Movie 43

After I watched the movie I was utterly shocked to see that it was universally panned by the critics. I still cannot believe it only got 5% on the t-meter. I understand people not liking the film. It is an *intense* blue comedy and more than a fair share of gags crossover into the gross instead of funny territory. But for my money more than enough gags land to be worthwhile. Several of the sections-the batman parody, the opening date sequence, animated cat-are quite funny and in the case of the opening date sort of clever behind the blue comedy. There is an twilight zone edge Winslet slowly losing her mind because no one else seems to notice the gag. A few are serviceable as well.

Now it is true several sections are quite bad. iBabe was pretty useless along with the one with Emma Stone. But the worse offender was the Proposition. It is easily the grossest short in the anthology and it is largely not funny. More to the point it is placed too soon in context and undermines the framing device. It is hard to top that one for blue comedy content and the film never quite recovers. I feel so bad for Pratt. It should have been removed entirely or placed much later in the movie.

The framing device is a quasi-successful satire of the vapidness of mainstream film making, especially the disposable comedies al Tag that come out ever summer. This attempt to ground the shorts in a larger statement sets the movie apart for me. It is not a success-it does not work in the end-but the film is more engaging than a lot of other films that have come out.

The film is not good but it *is* different. Sometimes that is enough to recommend it.