Movie 43 (2013) or, The Big Flush

9/03/2021

Movie 43 (2013) or, The Big Flush

♥♥

Star faces and names surround a nubile female figure in fresh avocado green on this poster for Elizabeth Banks, Steven Brill, Steve Carr, Rusty Cundieff, James Duffy, Griffin Dunne, Peter Farrelly, Patrik Forsberg, Will Graham, James Gunn, Brett Ratner, Jonathan van Tulleken and Bob Odenkirk's Movie 43

A Hollywood executive gets taken hostage by a desperate dreamer, who insists upon getting his grotesque story ideas green-lit.

Movie 43 is written by Rocky Russo (Brickleberry (2012-14)), Jeremy Sosenko (Paradise PD (2018-21)), Ricki Blitt (The Ringer (2005)), Bill O'Malley, Will Graham (Mata (2006, short)), Jack Kukoda (The Onion (2007-10)), Matt Portenoy, Claes Kjellstrom, Jonas Wittenmark, Tobias Carlson, Will Carlough (Blood Brothers (2008, short)), Jonathan van Tulleken (The Unsteady Chough (2004, short)), Elizabeth Shapiro (The Crossroads of History (2016, TV-series)), Patrik Forsberg (Smådeckarna (2002)), Olle Sarri (Om Inte (2001, actor)), Jacob Fleisher (Moving Up (2005, TV-series)), Greg Pritikin (Totally Confused (1998)), James Gunn (Slither (2006)), Bob Odenkirk (Melvin Goes to Dinner (2003)) and Steve Baker (Confessions of an Animation (2004, short)) and directed by Elizabeth Banks (AIDS: We Did It! (2010, short)), Steven Brill (Heavyweights (1995)), Steve Carr (Next Friday (2000)), Rusty Cundieff (Fear of a Black Hat (1993)), James Duffy (Robin's Big Date (2005, short)), Griffin Dunne (Addicted to Love (1997)), Peter Farrelly (Dumb and Dumber (1994)), Forsberg, Graham, Gunn, Brett Ratner (Money Talks (1997)), van Tulleken and Odenkirk. The title has no actual meaning.

It is a very unusual happening of a film, a creative meeting place and hodgepodge of tasteless, transgressive comedy vignettes. The framing story is pretty funny but could have been executed better. Among the film's 14 anthology-style short film-like stories are some funny ones: Jason Sudeikis (Kodachrome (2017)) as Batman in a restaurant; Halle Berry (Strictly Business (1991)) and Stephen Merchant (Modern Family (2014-20)) on a date that turns into an extreme truth or dare game. - Several others are mostly just major WTF experiences and/or gross, such as Hugh Jackman's (Australia (2008)) testicles-attached-to-his-chin date story with Kate Winslett (Revolutionary Road (2008)); Chris Pratt (10 Years (2011)) and Anna Farris (Eden (1996)) in a relationship bound towards scat sex experiences (the two later divorced in real life after 9 years of marriage in 2018); and Josh Duhamel (Misconduct (2016)) with a horny animated cat... Strangest is the story with Gerard Butler (P.S. I Love You (2007)) as a leprechaun, who is very violent and not particularly funny.

Credits are due to the stars for braving into this endeavor, and for Farrelly, Charles B. Wessler and John Penotti, the film's producers, for getting this mad bag of tricks together, notwithstanding that it isn't all that successful in terms of actual laughs.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 6 mil. $

Box office: 32.4 mil. $

= Big hit (returned 5.4 times its cost)

[Movie 43 was released 1 January (Russia) and runs 94 minutes. Several studios refused Wessler's original pitch in the early 2000s. Collaborators Trey Parker, Matt Stone and David and Jerry Zucker left the project prior to shooting. Shooting reportedly began in 2010, although Farrelly has stated that it was shot over the course of 4 years in order to get certain actors, who only offered a few days to work for scale on the film between other projects. It took place in California, including in Los Angeles, and in New York. George Clooney refused to be in a segment which was to be about George Clooney being bad at picking up women, reportedly saying "no fucking way". Richard Gere on the other hand reportedly tried to wiggle himself out of his segment, which he had changed his mind about doing. Jackman and Winslet's scene was shot early on and used as a lure to get other stars involved. Stories with Anton Yelchin as a necrophiliac and one with Julianne Moore and Tony Shalhoub with a missing daughter were shot but cut from the film. It opened #7 to a 4.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it grossed 8.8 mil. $ (27.2 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Russia with 8 mil. $ (24.7 %) and the UK with 2.9 mil. $ (9 %). The subsequent features for the directors and stars will not be listed for Movie 43 due to the overwhelming number of talent involved. Movie 43 is rotten at 4 % with a 2.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Movie 43?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

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9/03/2021

Movie 43 (2013) or, The Big Flush

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