In one of the most vivid cases of a great cast not making a great movie, the latest film from (among others) the Farrelly brothers' Peter Farrelly has received one of the worst critical maulings in recent years.
'Movie 43', a series of comic vignettes directed by a number of different directors, boasts an astonishing line-up of Hollywood talent.
Leprechaun... Butler defends his pot of gold (Copyright: Relativity)
Among the cast are the likes of Dennis Quaid, Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Emma Stone, Uma Thurman, Gerard Butler, Terrence Howard, Naomi Watts, Halle Berry, Josh Duhamel, Liev Schreiber, Seth MacFarlane, Richard Gere, Anna Faris and Chloe Grace Moretz, with directors including James Gunn and Bob Odenkirk joining Farrelly behind the camera.
But despite the glut of stars, it has received a legendarily poor 5% 'fresh' rating on reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, with critics virtually unanimous in their hatred.
Based around a washed up screenwriter (Quaid) pitching terrible ideas to a film executive (Greg Kinnear) at gun-point, it appears that the actual results may be every bit as terrible as fictional ideas being pitched.
Among them is a skit in which Hugh Jackman reveals on a blind date with Kate Winslet that he has testicles hanging from his adam's apple, and Gerard Butler playing a leprechaun captured by Johnny Knoxville and Seann William Scott.
Esteemed critic Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times called it 'the 'Citizen Kane' of awful', while Richard Brody in the New Yorker described it as being 'deadly dull, unfunny, offensive, and stultifyingly clumsy'.
Movie 43... 5% 'fresh' rating on Rotten Tomatoes (Copyright: Relativity)
Widely syndicated reviewer Susan Granger added: “Dismal and witless, the worst picture I've seen in many, many years. Even if you wait for the DVD - and get it free - it's a waste of time.”
A solitary voice of praise came from Michael O'Sullivan in the Washington Post, who said: “Movie 43 is a near masterpiece of tastelessness. The anthology of 12 short, interconnected skits elevates the art form of gross-out comedy to a new height.”
But this appears to be the exception which proves the rule.
Kim Newman of Empire magazine summed it up most succinctly, however, summarising simply 'just no'.
'Movie 43' is out now across the UK.
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