Film / Movie 43

Movie 43 is a 2013 American comedy Anthology Film, comprising 12 short sketches directed by Peter Farrelly, Elizabeth Banks, Steven Brill, Steve Carr, Rusty Cundieff, James Duffy, Griffin Dunne, Patrik Forsberg, James Gunn, Bob Odenkirk, Brett Ratner and Jonathan van Tulleken.

It features an insane All-Star Cast including Banks, Kristen Bell, Halle Berry, Leslie Bibb, Kate Bosworth, Gerard Butler, Josh Duhamel, Anna Faris, Richard Gere, Terrence Howard, Hugh Jackman, Johnny Knoxville, Justin Long, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloë Grace Moretz, Liev Schreiber, Seann William Scott, Emma Stone, Jason Sudeikis, Uma Thurman, Naomi Watts, and Kate Winslet.

The 12 sketches are surrounded by a Framing Device, which differs between the U.S. and international releases of the film:

• The Pitch: A fallen-from-grace screenwriter (Dennis Quaid) pitches a risky idea to a film producer (Greg Kinnear) with the help of his manager (Common)...
• The Thread: Three teenagers (Adam Cagley, Devin Eash, Mark L. Young) search the internet for a banned movie called Movie 43, and come across quite a bit of Filth in the process...

...and the sketches are:

1. The Catch: A gorgeous couple (Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet) are dating, until the man shows a weird behavior...
2. Homeschooled: A teenage boy (Jeremy Allen White) is homeschooled by his parents (Liev Schreiber, Naomi Watts), who replicate the full school experience up to the point of bullying him...
3. The Proposition: A young woman (Anna Faris) asks her boyfriend (Chris Pratt) to perform a disgusting sexual fetish on her, and his friends (J.B. Smoove, Jarrad Paul) talk him into obliging her...
4. Veronica: A girl (Emma Stone) and her ex-boyfriend (Kieran Culkin) discuss their sexual relationship in detail, and—unbeknownst to them—in public...
5. iBabe: A Steve Jobs expy (Richard Gere) is evaluating the troubles his kinky new iProduct is having with his development team (Kate Bosworth, Jack McBrayer, Aasif Mandvi)...
6. Super Hero Speed Dating: Some superheroes and supervillains (Justin Long, Jason Sudeikis, Uma Thurman, Bobby Cannavale, Kristen Bell, John Hodgman, Leslie Bibb, Will Carlough) troll each other in flash dates...
7. Machine Kids: A Public Service Announcement promotes better treatment of the kids that live in the machines we abuse when they don't function properly...
8. Middleschool Date: Two young boys (Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jimmy Bennett) and their young girl friend (Chloë Grace Moretz) panic over her first menstrual period, and then their fathers (Patrick Warburton, Matt Walsh) get involved...
9. Happy Birthday: Some dude (Johnny Knoxville) catches a leprechaun (Gerard Butler) as a gift for his best friend's (Seann William Scott) birthday...
10. Truth or Dare: The most outrageous truth or dare game ever between two grown-ups (Halle Berry, Stephen Merchant) is about to begin as they're out on their first date...
11. Victory's Glory: In 1959, a basketball coach (Terrence Howard) motivates his all-black high school team to blast an all-white team...
12. Beezel: A woman (Elizabeth Banks) discovers that her boyfriend's (Josh Duhamel) cat is not what it seems...

Another sketch was cut from the film but is included as an extra on the DVD and Blu-ray release:

• Find Our Daughter: A mother (Julianne Moore) and a father (Tony Shalhoub) hire a private eye (Bob Odenkirk) to find their missing daughter, despite her only reference footage being unorthodox...

• The Apprentice: An necrophiliac apprentice mortician (Anton Yelchin) somehow revives the female body he's having sex with, just as his supervisor (Shane Jacobson) walks in...

