50/50 (2011)

WARNING

THIS REVIEW MAY NOT CONTAIN SPOILERS.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

As some of the more attentive of you may have gathered, my past two reviews were my attempt at bringing you all up to speed. I took two months off in order to move house as well as finish The Expositionist website and as a result I got behind with my reviews. My next review was going to be the final installment in the catching up saga, Red State, but instead I have decided to hold off on that for one more week in favour of reviewing a film that hits our big screens tomorrow. 50/50.

  

The undeserving masses would be regrettably forgiving for assuming that 50/50 is a comedy. The trailers for the film highlight the films more light hearted moments and advertise a cast that many would associate with many of hollywoods most recent attempts at comedy. I do feel I should point out however that 50/50 is a drama, not a comedy. If you're wanting to laugh away your tears, chuck down a beer and loose yourself for a couple of hours or even sneak to the back of the cinema to ignore the film while you clumsily fumble the sick crotch of your loved one then this is not the film for you.

50/50 tells the story of Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a regular guy with an escalating case of OCD who gets diagnosed with Neurofibrosarcoma Schwannoma which despite as well as being something that Blogger can't spell is also a rare form of cancer. Adam then has to go through the trials and tribulations of dealing with his disease with the help from his best friend Kyle (Seth Rogan), his estranged parents (Anjelica Huston and Serge Houde), his soon to be qualified therapist (The Twiglet franchises only worthwhile export, Anna Kendrick) and his emotionally incapable girlfriend Rachael (Bryce Dallas Howard). Needless to say, it's not an easy ride for Adam.

         

If I were to describe what kind of film this is I would refer you to the numerous "based on a true story" dramas that tend to briefly grace our screens every year. They're usually aimed at the middle aged, based on best selling books that your grandmother read and tend to carry slightly obscure titles like 'The Wright Eye' or "My Left Arm'. That is the ballpark within which you will find 50/50 but with the twist here being that it's aimed at a younger, intellectual audience rather than the parents of the younger, intellectually inferior and for my money it works a treat.

The balance between the films comedy and drama along with the near perfect pacing of the film lends itself very well to the attention spans and attitudes of our modern day twenty-somethings. The very smartly written script by Will Reiser is interesting, deals with the subject matter in a mature yet manageable manner while using a style of language that will ring true to any child of the 80's or 90's. The reason for this is most likely down to the script being loosely based upon the screenwriters life, something which undoubtedly contributed to the script in a way which very few unrelated script writers could have pulled off.

The direction has been handled rather well too. The Wackness director, Jonathan Levine shooting a film that pulls you in from the get go, forces you to relate to the characters and route for them right up until the closing credits. There isn't a single wasted frame in the film and that only happens when you have a good director who knows exactly what he is doing. It's probably not going to win him any awards but it has earned him my respect which in the scheme of things is way more important.

As for the acting it's a winning formula across the board. Joseph G-Lovitt has always been able to churn out great work and this is no exception. You totally buy into every emotion his character suffers and the performance never strays into any kind of over the top territory, it's subtle, realistic and worth praise.

Even Seth Rogan impressed me. Many of my more astute readers will be familiar with my up and down relationship with Rogan but in 50/50 we see a new side to the actors talents. Obviously, his character serves as the comedic relief for the entire film but Rogan balances his usual schtick with a more sombre, heartfelt side, something which was attempted in Funny People but no where near as successful as it was here.

A final performance nod should also go out to Anna Kendrick who has to carry what could have been the films more cheesey and cliched rom-com story aspect. Her solidly grounded performance however lends weight to the character and in turn scales back the love story in a way that has it add a background to the proceedings rather than compete with the films more important cancer thread.

I'm going to begin summing up this review now, because all of this praise is starting to make me want to throw up on and kill things.

50/50 is a great watch. I'll fully admit that it isn't for everyone, yet then it's not pretending to be. As a film it's not good for escapism or uplifting your spirits, but if your in the mood for a heartfelt, human drama with a kick ass soundtrack then I recommend you trip it down to your local cinematic regime and check this out. Don't cave in to Twiglets breaking down or those depressing dancing penguins, go see 50/50 and stimulate you cerebral cortex because lets face it, it could do with the exercise.

50/50 is more than 50 but less than 50 + 50, in fact 40/40 + 20 is...

