“Are anthologies becoming a thing now? We had a horror anthology a couple months back with V/H/S and now we’ve got a comedy anthology with Movie 43. A bunch of shorts connected by an overarching storyline. I’m kinda digging it, even if I haven’t been wowed yet.
I really didn’t know too much about this movie, except for one key fact. I saw the trailer maybe once, which was enough to confirm it on my watch list, but I for the life of me I couldn’t remember any of it going in today. What I did know: this movie has an uber cast! So many big names, many of whom you’d never expect in this style of offensive gross out comedy. That’s kind of the beauty of the anthology format. Under normal circumstances, you really think you could get Kate Winslet to commit to a movie with heavy involvement from those with the last name Farrelly, costarring with Johnny Knoxville? But with just a short segment, the time commitment was likely minimal and an excuse for her to do something crazy fun and different. And Knoxville was in a different short. Just look at some of the names involved, some more surprising than others: Hallie Berry, Emma Stone, Gerard Butler, Hugh Jackman, Elizabeth Banks, Richard Gere, Josh Duhamel, Seth Macfarlane, Chloe Grace Moritz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Kieran Culkin, Kate Bosworth, Jack Macbrayer, Justin Long, Kristen Bell, Jason Sudekis, and there’s still more but I gotta stop listing them at some point. Seriously, the most fun of this movie was the excitement of seeing a new face show up on screen.
As far as the shorts, I found them kinda hit or miss. Some were ridiculously funny. Some made me uncomfortable. Some were great ideas that didn’t quite make it. Some were awful ideas that turned out to be fantastic. I think the only thing better than seeing the unlikely cast members was seeing some of the pairings: Naomi Watts with real life hubby Liev Schrieber, or Anna Farris with hers, Chris Pratt. Dukes of Hazzard reboot boys reuniting. Again, this movie really is all about the cast. Even if this whole anthology thing does turn into thing, I can’t imagine a more diverse group being put together.
Movie 43 – \m/ \m/ \m/