Number's up for gross-out comedy
Decades in development, "Movie 43" is a project shepherded by Peter Farrelly of the Farrelly brothers gross-out comedy duo and producer Charles Wessell, who backed the Farrellys on such movies as "Dumb and Dumber" and "There's Something About Mary"
The movie took so long to make because Wessell only wanted big-name talents but didn’t want to pay them. Instead, he pestered them endlessly, wearing them down until they took the roles just to get him to leave them alone.
His tactics resulted an unlikely cast of such talented good sports as Richard Gere, Halle Berry, Naomi Watts, Kate Winslet and Hugh Jackman.
Familiar names are in the directors’ chairs as well, among them actress Elizabeth Banks, actor Griffin Dunne and directors James Gunn and Brett Ratner.
The 10 unrelated sketches, involving gross-out gags and raunchy sex humor as well as movie parodies, are tied together by the ordeal of an unhinged screenwriter who is pitching various outrageous ideas to a dismissive producer.
Critical reception is so overwhelmingly negative that the only tactic promoters have left is daring you to see it, just so you can see for yourself how bad it really is.
Also opening
“Olympus Has Fallen” – “Training Day” director Antoine Fuqua trades in the mean streets of Los Angeles for the Oval Office in this thriller in which the US president (Aaron Eckhart) has been kidnapped by a North Korean terrorist mastermind. His only hope is a disgraced former Secret Service agent (Gerard Butler, who’s also in “Movie 43”). Morgan Freeman also stars, again looking presidential as he portrays the House Speaker. The cast also features Angela Bassett, Dylan McDermott, Melissa Leo, Ashley Judd and Rick Yune. Read more about it in the story at right. Interestingly, this is not the only White House siege thriller planned for this year – yet to come is Roland Emmerich’s “White House Down”, which stars Jamie Foxx and Channing Tatum.
“Two Weddings and a Funeral” – South Korean gay-rights advocate and filmmaker Kimjho Gwang-soo seeks to entertain with this comedy, which screened at last year’s Busan International Film Festival. It’s about a gay doctor who marries his lesbian colleague. The happy couple then set their partners up in the apartment next door, but there are many problems as the doctor’s meddling parents won’t leave them alone. It’s at Major Cineplex.
“Let’s Go Kamen Riders” – Japan’s superhero suitmation franchise celebrates 40 years with the costumed hero Kamen Rider OOO fighting rubber-suited mole monsters. Strictly for the kiddies, it’s Thai-dubbed only.
Also showing
l “Mere Dad Ki Maruti” – A whippersnapper borrows his dad’s new Maruti automobile without permission so he can score with a young lady. But then the lad ends up losing the car, which, as it turned out, was to be a wedding gift for his sister. This Bollywood comedy is screening in Hindi with English and Thai subtitles at Major Cineplex Sukhumvit and Rama III.