Missed Movies: The Change Up (2011)

WARNING

THIS REVIEW DOESN'T CONTAIN SPOILERS.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

What I knew about The Change Up prior to actually seeing it can easily be summed up in two words, digital nipples. I knew nothing of the story, nothing of the initial reception to the film and almost nothing about the cast with the exception of Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman. Despite not actually knowing anything about the film and baring in mind my indifference to Reynolds thus far this year I had unfairly placed The Change Up in my 'can't be arsed' pile. Sadly for me however after a friend of mine showed up predictably late one evening and as a result of an unfortunate coin toss we wound up tripping it to my local Vue to take The Change Up in.

The Change Up is the story of two friends Mitch (Reynolds) and Dave (Bateman). Mitch has achieved nothing other than a sizeable drug habit while Dave is a successful lawyer with a large family whom he is slowly alienating. Unsurprisingly both friends are envious of each others lives, Mitch longing to be successful and have a family with Dave longing for the days of no responsibility and meaningless sex. The rather boring tale suddenly takes a turn for the bizarre when the two drunkenly piss in a fountain and switch bodies, providing them with the opportunity to have the lives they desire only for them both to find out its not all it's cracked up to be. 

The story in incredibly clichéd, predictable and really rather tiresome but it does succeed in one thing and thats providing both Reynolds and Bateman with the chance to play against their respected usual types. Both actors do a bang up job and are the only things in The Change Up that are worthwhile watching. The two performances aside the rest of the film is dull and lifeless leaving the film as a whole to become yet another forgettable body swap comedy.

The comedy style of the film isn't incredibly consistent. During the opening scene of the film the audience are presented with a situation that results in a baby shitting directly into Dave's mouth followed by a slew of scenes that present the comedy in a more traditional, dialogue driven manor which is in turn followed by sequences so filthy that they could have been ripped from the unwanted pages of the Superbad script. As an audience member this left me constantly having to change my mindset in order to sync up with the kind of film I was watching, a process that not only exhausted me of the film but also stinted the films hope of producing a genuine belly laugh from my begrudging interior void.

Direction wise the film is flawed but on the whole an adequate effort. David Dobkin's work here very much resembling his previous efforts which include Shanghai Knights, Wedding Crashers and Fred Claus. The compositions are dull yet to the point, the delivery is nothing special (with the exception of the two leads, who's comic timing doesn't require direction) and as a narrative the film passes by comfortably but never does anything to really draw you in. It's all very "middle of the road".

The biggest problem The Change Up has is it's writing. The script is unoriginal, unmotivated and relies too heavily on shock value in order to produce laughs. The situations played out in the film are variations on scenes that I've seen many times before and many of the characters are too one dimensional for any audience to ever begin to care about their plight or predicament. If it wasn't for Reynolds and Bateman, The Change Up wouldn't be funny in the slightest.


My final words on this are to avoid The Change Up unless your are drunk, stupid or off your face on crack, which based on what is left of modern day society should consist of everyone reading this review. So on that basis see the film, you'll love it.


However, for intellectual, superior minds like mine you should be warned that The Change Up is actually  

Missed Movies: Bridesmaids (2011)

I take this opportunity to apologise to my readers for the lack of fresh content during the past two months, I was busy building a website and sitting on my perfectly plump posterior eating bacon bits with bread. I will also take this opportunity to say that I hate every single one of you for expecting content while I was away on the basis that you're all lesser beings with less interesting attributes than that piece of foil that covers every margarine tub underneath the plastic lid. 

This post has been dedicated to me. 

Welcome back, this blog hasn't been the same without you.

WARNING

THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS.

IF YOU WISH TO AVOID SPOILERS THEN DON'T READ THE BITS WRITTEN IN RED.

OTHER THAN THIS BIT, OBVIOUSLY.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

 I had zero intention of seeing Bridemaids on account of it looking genuinely insulting. Now I don't mean insulting in that "your momma's pussy is so hairy, when your brother was born he died of rug burn" kind of way, I mean insulting in the  same way I find Michael Bay's films insulting. It looked about as funny as a beheading, about as interesting as the colour grey and all in all about as enjoyable as herpes. Despite this however I kept being told by those who had seen the film that it was not only enjoyable, but it was also one of the funniest films to have come out of Hollywood during the past year. 


Well, a few months ago I caved in and decided to clean the dishes, insert my tampon and finally take in the comedy extravaganza that is Bridesmaids and to my utter surprise it turned out to be better than I expected. 


Now before you all run for your nearest video store in order to pick up the triple play edition of Bridesmaids let me make it clear that my overall opinion of the film lies a hell of a lot closer to the negative camp than any other. The film is, to put it simply a bad watch.


