When Good a Trailer Makes a Terrible Movie: Our Review of "Movie 43" (2013)

Andrew: Hello readers! Sorry we've been away for a bit again, still been a bit busy with the day jobs, but we WERE able to catch a showing of this past weekend's unheralded new sketch comedy movie, Movie 43, and we're here to give you our review of it! (Duh.) Movie 43 stars a TON of big-name actors and there were about ten different directors involved all taking a different sketch. But due to the low-brow humor of the film, and apparently general distaste the studio has for it, almost everyone involved is trying to distance themselves from the movie (check out this humorous New York Post story about it to see what we mean). 

Now, because of the structure of the film, we're going to be doing our review just a touch differently than normal. Instead of doing a free-flowing conversation, we're going to break up the review by talking about each individual sketch on its own - starting with a brief description of the sketch and what we liked about it, what we didn't like about it, etc. With that said, in order of how they appeared in the film, here are our thoughts on Movie 43.

THE CATCH 

Stars: Kate Winslet and Hugh Jackman

Premise: Winslet plays a woman going on a blind date with a man who by all accounts is handsome, wealthy and incredibly popular, so it comes as a shock to her when they get to the restaurant and he takes off his scarf, that he has a pair of testicles hanging from his chin and no one else seems to find it unusual.

Sarah: Yea, this one actually made me very uncomfortable. Besides being slightly disgusting, this little sketch was hilarious! Having such a beautiful man like Hugh Jackman with a pair hanging from his neck was disturbing on so many levels. What bothered me the most was the fact that NOONE seemed to know!!! It's ridiculous! 

A: There are plenty of sketches in the movie that are over-the-top ridiculous, but I felt that this was a good one to kick things off. The sight gag of the male genitalia dangling from Jackman's face and the complete obliviousness by everyone other than Winslet was pretty funny. And they use the sight gag to its full effect, with the part where an air duct blowing cold air on their table taking the cake. But the sketch wouldn't have been anything if it weren't for Winslet's reactions.

A Classic Soap Sharpens It Teeth: Our Review of "Dark Shadows" (2012)

Directed By: Tim Burton

Starring: Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green, Chloe Grace Moretz

Rating: PG-13 for comic horror violence, sexual content, some drug use, language and smoking

Synopsis: In the 1770s, young Barnabas Collins (Depp), the heir of a wealthy New England fishing company, breaks a witch's heart (Green). In turn the witch kills Barnabas' love, Josette, turns him into a vampire and locks him away in a coffin. 200 years later Barnabas is released and finds that his family estate is in shambles thanks to the same witch. He then makes it his mission to restore his family to it's former glory, defeat the witch, and maybe even fall in love with the family's governess, Victoria, who looks eerily similar to his former lover.

REVIEW

Andrew: Hello readers! It’s a new movie Friday, as Sarah and I ran to the theatres late this afternoon to see the newest film from one of our favorite actors, Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean), in Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows!

Sarah, Dark Shadows is the EIGHTH collaboration between Depp and Burton, and there have been a lot of mixed reviews of their most recent ones, most saying that the two need to probably take a break creatively. After seeing their latest film, what do you have to say about those critics?

Sarah: My feelings are a little mixed on it. Whereas I believe that their creative well is starting to run a little dry, I think that what they do is very THEM. When you go to a Tim Burton/Johnny Depp movie, to expect anything other than that would be an unfair expectation.

Whether or not that’s a good thing is debatable. As a director or actor you want to continually expand your craft , but these two seem pretty content sticking with what they know.

A: So then applying that to Dark Shadows, and especially after Alice in Wonderland, is this one film too many? Or did you enjoy the movie for what it was?

S: I enjoyed the movie for what it was! Even though they all seem to kind of fall along the same lines – not a ton of creative differences in their movies – it was still entertaining. It's definitely campy, but in my belief, that’s what they do, especially with movies like Dark Shadows and Alice in Wonderland. These movies are purely for entertainment, they’re not made necessarily to make you think.

I would actually argue that Burton and Depp are two of the last filmmakers that don’t have a ton of an agenda.

