Review of film: “50 / 50”

Review of film:  “50 / 50”

This 99-minute R-rated film (opening 9-30-11) was directed by JONATHAN LEVINE...

...  Adam (JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT) is a 27-year-old working at a California RADIO station with his best friend Kyle (SETH ROGAN)...

...  Joe is a comparatively “serious”-minded  guy who’s been having some problems with his live-in painter GIRLFRIEND Rachael (BRYCE DALLAS HOWARD)... 

...  Altho Joe finds it a bit hard to “deal” with his pushy “smothering” mother Diane (ANGELICA HUSTON), he still tries to be THOUGHTFUL & periodically goes with Bryce to dinner  at the home Angelica shares with his fairly-quiet father...

...  Seth, in contrast to Joe, is a carefree “JOKESTER” who seldom takes anything seriously, & who keeps trying to get Joe to “LIGHTEN-UP” in life...

...  At one point, after suffering from some health “anomalies”, he goes to his DOCTOR for a checkup...   He is stunned to hear that they’d discovered a very serious cancerous TUMOR inside his spinal area that required IMMEDIATE remedy (including CHEMO therapy)...

...  Joe goes thru various “STAGES” in trying to deal with the frightening news...  First, he’s hit with general DISBELIEF (DENIAL) that such a thing can be happening to someone so young who’d been quite HEALTHY in his life...

...  With considerable difficulty, he later tells SETH about the news.  Seth is equally confused & disbelieving, at first thinking he’s sort of KIDDING... 

...  Then, not knowing just how to “handle” the situation, Seth tries resorting to HUMOR – which Joe doesn’t find all that “funny” (tho the audience reveled in his discomfortable nuttiness & attempts to “CHEER-UP” Joe with his off-beat comments)...

...  Joe tries to be “calm” as he listens to ill-at-ease Seth try to “CHEER” him up by saying things like, well, the doctor’s prognosis that Joe has a “50/50” chance of survival is pretty “good”--  especially if they were the odds at a “CASINO”, for example!...

...  In short order, Rachael finds SHE doesn’t want to “deal” with Joe’s mounting problems, & LEAVES him in time...

... That makes Joe’s life all the more difficult, & Seth keeps trying to “LIGHTEN” his outlook with his off-kilter comments such as, Joe should use his misfortune to try to get with NEW girls by playing on their “SYMPATHY”...

...  But, Seth soon sees that Joe’s using his idea of being BLUNT about his condition (such as quickly telling the girl, hey, by the way, he has CANCER--) in actuality does NOT generate any “POSITIVE” response from the women!...

...  In time, Joe starts getting increasingly DEPRESSED over his situation...  The chemo treatments cause his HAIR to start falling out, &, to try to not look ridiculous (via “splotchy” scalp or the like), he decides to SHAVE OFF the hair on his head...

...  He wants SETH to help him with his plan--  but Seth grows “SQUEAMISH” by it all...  Then (as shown in the trailers for the movie), Seth offers Joe a body shaver & Joe (in a FUNNY scene) tries to get details from Seth about what he’d USED it for in the past... 

...  Realizing he has more “important” matters to deal with, Joe just shaves his OWN head with the shaver...

...  Since Joe is growing more & more dejected, he eventually agrees to see a therapist “COUNSELOR” about his situation...

...  When he (wearing a knit cap) goes in, the woman who’s there to help him --  Katie (ANNA KENDRICK) -- looks to be unusually YOUTHFUL.  When he asks, he finds out that she’s in-essence still in “training” & is 4 years YOUNGER than he is...

...  That situation makes things she says quite DIFFICULT for him to “ACCEPT”—especially when the “suggestions” she makes for his “bettering” his attitude seem very UNREALISTIC to him...

...  Joe (an inherently good-hearted young man) tries to be “TACTFUL” in his various sessions with her, trying to let her down “easily” in making clear her ideas cannot be easily “FOLLOWED” by him overall...

...  Bit-by-bit, he grows more & more ANGRY over his situation...  Seth keeps trying to be “UPLIFTING” & cheerful, but it becomes more & more difficult for both of them...

...  In time, Joe gets together in “GROUP” therapy sessions.  All the other guys there with cancer are considerably OLDER--  such as Alan (PHILIP BAKER HALL) & Mitch (MATT FREWER)...

