Movie 43 Blu-ray Review

Movie 43," despite the varied production periods required to match its star-studded cast's schedules, remarkably manages to maintain a consistent appearance throughout, thanks to its primary use of Red One digital cameras. This method has yielded a uniform 1080p/AVC-encoded video quality across the majority of its segments, although a couple may suffer slightly from the utilisation of potentially inferior equipment. These variations, however, do not significantly detract from the overall presentation. The film's video quality does not engage in unnecessary digital noise reduction or edge enhancement, adhering closely to its source without obvious compression artifacts. That said, the movie's visual appeal is underwhelming, attributable largely to the generic and often overtly bright lighting typical of many comedy films, which can flatten the image depth and detail.

Detail rendition in "Movie 43" is commendable, with the minutiae of actors' facial features, hair, and clothing texture being discernibly clear in most instances. The occasional softness observed is likely due to lapses in focal accuracy rather than any inherent flaw in the transfer itself. This clarity extends to the color grading and saturation levels across the movie's vignettes, offering stable contrast, balanced skin tones, and vibrant hues without veering into oversaturation. Despite some issues with blown-out highlights which marginally impact the visual depth, the film delivers a solid Blu-ray video experience.

Furthermore, the film's presentation in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio enhances its visual clarity, with detailed shots that demonstrate the precision of the HD transfer. Wider scenes may exhibit a softness, but this does not significantly impair the overall crispness and definition across the movie's runtime. Skin tones are rendered naturally, complemented by deep and rich black levels that enhance the image's depth. The color palette is lively and dynamic, maintaining a bright and appealing look throughout. With great contrast and devoid of distracting compression artifacts, banding, or dirt, "Movie 43" presents a surprisingly high-quality video experience for a film often criticized for its content, underscoring the technical capabilities of its Blu-ray presentation.

The audio presentation for the Blu Ray of "Movie 43" delivers a competent yet unremarkable experience through its DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track. The mix is predominantly dialogue-driven, ensuring that speech is consistently clear, with minor anomalies where the dialogue may momentarily sound somewhat dense, though this rarely detracts from overall comprehension. The track excels in clarity, avoiding issues like distortion or background hiss, which speaks to its solid mastering. However, listeners should not expect a deep or immersive auditory experience, as the surround channels and bass are underutilized, providing only subtle environmental noises and sporadic effects that barely enhance the viewing experience.

Given the film's genre as a sketch comedy, the audio design's simplicity aligns with its needs, focusing on delivering clear and understandable dialogue over creating an enveloping soundstage. The rear channels occasionally contribute ambient sounds, ranging from natural environmental cues to the distant buzz of a party scene, but these moments are few and far between. The lack of significant use of the bass and a score that can be described as hokey at best further emphasize the audio's functional rather than experiential role. Nevertheless, for a movie that leans heavily on its comedic content over sensory spectacle, this audio track serves its purpose adequately, ensuring jokes land without auditory distraction.

Optimal for its narrative style, the audio effectively supports "Movie 43"'s comedic endeavors without attempting to overshadow them with unnecessary acoustic flair. Subtitles are provided in both English SDH and Spanish, offering clean, easy-to-read text across the screen. This straightforward audio setup may not win any awards for innovation or depth, but it does its job well, maintaining audience focus squarely on the film's humor with minimal disruption or auditory confusion.

The Blu-ray extras for "Movie 43" offer an intriguing yet mixed bag that might be more entertaining than the film itself. The standout is the Alternate Cut, presenting the same sketches within a wildly different narrative about teenagers, a banned movie, and an accidentally triggered WWIII, though it doesn't necessarily improve the viewing experience. The "Find Our Daughter" segment, featured both as a cut short and a deleted scene, showcases Julianne Moore and Tony Shalhoub in a darkly comedic search for their missing daughter, proving to be more compelling than many of the film's included shorts. Additionally, the inclusion of a Theatrical Trailer and Sneak Peek provides a standard preview experience. While these extras add value, they reflect the film's overall inconsistency and missed potential.

Extras included in this disc:

• Alternate Cut: An alternate version of the movie with a different overarching story.
• Find Our Daughter: A short film featuring Julianne Moore and Tony Shalhoub as worried parents.
• Theatrical Trailer: Official trailer for "Movie 43".
• Sneak Peek: A sneak peek into the making and additional content related to the film.
• Deleted Short: 'Find Our Daughter': Similar to the above but presented as a deleted segment.

'Movie 43' stands as a perplexing enigma in the realm of modern cinema, a film that ambitiously attempts to marry the outlandish shock-value humor of 'Kentucky Fried Movie' and 'Amazon Women on the Moon' with an A-list ensemble cast, yet manages to misfire at almost every turn. Directed and produced by a coalition of Hollywood's recognizable names, including the Farrelly Brothers, James Gunn, Brett Ratner, and Steve Carr, the movie tries to navigate the treacherous waters of taboos and comedic boundaries under the guise of avant-garde humor. However, it ultimately drowns in its own audacity.

The film's structure—a series of disconnected sketches presented by a deranged screenwriter forcibly pitching to an exec—sets the tone for an erratic rollercoaster of tasteless jokes and crudely executed gags. Starting with scenarios as bewildering as Hugh Jackman sporting a neck-scrotum on a blind date with Kate Winslet to Chris Pratt fulfilling Anna Faris's fecal fantasies, 'Movie 43' plunges headlong into depths of depravity that not only fail to elicit genuine laughter but prompt one to question the judgment of its star-studded cast. The shocking missteps include notably appalling segments featuring racial stereotypes and bodily functions humor, aimed more at repulsing the viewer than providing any semblance of comedic relief.

Technically speaking, 'Movie 43's execution does little to salvage its fundamentally flawed premise. Despite sprawling over four years in production due to scheduling conflicts among its celebrity cast, the film squanders its $6 million budget and each actor's brave foray out of their comfort zone. The resulting product is a disjointed, aggressively bad attempt at edginess, devoid of the essential ingredient it disastrously sought to showcase: comedy. The audacity of its creators might be the only commendable aspect, as they dared to push boundaries; however, they did so without a map, leaving audiences bewildered and, rightfully, offended.

In assessing the Blu-ray presentation of "Movie 43," it becomes unavoidably clear that while the film may boast a roster of A-list actors, their talents are squandered in what can only be described as a perplexing mishmash of crass humor and shock value that falls flat. The movie itself is arguably one of Hollywood's most notable low points in recent years, with a consensus leaning heavily towards it being not just bad, but intolerably so. Its attempts at comedy through offensive and shocking sketches leave much to be desired, presenting a challenge to even the most forgiving of audiences who might seek to find a so-bad-it's-good charm within its runtime.

From a technical standpoint, the Blu-ray edition offers solid audio and video quality, which only furthers the disappointment by highlighting what could have been if the content had matched the medium's potential. Regrettably, the extras are sparse, featuring a single deleted segment that does little to redeem the overall package. Those harboring a morbid curiosity might consider a rental, but a purchase is hard to justify. The involvement of celebrated actors such as Kate Winslet, Naomi Watts, Halle Berry, and Richard Gere becomes a footnote overshadowed by the film's overall lack of coherence and taste, tainting future viewings of their more prestigious work.

In conclusion, "Movie 43" represents a missed opportunity to leverage its impressive cast in service of genuinely provocative or amusing sketches. Instead, it serves as a cautionary tale of how ambition can veer into the realm of the unwatchable when restraint and purpose are absent. It's a film best left forgotten, sparing potential viewers the challenge of finding its hidden merits among the mire. For those still intrigued, proceed with caution and keep expectations low, bearing in mind that some cinematic experiences are better left unexplored.