A: I agree with you, Dark Shadows was very entertaining and it was the kind of movie where you go to the theatre to BE entertained and escape the real world. Like many of Burton and Depp’s collaborations, it’s fantastical movie and it’s one where you can tell the people involved had a lot of fun making it.

Now let’s talk specifics: what about the movie was so entertaining, or what did you enjoy the most?

S: Well it was Johnny Depp playing Johnny Depp at his finest.

A: So you don’t see it as a criticism to say that he was basically playing himself or a variation of a character that he’s played before?

S: We have routinely berated other actors for playing themselves (see: our review of Safe) but with Johnny it’s different. It could be because I would drop you in a second if he came to our door, or it could be that I don’t feel like he takes himself too seriously. Again, going back to that they create their film for entertainment.

A: Ok, so back to what you were saying about the movie…

S: It’s a funny movie! Now, not knowing much at all about the storyline it was kind of nice. I didn’t feel like I needed to compare it to anything that came previously. The cast, as we predicted, worked perfectly. And while it was a very strange movie, I had fun!

What about you? What do you think?

A: Obviously I’m going to be a little biased because Johnny’s my boy, but I honestly thought this was a very solid movie. It was funny a lot of times (some great, quick comments including one about Chloe Grace Moretz's (Let Me In) Carolyn), it had a lot of horror film elements in it that I loved, and while it was a little all over the place at times, I feel that this movie isn’t as bad as the trailers, commercials or other reviews I’ve read have made it out to be.

Yes, Johnny is basically playing a character he’s played before in other films (but this time he’s a vampire from the 1700s!), but I don’t see that as a drawback. People go to Johnny Depp movies BECAUSE of characters like this – why else would Alice in Wonderland make over a billion dollars worldwide?

S: I would agree with you. You know what kind of character you’re going to get, and true fans will go see this movie not for the story but to see him. That all being said, while I did love the elements of horror, it makes you jumpy without ever actually expecting horror, I do believe that the storyline was a little weak. I understand that there were over a thousand episodes of Dark Shadows the television series but I feel like it could have been condensed a little better.

A: I will give you that. The story is the thing that’s all over the place, ranging from Barnabas being turned into a vampire, to his waking up in 1972 and being a fish out of water, to a love story, a revenge story, and then it finishes as this straight up monster movie. It’s weird and almost doesn’t know what it wants to be.

But that brings me back to what we’ve been saying: it’s an entertaining movie. The fish out of water parts totally work and are funny, the first act of the movie is an excellent horror film (or at least have the makings of one), and the last act is a pretty good -looking action piece (save for a one instance of special effects I won’t say here). I'd actually say a lot of this film reminded me of Burton's Beetlejuice, but with better special effects.

Before we end this, I briefly want to echo your earlier sentiment that the casting choices worked well, but I felt like some of the actors got short shrift. Like Michelle Pfeiffer (Batman Returns) didn’t have a whole lot to do other than repeatedly walk down the master staircase in dramatic fashion, and Johnny Lee Miller (Dexter) might as well not have even been in the film his character is so unimportant.

S: Agreed. I think they should have promoted Gulliver McGrath’s David, the young boy, because next to Barnabas and Carolyn, he’s the most important member of the Collins family.

Ok! Well I think we can agree on one thing for certain – it’s an entertaining movie to go see!

A: Yeah, if you go into it expecting a masterpiece or some awesome new take on the vampire genre, you’ll be disappointed. Go into it expecting a Burton/Depp film and enjoy it for what it is. We certainly did.

S: In the end we’d say it’s a good way to kill the afternoon!

(Out of Five Clapboards)

Our Preview of This Week's New Releases (for Friday, May 11th)

Andrew: Hello readers! It's time for our weekly preview of the new theatrical releases coming out on Friday. Last week's preview was all about The Avengers because for all intents and purposes it was the only new wide release last week. This week isn't much different. While there are a few films coming out in limited release (a couple of which we'll briefly touch on towards the end), this week's only wide release of note is the new Tim Burton/Johnny Depp collaboration, Dark Shadows.