...  But, the guys --  having gone thru the situation for longer than Joe -- offer practical short-term “solutions” to how Joe is feeling, including some “PLANT”-based type “medications” to relieve some of the pain...

...  Seth keeps trying to be “SUPPORTIVE” in his sort of “detached” / off-kilter way, TAKING Joe to various meetings & the like...  

...  At times, Joe seems to get more & more DISCOURAGED with where his life seems to be “going”...

...  What will happen to the friends Joe makes in the Support group?...

...  How will Joe “cope” with the advice ANNA keeps giving him?...

...  Will Joe start to get involved in a NEW romantic relationship, &, if so, WHO will it be with?...

...  Will Seth be able to encourage Joe enough to put him into an “ACCEPTANCE” stage & start to look towards the FUTURE he hopes he’ll have (however long it may be)?...

...  How will things “TURN-OUT” for Joe & his life we’re witness to?...

...  This movie was partly produced by SETH ROGEN...  It was written by a good friend of his, WILL REISER, based on the true story of his OWN battle with spinal cancer which was found in his mid-20's... 

...  And, JOE came on board the film only a WEEK before it was scheduled to start filming, replacing James McAvoy who had a family emergency which caused his having to withdraw from it...

...  If you read the basic “plot”, it probably sounds very implausible & “UNWORKABLE”...  But, the amazing thing is, it DOES work & works WELL!...

...  It is extremely DIFFICULT to be able to effectively combine a very SERIOUS story with first-class HUMOR...

...  But SETH ROGEN (a producer on this film) manages to provide an excellent “understated” NUANCED performance that (because you can “feel” his anxiety for what his friend Joe is going thru) shines as “BELIEVABLE” in his attempts to use HUMOR to try to be “uplifting” to his suffering buddy...

...  And, JOE is excellent in the “SERIOUS” side of things, as he tries to COPE with what he’s going thru & at the same time try to not unduly upset people AROUND him (at work, with his dad & mom Anjelica, & with his friends like Seth and with people like ANNE & his “Support” group people--  all of whom are also first-rate in their roles)...

...  The film is very FUNNY at times, & also very THOUGHT-provoking & affecting...  Accordingly, I’m rating it with an enthusiastic 8.50 of 10 stars...

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Review of film: “WATER FOR ELEPHANTS”

2011, 05-10:

Review of film:  “WATER FOR ELEPHANTS”

Some lives are a “circus”;  others are lived IN a circus...  This movie combines BOTH situations, using the tagline “Life is the most spectacular show on earth.”...

...  The story starts out with an old man standing in the rain outside of a modern-day circus...  The guy eventually talks to the owner of the place, & tells how his name is Jacob Jankowski (HAL HOLBROOK) & he’d like a JOB there, since his kids don’t help take care of him.  Via flashbacks, he tells the STORY of his previous circus-related life:

...  It’s the early 1930’S, DEPRESSION time in the U.S....  Young Jacob (ROBERT PATTINSON) happily lives with his Polish immigrant parents out east...  He’s about to take his final test at Cornell to get his license in VETERINARY medicine...

...  But, he’s called out of class & told his parents have just been KILLED in a car crash...  He never takes the required test, is left with nothing to live on (& no place he can readily stay), and decides to leave the area by hopping on a RAIL car...

...  By chance, the train he gets on is a private one belonging to the Benzini Brothers Circus which travels around the country performing for the public...  The owner of it is a rich but violence-prone man named August (I think the last name was like Rosenbluth;  he’s played by CHRISTOPHE WALTZ)...

...  For illegally jumping on the train and eating some of the food belonging to the circus people, Christophe wants to have him literally thrown off the moving vehicle...  But, when he learns that Robert is supposedly a VETERINARIAN, he decides to keep him on to help with their ANIMALS, & Robert boards in a rail car with a dwarf named Kinko / Walter (MARK POVINELLI)...

...  Christophe’s pretty wife Marlena (REESE WITHERSPOON) is the star attraction at the run-down circus...

...  Reese does an act where she works with HORSES she’s trained...  But Robert points out a major medical problem with one of her animals (a fact which Christophe doesn’t “want” to hear or accept)...

...  Since times are tough, it’s hard to get paying audiences for the circus, & thus there are growing MONEY problems...  Christophe is always looking for a “CHEAP” way to do things, & that includes purposely not paying a bunch of his workers & at times having his “goons” literally throw them OFF the train to avoid “dealing” with them (which he feels he can get “away” with since most are itinerants)...

