, these animations (with Toy Story 3 in mind) aren’t boring for the older viewers – cartoons are not just for kids any more.

cloudyIt was a simple storyline, however. Despite me trying to look deeper – perhaps it’s a stab at genetic modification or corporations wanting to rule the world or global warming – I found it lacked substance. Plus, the ‘absolute low’ in this film lasted as long as a blink. Not very much suspense at all. Perhaps it really was just a film with a tired moral of “not giving up on your dreams”… *sigh*

Cloudy-With-a-ChanceIt’s an easy-to watch film which is pretty funny (not as funny as Megamind) and fantastical (not as fantastical as Coraline) with a typical “they all lived happily ever after” ending.

Somewhat disappointing but perhaps my hopes were too high.

Jodie’s rating: 6.5/10