Movie 43

In the most recent issue of Entertainment Weekly, we pointed out that Mama, starring current Best Actress contender Jessica Chastain, was the latest in a long line of lightweight genre flicks released each year during Oscar season — a less noxious Norbit, if you will. And now here’s a film that actually rivals Norbit‘s tastelessness: Movie 43. While Mama features just one Academy Award nominee and is a perfectly serviceable, largely unembarrassing horror film, Movie 43 is a collection of comedy sketches that boasts two actors hoping to get lucky on Oscar night (Hugh Jackman and Naomi Watts) — plus the evening?s host, Seth MacFarlane. And it is utterly disgusting throughout. This is a film that finds Watts making out with her character?s teenage son and Kieran Culkin informing Emma Stone, ”I want to give you a hickey on your vagina.” Mercifully, though, we’re spared the smells one would associate with a skit in which Anna Faris asks Chris Pratt to defecate on her. At its best, Movie 43 resembles a risqué episode of Saturday Night Live — a comparison reinforced by the presence of both parody ads and Jason Sudeikis. At its worst? Let?s just say that Hugh Jackman fans who want to remember the actor as Jean Valjean and not as a guy with a scrotum sprouting from his neck should make alternate plans this weekend. C+