Plus, of course, metaphorically or literally strapping balls to your face helps cultivate the impression of a good sport. And we just wanted to do that kind of short and go much further.' (Although as box office expert Jeff Bock has said, expecting the target market to pay for such content when it's available free online is optimistic.) 'With Funny or Die, there are certain limits. Catching the eye of a generation more accustomed to short-form online comedy was, Farrelly has said, one of the film's aims. It also gives A-listers the chance to show they've still got their finger on the pulse. If it doesn't, it'll probably be buried anyway. Many big names enjoy their biggest pay days from back-end contracts, which involve them taking a percentage of the film's profits in return for equity rates up front, and a small initial commitment (in this case, a couple of days, for about $800). Yet in theory you can see the logic in signing up. Asks Edelstein: 'Was someone holding Kate Winslet's children hostage? Threatening to release compromising pictures of Emma Stone? Did Richard Gere or Hugh Jackman have gambling debts?' What has stunned critics, however, is the depth reached, and the star wattage of those plumbing it.

So it's no surprise Movie 43 is no masterpiece. Likewise, ensemble comedies (remember Valentine's Day? Rat Race?) offer a notoriously dodgy template. That the bottom has fallen out of the grossout genre is not news what might have felt edgy in small doses in 1998 inevitably seems stale now. Then a cartoon cat urinates on Elizabeth Banks. Moretz's character has her first period, which alarms her companions so much they call 911. Stephen Merchant and Halle Berry's intimate supper involves breasts plunging into guacamole. Real-life couple Faris and Chris Pratt share a sex scene in which he defecates on her face. Winslet plays a woman dismayed when her date (Jackman) reveals a pair of genitals swinging from his chin. Movie 43 unfolds as a series of skits strung together as pitches presented by a desperate screenwriter (Dennis Quaid) to a producer (Greg Kinnear). Other big hitters beaming from the poster include Kate Winslet, Uma Thurman, Terrence Howard, Richard Gere, Emma Stone, Liev Schreiber, Gerard Butler, Anna Faris, Johnny Knoxville, Chloë Moretz, Seann William Scott and Jason Sudeikis. Such a pitch of criticism is proportionate to the expectations one might entertain for a film made by the man behind There's Something About Mary and fronted by a cast which includes two of this year's Oscar nominees – Hugh Jackman and Naomi Watts – as well as the master of ceremonies (Seth MacFarlane).

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