50/50

SETH ROGEN (left) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in "50/50."

Serious illness good for grossout film ‘50/50’

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen play typical 20-somethings in the film “50/50.”

Rogen, of course, is once again the best friend. He plays Kyle and his work and bar buddy is Adam, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Now Adam is a bit more low-key, less flamboyant. Rogen’s character is obsessed with going to bars and picking up chicks.

It looks like another grossout movie and to some extent, it is.

But very quickly it takes a different turn. The Gordon-Levitt character has a routine doctor’s appointment where he learns from a mumbling, stumbling doctor that he has cancer.

Bryce Dallas Howard plays his girlfriend, who takes him to chemo but chooses to wait four hours in the car because she doesn’t like the whole hospital experience.

You can quickly tell the relationship is in trouble and comes to an abrupt end.  Meanwhile, Adam finds true friendship in some older men having chemo at the same time, played by the gruff but great Phillip Baker Hall and Matt Frewer.

These 60s-somethings get along well with Adam, even coaxing him into enjoying some of their pot-laced cookies. A priceless scene in the film is Adam leaving the hospital in an out-of-focus fog, high as a kite, smiling and happy as he views the misery that cancer can cause.

Anjelica Huston plays his “it’s all about me” mother and Serge Houde plays his dementia-driven dad. It’s a thankless role but Houde gives it as much dimension as it can be given.

The Rogen character truly cares for his friend, but also won’t miss a chance of scoring with a chick by taking him to a bar, getting some girls to feel sorry for him and then taking one of the girls home.

Rogen is also jealous of Adam’s doomed love affair and takes great joy in getting a picture with his camera phone of the girl kissing a Jesus-like artist at an art gallery.

A backdrop through all of this is Adam’s relationship to his soon-to-be-a-doctor therapist, played by the perky Anna Kendrick. When Adam makes a joke about “Doogie Houser,” the old TV show about a teenage doctor, she doesn’t understand. She’s too young.

But that is the relationship to watch.

The film does a nice job of doing some grossout comedy while giving us a somewhat realistic view of dealing with cancer.

The title comes from Adam looking up his particular cancer on the Internet and learning most patients have a 50-50 chance of survival.

There are many nice moments. Adam is about to have an operation that could cure or kill him. His clueless father tells him about his new sports jacket. But to Adam, he is saying his father does have an idea of what is going on and loves him.

It might be the most mature grossout film ever. Yeah, Rogen’s character goes overboard and after awhile you just want him to shut up.

And yes, Huston becomes too motherly. But you know, people can be annoying in real life.

“50 /50” works on many levels. It is worth your time.

Read more movie reviews at videoviper.blogspot.com.

 50/50

• Directed by Jonathan Levine

• Written by Will Reiser

• Rated R for language and sexual situations

• Runtime: 100 minutes

• 3 stars out of 4

 

Bridesmaids

Universal Studios
JILL CLAYBURGH (left) and Kristen Wiig in "Bridesmaids."

Too much of ‘Bridesmaids’ goes nowhere, can be cut

“Bridesmaids” was billed as the female equivalent of “The Hangover” and  “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.”

Sometimes the movie evokes a belly laugh, often scenes go on too long without much funny going on.

Directed by Paul  Feig,  star Kristen Wiig also happens to be one of the writers.

Wiig plays a woman whose life is a mess. She opened a bakery that bombed and  works in a jewelry store. She got the job because the owner’s Alcoholic Anonymous’ sponsor happens to be her mother, played by Jill Clayburgh.

Clayburgh is one of many zany characters in this film. She’s a long-time member of AA. The only difference between her and the other members is she’s never drank.

Wiig’s character, Annie Walker, lives in an apartment she shares with a brother and sister, a very weird brother and sister. Like, they bathe together.

She regularly  sleeps with  her sort-of boyfriend, played by Jon Hamm. The film opens with a hilarious scene of the two trying different sexual  positions.

In her twisted mind, he’s a nice guy because he levels with her. There’s no future. He wants sex and when he’s done, he wants her out of there. And she accepts this situation.

We learn her childhood friend, played by Maya Rudolph, is getting married and Annie is made of honor. Except one of the bridesmaids, played by sorority type Rosey Byrne, is stiff competition to garner the limelight.

At the party announcing the upcoming nuptials, the Wiig and Byrne characters try to one-up each other on how important the bride is to each other. One is forever grabbing the microphone from the other to get the last word in. The whole sequence isn’t funny, runs too long and adds nothing to the story.

Remember, this flick is 125 minutes long. Aren’t raunchy films supposed to be over in 85 minutes, because fans get bored easily?

One of the attendants, played by Melissa McCarty, is a lot of fun. She’s hefty, masculine but sees herself as thin and desirable. Her skewed ideas about life add some much-needed bizarre humor to the film.

The bridesmaids take a flight to Las Vegas to party. A conversation between McCarty and her seatmate, whom she thinks is a sky marshal, is hilarious.

The Wiig character goes spastic during the trip and ends up taking tranquilizers and booze, resulting in a drugged performance that sort-of reminds you of something Lucille Ball would have done. Except Lucy would have been funnier and less profane.

The plane ride was sort of funny and I anticipated the crazy antics the girls would get in while in Sin City.

Except there’s no sequence. It’s cut out and soon they are back home.

The Wiig character gets involved with a police officer that doesn’t offer a lot of laughs.

For the most part, she messes up her life left and right to the point you lose interest in her as a person. Can you really root for someone for — what is it? — oh yeah, 125 minutes, makes all the wrong choices?

I have to admit a sequence in a swank bridal salon where the bridesmaids suddenly get bouts of food poisoning is probably the best part of the film.

Get rid of some of the sequences that go nowhere and you would have a better movie.

 BRIDESMAIDS

• Directed by Paul Feig

• Written by Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo

• Runtime:125 minutes

• Rated R for sex, language, bathroom exploits

• 2 stars out of 5