Movie Review: 50/50 (2011)
Ref: 50/50 (2011)
I watched this with the original motive to just see Joe in another movie. On to the psychological and technical aspects of the film and what I thought worked and what I thought it lacked. Here we go.
For the most part, the movie felt pretty straightforward, there was nothing that really surprised me or gave me any sense of “I need to think long and hard about this”. I enjoyed that simplicity of it and yet I felt like they could have done better with it. Honestly, there’s just so much you can do with a subject like this so I’m pretty well satisfied with how it turned out. It did a good job of introducing the life of a cancer patient and displaying the idea that not only are you affected by this illness but everyone around you are affected as well. There’s a subtle theme of living in the moment can also be taken from it through Seth Rogan’s character, but it’s not so heavily focused on (which I imagine if they did focus on this, it would take away from the story a bit). I loved the scene where Joe’s character Adam talks about the common issue of trying to cover up the truth and this constant need to sugarcoat bad things in society. We are so used to getting things either pushed away, pushed aside, or avoided completely; in this case, they hide away from the fact that there is a good chance that Adam may die. [I’m trying to steer away from spoilers].
On the technical side of things, I felt like there was nothing really special or significant in the entire film. It felt pretty standard and average; nothing really wowed me. The only issue I would call out on would be that some scenes relied more heavily on the lyrics of the music or the dialogue itself to tell the story and express the emotions of the scene instead of actually displaying it, but for the most part it wasn’t bad in my opinion. A good shot from the film would be where both Adam and Kyle are overlooking the water and the city, I thought that was a very nice shot.
Some side notes: the hair shaving scene was completely improvised, according to my sources. I found that scene to be completely hilarious and honestly I really enjoyed this movie because of the dialogue between Seth and Joe’s characters, they did a really good job at really improving the situation of the film a good bit. Maybe going into that a bit more, because being diagnosed with cancer is such a very serious issue the movie could’ve taken a really good turn into being depressing, sad, and very heartbreaking (and I’m not saying that this movie wasn’t pretty sad on it’s own) but having these two guys carrying out comedic bits made it seem like a not-so-bad world. I also enjoyed the scenes with the two old men because they, again, did the same thing.
Would I recommend people to watch this movie? Yeah, go for it. I liked it. I wouldn’t say it’s the best film I’ve ever seen in my life and that it was seriously compelling and made my mind explode because of how awesome it was, but it definitely was a pretty good movie.
I watched this with the original motive to just see Joe in another movie. On to the psychological and technical aspects of the film and what I thought worked and what I thought it lacked. Here we go.
For the most part, the movie felt pretty straightforward, there was nothing that really surprised me or gave me any sense of “I need to think long and hard about this”. I enjoyed that simplicity of it and yet I felt like they could have done better with it. Honestly, there’s just so much you can do with a subject like this so I’m pretty well satisfied with how it turned out. It did a good job of introducing the life of a cancer patient and displaying the idea that not only are you affected by this illness but everyone around you are affected as well. There’s a subtle theme of living in the moment can also be taken from it through Seth Rogan’s character, but it’s not so heavily focused on (which I imagine if they did focus on this, it would take away from the story a bit). I loved the scene where Joe’s character Adam talks about the common issue of trying to cover up the truth and this constant need to sugarcoat bad things in society. We are so used to getting things either pushed away, pushed aside, or avoided completely; in this case, they hide away from the fact that there is a good chance that Adam may die. [I’m trying to steer away from spoilers].
On the technical side of things, I felt like there was nothing really special or significant in the entire film. It felt pretty standard and average; nothing really wowed me. The only issue I would call out on would be that some scenes relied more heavily on the lyrics of the music or the dialogue itself to tell the story and express the emotions of the scene instead of actually displaying it, but for the most part it wasn’t bad in my opinion. A good shot from the film would be where both Adam and Kyle are overlooking the water and the city, I thought that was a very nice shot.
Some side notes: the hair shaving scene was completely improvised, according to my sources. I found that scene to be completely hilarious and honestly I really enjoyed this movie because of the dialogue between Seth and Joe’s characters, they did a really good job at really improving the situation of the film a good bit. Maybe going into that a bit more, because being diagnosed with cancer is such a very serious issue the movie could’ve taken a really good turn into being depressing, sad, and very heartbreaking (and I’m not saying that this movie wasn’t pretty sad on it’s own) but having these two guys carrying out comedic bits made it seem like a not-so-bad world. I also enjoyed the scenes with the two old men because they, again, did the same thing.
Would I recommend people to watch this movie? Yeah, go for it. I liked it. I wouldn’t say it’s the best film I’ve ever seen in my life and that it was seriously compelling and made my mind explode because of how awesome it was, but it definitely was a pretty good movie.
Rating: 8.5/10
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