Review: '50/50' is trying for the illness of the year flick

50/50    R       

            The cast that brought such movies and 'Juno' and 'Superbad' and the 'Ali G Show' bring to the screen the drama of the show writer's battle with rare but operable cancer. It doesn't sound pleasant to sit through. At times it makes you squeamish. The idea of making a comedy of this type would be embarrassing, as the trailers falsely make it look like an Adam Sandler vehicle, with chemo played for laughs. Not so. The movie is a dramas with a few jokes and wisecracks, usually from Seth Rogan, medical pot smoking misanthrope, who in this is literally playing himself, as the friend. Thankfully they do not turn this into a 1980s throwback where cancer is used to sell a movie, (they had way too many of those back then), and instead make it a decently acted if not realistic story about a young guy who gets cancer and his wacky friend, his relationships, and other stuff. Performances were way more convincing than anyone in Crash and the Blind Side, but due to poor box office gross will be ignored come Oscar time. Still the most genuinely emotional movie of 2011. See I do review talkies!      

     Review by Adam Browne