To kick off my triumphant return I will begrudgingly start with the praise portion of this not so brief summing up, namely Kristen Wiig.


The cast, for the most part is shitter than a shit born of a shit and a shit in shitsville just south of Kent, but the same cannot be said for the films leading lady Kristen Wiig. I've kept my beady little judgemental eye on Wiig since I saw her in Knocked Up. She was by far the funniest thing in that film and has proven to be the similar rule with pretty much every role she's had since (with the exception of Paul in which she was beaten to the post by almost every actor except Simon Pegg). Here she not only gets to play the lead, but also manages to maintain her reputation for stand out performances while filling the role that's essentially the straight man (or woman). Her delivery is spot on, the character is believable and likeable and for at least half of the film I gave a crap about the outcome of her character. Wiig manages to hold her own as a leading lady and manages to carry the film well despite the amount of rubbish being piled up against her. 


There, thats the good bits taken care of, now on to the bits that make me want to slit your wrists.


The rest of the cast bored me. The group of girly friends appeared to gel well upon first appearance but as the film went on it felt more and more like each of them were competing for screen time and bigger laughs, which is never an enjoyable experience. Particular distain was held for Melissa McCarthy who looks way to much like Ricky Gervais for me to ever find anything she does remotely funny. And finally we have Chris O' Dowd, the weakest part of the IT Crowd providing the weakest love interest character I've seen since Portman in Thor. 


Direction wise I guess the films ok, but it does feel a little half arsed. Its clear that no effort was put into making the film unique or interesting. The pacing is lacklustre, the performances are mostly dull and the composition would be average by live TV standards. I think the point of the direction was to be unnoticeable in an effort to make the script stand out more prominently. Which would be fine if the script was able to stand on its own two feet to begin with.  


My biggest issue with the film was either its writing or its editing, and I'm not sure which to blame. Most of the jokes that failed to be funny in the first place go on for way too long. For example there is a scene early on where Wigg and some other snobby bitch are battling for Mic time at a party. The joke being that as soon as one person finishes a lovely complimentary speech the other butts in and attempts to better it, before the first one butts in again and so on. This joke goes on for what felt like an hour but I'm sure was more than likely closer to two.


Now it's obvious that the script was written this way so I'm more than happy to jump at the throats of Kristen Wigg and Annie Mumolo for it but on the other hand any decent editor would have realised that this kind of thing killed the pacing and would have recommended a cut. Instead though we are treated to a fair few scenes that have the same issue, implying that someone in the works figured this to be a grand idea, when in reality it's something best left to the only people who can pull that joke off correctly, Family Guy.


The other issue with the script is to do with the writers ability to tell a coherent story, which they can't. The script works in the same way many Apatow related productions do, it feels more like a series of badly written, unfunny sketches than a feature length story. The plot drops in and out of the film more frequently than I drop in and out of the blogging community. It was tiresome and slow, something which wasn't helped at all by the already mind numbingly boring and non-original story idea that the film portrays to begin with. Its yet another mega successful hit film that has found success by exploiting the stupidity of todays cinematic audience. The film has gotten by by being immature, simplistic and vulgar, and not in any kind of ironic way. This kind of thing is slowly degrading the once ever expanding world of big screen comedy and it sickens me. I guess, with the impending departure of Kevin Smith I should reside to the fact that the only good comedy I'm going to see on the big screen soon will be little known independent features, obscure book adaptations and remakes of older, much more funny films. 


At the end of the day, I'm still not convinced that this film is best suited to a male audience. Despite many of my supposedly hetro' male friends really liking the film, I would say that this is a film best suited to a bunch of girlfriends getting together to enjoy over wine and chocolate while they sync up their menstrual cycles. I, being the manliest of manly men am way too far removed from this demographic and therefore would never have been well suited to the film and I can hardly pan the film for this. It's my fault really, I shouldn't have watched it. I knew I wouldn't like it and I knew it wasn't my cup of tea.


To sum up you simply take the first number and multiply, divide, add or subtract it by the second number. Or, if your me you can say this...


Watching this film reminded me of every time I've sat down to meet someones new born baby. The presentation was being portrayed in the brightest of beaming lights and in such a manor that it made me uncomfortable to mention that rather than being the most beautiful thing I've ever seen it is in fact a sloppy looking, ugly meatball that persists to slowly shit into the palm of my hand. The experience was less than enjoyable and I can now, quite happily go without seeing it again until it grows up and starts acting like an adult.


Bridesmaids is