A-List Stars Demean Themselves for R-Rated Laughs

It’s easy to mock Oscar-winner Adrien Brody for co-starring in the new uber-bomb InAPPropriate Comedy.

The movie, co-directed by that ShamWow guy and co-starring Lindsay Lohan, grossed an anemic $625 per theater over the weekend.

Surely Brody should know better, but he’s in very good company. Just consider the recent Movie 43, a comedy starring Oscar winners Kate Winslet and Halle Berry, along with Oscar nominees Terrence Howard, Hugh Jackman and Naomi Watts. Rottentomatoes.com tagged both InAPPropriate Comedy and Movie 43 with a 4 percent “rotten” rating, a sign of near universal condemnation.

Surely Winslet and co. don’t need the work that badly, right?

These star-laden bombs do have something else in common besides awful reviews. Each tries to push the boundaries of humor using foul stereotypes, crude sexual gags and anything else that could be found offensive.

Movie 43 features a black coach (Howard) berating his black basketball team for not realizing the color of their skin gives them a huge advantage. InAPPropriate Comedy casts Brody as a fey Dirty Harry character while other sketches trot out malignant stereotypes for our, ahem, amusement.

That brand of ribald, button-punching humor can work–just ask Mel Brooks. The formula is darn near impossible to perfect, though, something these new films prove with certainty.

Hollywood’s heaviest hitters weighed the odds before hand and still signed on the dotted line. They’re apparently willing to risk their resumes to chase down any laugh that will shock common folk for a chuckle.