Dark Shadows is Burton's film adaptation the popular 1960's soap opera of the same name starring the late Jonathan Frid as a vampire named Barnabas Collins. In the new film, Barnabas (Depp) is an aristocrat from the 1700s who, after ticking off a witch, is turned into a vampire and buried for 200 years. He awakens to find himself in 1972 and that his ancestors have basically ruined the family's wealth and are an ecclectic bunch of weirdos.

Sarah, I think we've made it well-known on our blog that we're pretty big Johnny Depp fans, so on a scale of 1 to 10, how excited are we about Dark Shadows?

Sarah: I would have to say that I'm at about an eight on the scale. While Johnny Depp looks pretty hilarious is a typically dark fashion only to be brought about by Tim Burton, I am not super familiar with the story so I really don't know exactly what to expect. What about you?

Official Trailer for Dark Shadows

A: I'm fairly excited for it because I'm a big fan of Burton and Depp's prior movies - particularly Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (and yes, even Alice in Wonderland).

So I'm very interested to see their newest film for that reason alone, but also because I'm interested in seeing a film adaptation of the old Dark Shadows television show. I haven't seen any episodes of it either, only a clip your mom showed us on YouTube once, but just from that clip I could tell why Depp and Burton have a passion for the show and why they'd want to make it into a film of their own.

What I'm curious about is not only Depp's portrayal of Barnabas Collins, but how the rest of this A-list cast fairs. Your thoughts on the cast?

S: Oh yes, even from that short clip you could tell that this was definitely something up Burton and Depp's alley. It's dark with strange looking costumes and a lead that would fit perfectly with Depp's slightly morbid sense of humor.

Yea, the cast is killer. You have all of Burton's favorites (such as his partner, Helena Bonham Carter) and even some new ones that seem like they will fit right in with the rest of the cast. Chloe Grace Moretz looks like she will steal the show from Depp and this role might just solidify her as Hollywood's next go-to gal for all the movies. She has already starred with some big names (Nicolas Cage, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ben Kingsley) and is set to be alongside the likes of Blake Lively and Alec Baldwin this year in Hick.

What do you think of the cast? It's the typical Burton cast. Does that bother you at all?

A: I agree with your sentiment on Moretz, she's been great in Let Me In and Kick-Ass, and I know she's already been cast as the lead in the remake of Stephen King's Carrie, so you're spot on with her being a hot property in Hollywood.

I like the rest of the cast, too, I'm just worried about how much screentime they'll all get and how they'll work together. I think Michelle Pfeiffer as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, the Collins family matriarch, was a stroke of genius from the outset, and I've enjoyed seeing what possibilities Eva Green can bring from a comedic standpoint as the film's antagonist, Angelique Bouchard, the witch who turns Barnabas into a vampire in the first place.

S: Yeah, and I do think this movie will have some unexpected laughs that we haven't seen yet in the trailers! I'm excited to see it and it will be a great review to add to our list!

So what else is gracing the big screen this weekend?

A: Well other than Dark Shadows, a couple of films coming out in limited release that have caught our eye are the new Eva Mendes film Girl in Progress and the aforementioned Chloe Grace Moretz film Hick.
Girl in Progress stars Eva Mendes as a woman who got pregnant as a teenager, and now that her daughter is also a teenager, she still hasn't completely grown up and it affects her daughter in the same ways her own absentee mother did. Honestly I'm probably butchering how best to describe this movie, so I suggest watching the trailer below, which is quite good.

Official Trailer for Girl in Progress

 Hick, on the other hand, stars Moretz as a teenage runaway who becomes involved with some shady characters while on the road, including Blake Lively as a con artist, Eddie Redmayne (My Week with Marilyn) as a potentially dangerous drifter, and the always awesome Alec Baldwin. Full disclosure, we were hooked by the trailer (that you can view below), and now I'm even more intrigued now that I know it currently has a 0% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes! How can this film be that bad??? I must know.

Official Trailer for Hick

So really, that sums up the few movies coming out this weekend that have caught our eye. I can personally guarantee that we will be seeing Dark Shadows and that review will be up this weekend. For both Sarah and I here at Two Tickets For..., as always, thanks for reading!