This film provides examples of:

• After the End: In the international release, uncovering Movie 43 causes the detonation of various Cold War-era nuclear weapons, turning the world into a wasteland.
• The Bad Guy Wins: "Beezel" ends like this; Beezel tries to murder Amy for coming between him and Anson, but she turns the tables and begins beating Beezel to death. In front of a child's birthday party. Anson walks in on the sight, and after Amy unsuccessfully attempts to convince them all that Beezel tried to kill her, the children swarm Amy and stab her to death with plastic forks as Anson comforts Beezel, who fantasizes about making out with his owner.
• Black Is Bigger in Bed: Pretty much the whole selling point of Terrence Howard's inspirational speech to his basketball team.
• Brick Joke: In the international version, the framing device is originally supposed to be a distraction while one of the older brothers revenge-pranks the youngest by taking their laptop and infecting it with viruses from porn sites. In the end, those viruses thwart their last-minute attempt to stop the apocalypse their search for Movie 43 caused.
• Cringe Comedy: A heavy dose of it.
• Homeschooled Kids: One skit involves a teenager being homeschooled by his parents, who want to give him an authentic high school experience. This involves being bullied by his own family, being ostracized in parties and his own dad calling people to look at the boy's "weird pubes".
• Incest Is Relative: In The Thread, Baxter is shown to be in a relationship with his mother in the apocalyptic future, and makes out with her in the video message.
• Instant Turn-Off: One of the characters has been watching porn on his little brother's laptop for the sake of revenge. Along the way he comes across this porn star who he feels a deep connection with, towards the end of the film his Mom comes in wearing the same outfit as the porn star was earlier. He realizes that he has most likely been jacking off to his Mom, goes into shock and tries to rip off his own penis, months later he has lost his ability to walk and is only capable of endlessly repeating the words "I'm sorry".
• Is This Thing On?: The premise of "Veronica", as they're having that discussion while standing in front of the grocery store intercom.
• Jealous Pet: The entire premise of "Beezel".
• Minor Flaw, Major Breakup: Discussed by the director after pitching "The Catch", stating that it's meant to be an exaggeration of the trope.
• No Ending:
  • "The Pitch", which is the closest thing this film has to an actual plot, ends with the whole thing turning out to just be a movie being made when a Special Effects Failure occurs. The story itself gets no actual conclusion.
  • "The Thread" from the international release also doesn't have a noteworthy conclusion; instead, the world ends, one of the surviving older brothers finds the youngest's laptop and can't reset the world so instead watches the second-last skit, and then the credits roll (with "Beezel" interrupting them midway).
• Only Sane Man: Kate Bosworth in the iBabe skit.
  Robert: None of this could have seen this one coming.
  Arlene: I did!
  Boss: Take it easy, Erin Brockovich.
• Playing Cyrano: Batman's attempt to help Robin speed-dating. Robin namechecks Cyrano de Bergerac. Batman doesn't recognise it, instead referring to Roxanne.
• Precision F-Strike: Courtesy of Kate Winslet in the trailer; it doesn't actually appear in the film.
  "This is fucked up!"
• Quote Mine: Somehow averted; the DVD/Blu-Ray cover doesn't have any positive blurbs from any critics, nor does it have anything taken out of context to even look positive.
• Refuge in Audacity: Each story just raises up how offensive it is from a coach telling his black basketball team they will win the game against a white team because they are black to two boys not knowing how to handle their female friend's period.
• Roger Rabbit Effect: Beezel, the last skit, is shot in live action, while Beezel, the titular cat, is animated.
• Schmuck Bait: Invoked by Richard Roeper in his review:
  As the ads for "Movie 43" promised (threatened?), you can't un-see this thing, so please: Stay away.
• Spiritual Successor: To The Groove Tube and The Kentucky Fried Movie.
• Threatening Shark: The fake Tampax commercial.
• Trailers Always Spoil: Most (if not all) of the movie's best jokes were given away by the trailers.
• Vulgar Humor:
  • Every single skit in the film is extremely vulgar and offensive in some way or another. Among all of them, arguably every trait of R-rated raunchiness is in here somewhere and used to its full potential.
  • The one exception is the spoof Public Service Announcement Machine Kids which employs a heavy dose of surreal Black Comedy but no gross-out or sexual humour.
• You Can't Fight Fate: In "The Thread", the titular Movie 43 is actually a message from After the End by the youngest brother, about how their searching for Movie 43 is about to trigger the end of the world. Which ends, because the older brothers' main motivation for finding Movie 43 in the first place was to distract the youngest while they ruin his laptop, the only thing that could've possibly prevented the apocalypse.