With a cast packed chock full of big stars and created by a mix of well-known directors, 2013’s Movie 43 should’ve been a hit. Alas, stuck with terrible reviews – and a premise that may’ve confused audiences – the film bombed; it sputtered to a pathetic $8 million gross in the US. Since it only cost $6 million to make, it’ll probably turn a profit eventually, but it’ll still go down as a misfire.

Like most others, I didn’t see 43 theatrically, but its burgeoning infamy compelled me to give it a whirl on Blu-ray. 43 lacks a true plot. Instead, we see a framework in which Charlie Wessler (Dennis Quaid) tries to pitch a movie to producer Griffin Schraeder (Greg Kinnear). Wessler provides one bad idea after another, and we see these acted out in between their conversations.

Given all the hubbub that came from reviews of Movie 43, I anticipated the least funny, most offensive film of all-time. Does it live up – or down – to those expectations? No – try as hard as it might, it doesn’t achieve such epic levels of infamy.

But that doesn’t make it good - or funny, for that matter, though 43 does occasionally show promise. Actually, that might be its biggest negative: unlike completely witless disasters like Date Movie, this one comes with a few potentially amusing scenarios. Take the sequence in which two parents (Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts) harass their homeschooled son (Jeremy Allen White) to give him the equivalent of the “real high school experience”. It’s a funny idea that works – briefly, at least.

But then it goes too far into realms of bad taste. Actually, even without some perverse elements, the skit simply runs too long, as the gag’s not good enough to sustain it. Matters go downhill when it takes the exit to Nastyville, though, and it will lose most viewers.

I admit I’ve never been a fan of “sick”/gross-out humor, but the basic presence of those elements isn’t what bothers me here. Instead, I’m displeased by the ease with which 43 tosses out those components. It feels like the movie “goes gross” not due to any logical comedic reason but instead because it doesn’t know what else to do; the filmmakers use disgusting moments as a cop-out because they can’t figure out other ways to make the jokes work.

Some of the segments are sabotaged by their basic conceits, such as the one in which a woman (Kate Winslet) finds herself on a blind date with a desirable bachelor (Hugh Jackman) with testicles that hang from his chin. I guess someone will find that funny, but it’s too dopey a notion to work for me, and the skit never exploits any real potential from it.

Again, others lose points largely because they run too long and/or go too gross. I like parts of the “Truth or Dare War” enacted by two blind daters (Stephen Merchant and Halle Berry) but again, the writers don’t know when to quit, so we’re stuck with a sequence that runs on and on.

Still, it’s hard not to be amused when one of the “dares” is to endure a reading of Moby-Dick by Jersey Shore’s Snooki, and a few other moments of legitimate cleverness pop up there.

Probably the best segment comes from “Victory’s Glory”, a skit that mocks inspirations sports movies – especially 2006’s Glory Road. Sure, it’s essentially a one-joke piece that focuses on the notion that “black guys are good at basketball”, but as the coach, Terrence Howard sells it well, and it’s fun to see some real NBA players try to act. It’s essentially the only one of the sequences that doesn’t resort to scatalogical humor and it remains short enough to avoid overstaying its welcome.

Too bad it doesn’t have more company. Again, I don’t think Movie 43 is as awful as its reputation, but that doesn’t mean I feel it offers a good experience, either. While it occasionally tosses out a funny moment, too much of it feels lazy and witless. Knee-jerk gross-out humor isn’t daring; it’s just cheap and easy, and that’s the case here too much of the time.

Movie 43 appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.78:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The flick came with an acceptable but unexceptional transfer.

Overall definition seemed decent. At times the movie could look a little soft in wides, and it lacked great clarity most of the time, but it showed adequate clarity. No signs of shimmering or jagged edges materialized, and I witnessed no edge haloes. As expected, print flaws weren’t a factor either, though the “Victory’s Glory” segment featured fake defects.

Even with a wide variety of settings and situations, 43 came with a somewhat lackluster palette. While the hues tended to be reasonably full, they failed to bring us much vivacity. Blacks were moderately deep, and shadows showed acceptable visibility. This was a watchable image but nothing memorable.

Don’t expect much more than a standard comedy mix from the film’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack. Action and fight scenes gave us decent sense of place, but that was about it. The audio tended to be fairly restrained, so we didn’t get a lot of involvement and activity.

Music used the five channels in the most active manner, but effects didn’t have a ton to do. Even when the film involved action elements, it failed to offer a lot of pizzazz. That was fine, though, as comedies like this don’t need a lot of sonic sizzle.

Audio quality was perfectly acceptable. Speech showed nice clarity and naturalism, and music was reasonably distinctive and dynamic. Effects lacked much to stand out, but they appeared accurate, and they showed mild punch when necessary. All of this seemed good enough for a “B-“.

In terms of extras, the main attraction comes from two different versions of Movie 43. We find the Theatrical Cut (1:34:07) and an Alternate Cut (1:38:04). How did these differ? The primary change comes from the scenes that set up the sketches. While Theatrical uses Dennis Quaid to pitch film ideas, Alternate shows us teens who seek a banned movie on the Internet. I didn’t compare the individual sequences directly to see what variations might affect them, but the alternate framework creates the most obvious difference.

It’s too bad the Blu-ray offers no commentary to discuss the rationale behind the changes. I’d like to know if the filmmakers originally wanted to go with the teens as the framework but decided to inject a more traditional set-up; the search for the banned movie gets pretty crazy as it goes. Of course, Theatrical also boasts more star power than Alternate, which might’ve been another reason. I’m not sure one works better than the other, but it’s fun to see such radically different frameworks.

A Deleted Short called “Find Our Daughter” runs four minutes, 45 seconds. In this, two parents (Tony Shalhoub and Julianne Moore) hire a detective to locate their missing child. It’s not especially witty, but it boasts an attractive topless girl so it’s not a total loss.

The disc opens with ads for The Heat and 21 & Over. These also show up under Sneak Peek along with a clip for The Oranges. We get a trailer for 43 as well.

I didn’t hate Movie 43 as much as many critics – heck, I can’t really say I “hated” it at all, as I found a smattering of funny moments. However, I needed to wade through a lot ot dreck to find the occasional amusing nugget, and those good parts weren’t good enough to make this a worthwhile experience. The Blu-ray comes with decent but unexceptional picture and audio; it skimps on bonus materials but does give us an alternate cut of the film with some pretty radical changes. Movie 43 generates a few laughs but it submerges them in too much poor filmmaking for me to recommend it.