...  As time goes on, Robert & Reese start to get “attracted” to each other, to the deep displeasure of ever-jealous Christophe (who frequently treats Reese with indifference & elements of brutality)...

...  Hoping to draw more customers, Christophe works to buy an Indian ELEPHANT from another failed circus.  Since Robert is their “menagerie” man, he’s given the job of CARING for the animal (tho he’s never handled such a creature before)...

...  While Robert tries to manage the elephant with kindness, Christophe believes in treating it with violence, demanding that Robert use a “bull hook” to prod the animal to do things like move forward (which causes bleeding sores on the hapless creature)... 

...  Altho she’s afraid to really “speak-up” to her husband, REESE also would prefer that the elephant (which she’s to ride in the show) be treated kindly.  That (& “other” things) keep drawing her & Robert “CLOSER” to each other (to the growing disgust and anger of Christophe)...

...  Before it was bought, the elephant “Roxie” had been in control of a BRITISH man as its “Caretaker”.  It had never been known to Christophe or Robert that Roxie could do any real “tricks” at all, & had been purchased simply because it was “exotic” & could be a “draw” simply by having Reese travel on TOP of it (which Robert works on with her)...

...  At one point after it was acquired, Robert chances to speak some Polish in front of Roxie-- & is extremely surprised to learn that the animal “responds” by doing “TRICKS” (like raising its legs, etc.) when hearing certain specific words!... 

(...  It’s never explained HOW or “why” the creature only responds to POLISH commands.  Robert himself had never tried to TEACH it any specific tricks, much less using Polish.  And it’s odd that that’s the only thing the elephant “responds” to, since a young ENGLISHMAN had been in control of it before it was bought, & it’s unlikely that POLISH {of all languages} would’ve been used to “train” an elephant...)

...  Anyway, despite that huge plot “HOLE”, Robert keeps using POLISH commands to have Roxie do various stunts (including standing up & sitting down).  And, rather than himself saying the “required” Polish words to Roxie in performances in front of crowds, he instead is told to teach the Polish commands to CHRISTOPHE, who, as the circus’ “Ringmaster”, thus manages the animal in front of audiences...

(...  I know Christophe’s character likes to be in “CONTROL” of everything...  But, normally, a ringmaster wouldn’t do what a “hired” performer would normally be expected to carry out, especially since speaking a foreign language during a show takes the “high-faluting” Ringmaster “out” of his normal “Barker” activities--  another “anomaly” & plot “CRUTCH”, I guess)...

...  Anyway, the elephant starts to become a big “DRAW” for the circus, making Christophe even wealthier...  But, he doesn’t want to share the “improvement” with his WORKERS, many of whom he hasn’t PAID properly during the “hard times” (to the increasing DISPLEASURE of many of his employees)...

...  Will the unpaid & disrespected employees “REBEL” at their treatment by Christophe?...  Will REESE revolt at her treatment by him?...  Will Christophe’s jealousy cause more problems for ROBERT?...  What “telegraphed” difficulties will befall the CIRCUS itself?...

...  The movie engenders a well-done “MOOD” of the hard Depression-era times and the world of CIRCUS performers during such a period...  The ACTING is good (especially considering the sort of “extreme” situations built-up in the plot)...

...  There are a number of “hard-to-accept” PLOT difficulties that tend to weaken the story somewhat...  But, while it’s not “special”, I found it an INTERESTING & generally enjoyable tale, & thus I’m rating it at 7.25 out of 10 stars...

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Review of film: “BRIDESMAIDS”

2011, 05-10:

Review of film:  “BRIDESMAIDS”

                   Do you want to “LAUNCH” your “RAUNCH”?!...

This movie (directed by PAUL FEIG) was produced in part by JUDD APATOW who (in 2007) did the very funny “KNOCKED UP” and “SUPERBAD”...  Like those 2 films, this one is extremely “adult”- raunchy & FUNNY...

...  Annie (KRISTEN WIIG) considers herself a FAILURE:  In Milwaukee, she’d opened a bakery shop called “BABY CAKES” close to the start of the huge economic depression (only to see it promptly fail), and she’s long had problems having good ROMANTIC relationships...

...  As the film opens, she’s “hooked-up” with a rich self-centered guy named Ted (JON HAMM).  He’s very “open” about the way she means nothing to him other than a “booty call”, but she’s quite willing to ACCEPT that (tho she herself also doesn’t really care about him)...

...  Soon, she talks to her best-friend-since-childhood named Lillian (MAYA RUDOLPH), who tells her she’s agreed to be married to a certain guy, & wants Kristen to be her Maid of Honor...  While Kristen accepts the invitation, it tends to DEPRESS her even more because it “reminds” her how far away she is from finding a life partner... 

...  The co-renter at Kristen’s apartment is named Gil (MATT LUCAS).  He & his sister Brynn (REBEL WILSON) point out to Kristen how she’s way behind in paying her share of the monthly RENT, & they might demand she leave if she doesn’t promptly come up with it...

...  At her everyday job at a jewelry store, she tends to discourage people from making purchases because she has such a “NEGATIVE” view of how life’s likely to be for people in the future...

...  Her mother (JILL CLAYBURGH-- who sadly passed away on November 5 of 2010) sees Kristen’s sadness & depression, & tries to be “UPLIFTING”, even offering to let her move back home if that’ll help...  But, Kristen fears that’ll make her feel even more of a “failure”, & she declines the offer...

...  Maya gathers together her planned BRIDESMAIDS, and they’re a disparate, “oddball” group:  Helen (ROSE BYRNE) is a “high-born”, Alpha type female who’s related to Maya’s fiance’s boss at work...

...  Altho Rose has only known Maya for like 5 months, she and Kristen immediately become very “COMPETITIVE” with each other, trying to “outdo” the other in making “toasts” to show how much Maya “MEANS” to them (& the extensive scene is very funny)...

...  Bridesmaid Becca (ELLIE KEMPER) is a young & inexperienced recently-married bride...  Rita  (WENDI McCLENDON-COVEY) has been married a number of years, has 3 sons who drive her “crazy”, & who’s usually HORNY because her husband has lost interest in sex... 

...  Megan (MELISSA McCARTHY) is a “stocky” woman who’s very outgoing, pushy & vulgar, never afraid to speak her mind no matter how “politically-incorrect” (& the more coarse & earthy, the better)...

...  Rose keeps trying to “run” things re events for Maya, & that drives Kristen crazy as SHE wants to be the person the group “follows”...  Altho Kristen wants to give Maya memories about PARIS which she’d always wanted to visit, Rose insists that the group go to VEGAS as a sort of bachelorette party for Maya...

...  But Kristen HATES flying, & responds badly to being on the plane...  Her seatmate is even more “pessimistic” than she is...  Melissa keeps trying to get her own seat-mate to admit he’s secretly an AIR MARSHALL “monitoring” their flight...  The trip quickly turns into a DEBACLE...

...  Back home after the Vegas trip, due to car problems, Kristen chances to meet a friendly Irish-accented State PARTOLMAN named Rhodes (CHRIS O’DOWD).  He starts to like her-- but she’s so “negative” in life, she finds it difficult to ACCEPT his interest...

...  During a planned outing in Chicago, Kristen insists they go to a certain restaurant there.  When Rose later insists the bridesmaids visit an expensive wedding shoppe in town, money-challenged Kristen is quite AGAINST Rose’s ideas... 

...  But “Kristen’s” restaurant turns out to have gotten all the women quite ILL at the shoppe (& constitutes one of the crudest & most HILARIOUS scenes in the film)...

...  The other wedding-related events tend to be DISASTROUS for Kristen & Maya’s friends and her family (including her father, FRANKLYN AJAYE --  whose movie work goes all the way back to playing “T.C.” in 1976’s “CAR WASH”)...

...  Will Kristen be able to “CALM-down” & “accept Rose & her efforts?...  Will Maya’s WEDDING turn out OK?...  Will Kristen be able to “accept” CHRIS’ interest in her?  Will she be able to improve her OWN life and fix her negative outlooks for the future?...  

...  In a way, this is a “female” type version of SUPERBAD” in its “attitude”...  The characters are finely-“drawn” individuals, & very WELL-played by the cast assembled... 

...  If you’re easily “shocked”, this is NOT the film for you...  Overall, it’s not a “great” movie-- but it often is a “RIOT”...  So, if you want to “launch your raunch”, I recommend this as a movie of 7.75 stars out of 10...

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