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50/50
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - Hong Kong - CN Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Andy James & Noor Razzak (26th March 2012). |
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The Film
 "50/50" (formerly titled "I'm With Cancer") is an emotional, hilarious and true story, based on screenwriter Will Reiser's time with cancer. Reiser wrote (and Seth Rogen produced) "50/50" as there was the feeling that there was no "cancer film" that actually spoke to the experience of Reiser and his friends. Thus was born the dramatic comedy about cancer! Joseph Gordon-Levitt is Adam, the Reiser stand-in while Reiser's real life friend Seth Rogen is Kyle, Adam's best friend and constant source of support. Instead of working as a writer on "Da Ali G Show" (2003-2004) as Resier and Rogen were, Adam and Kyle work as writers in radio. Adam is something of a wet blanket/doormat - he's nice to a fault. He agonises over perfecting a radio segment on volcanoes, is a healthy neat-freak and is involved with the passive-aggressive artist Rachael (Bryce Dallas Howard) where he's the only one who offers anything to the relationship. Kyle is, on the surface, the typical "Seth Rogen type character" we've all come to know - loud, a little on the obnoxious side but with such charm and zeal he gets away with it. Kyle often comes off as a selfish jackass more concerned with getting laid but he's really just trying to keep things as normal as possible for his friend and being there in his own way. Rogen's energy, to me at least, works better as a support actor than the lead of a film. The overall view of the "cancer experience" takes in a fair amount of territory - from Adam's workmates already thinking of him as dead to the counseling sessions with Anna Kendrick's kind and well-meaning but inexperienced Katherine. The relationship between Adam and Katherine was sadly one of the more obvious and under-developed but the two actors are just damned good enough to get you through it. Adam bonds with fellow cancer sufferers Mitch (Matt Frewer) and Alan (Phillip Baker Hall) and fends off his over-protective mother Diane (Anjelica Huston). His girlfriend, Rachael, is pretty much the worst girlfriend imaginable. Howard's character is given absolutely no redeeming qualities and is an all around shitty human-being, let alone a less than supportive partner. While it would have been preferable to see something good within her, to at least explain why Adam is with her in the first place, Howard is absolutely fearless with the role. She fully embraces the absolute crapiness of the character and goes with it for all she's worth. There are emotional gut punches that really hit home thanks to a combination of understated performance and a script that shies away from open manipulation. It's all coming from a place of honesty and experience; not the facts necessarily but the frightening reality of it. I don't think there's a person out there reading this who hasn't been touched by the dark spectre of cancer in someway. It is, of course, a very sensitive subject. Some might see the use of comedy as some sort of cheap trick but really, our lives are made up of parts comedy and drama every day. Why should this be any different? And the fact this is coming from a real, experienced place and that comedy can be marshaled to say something about us as humans just as much (if not more) as overly sentimental mush should get any thinking person past any reservations they might have. Reiser and director Jonathan Levine show no interest in being mawkish or obvious but rather give us something original, honest and intelligent. There's a balancing act in terms of tone here - a comedy about cancer?! C'mon, that's an almost impossible ask - either you go for gross, offensive comedy or overly emotional drama. What "50/50" does is give a perfect blending of the two - Reiser and Levine know when to go for the laughs and when to pull back and let the emotion hit you. The ending can't really be spoiled can it? Reiser obviously survived his time with cancer because he was around to write the script, but "50/50" is a film more about the journey than the end destination (whatever that may be). It's not a perfect film but it is a very human film.
Video
Presented in a widescreen ratio of 1.78:1 mastered in HD 1080p 24/fps using AVC MPEG-4 compression. The image was a little disappointing, while nowhere near the worst I've seen on Blu-ray, I was hoping for a much sharper image. The problem is that the film looks unimpressive, flat and a little soft at times. I'm not sure if this is because of the low budget nature of the film or the transfer itself? Some shots do look great, nicely detailed and with decent texture, overall colors are a little bland, nothing really pops. It felt like a TV transfer rather than a theatrical one. Blacks had some noise which doesn't always bode well. Overall it was a ok image, nothing special and nothing that'll stand out.
Audio
Two audio tracks are featured on this disc in English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround mixed at 48kHz/24-bit and one in English Dolby Digital 5.1 surround. I started watching this film with its 7.1 audio, which by the way, is a bit overkill for a movie that's largely dialogue driven. I felt that a 7.1 sound track really didn't add much to the overall soundtrack. I also found that there were moments that were out of sync, I found that switching to the 5.1 track the sync issue resolved. So the 7.1 track has sone syncing issues while the 5.1 doesn't, frankly the 5.1 holds up fairly well, with solid dialogue, nice enough surrounds and ambience, score and is about all you really need for this film. Optional subtitles are included only in Traditional Chinese.
Extras
Hong Kong distributor CN Entertainment has released a practically bare bones edition of this film on Blu-ray, the only supplement we have here is the film's original theatrical trailer (1080p) which runs for 2 minutes 23 seconds. The menus feature both English and Chinese dialogue. The US region A release includes a much better extras package.
Packaging
This disc features some rather cheap looking art that looks like it was photoshopped by an amateur, I'm not sure why the distributor didn't just use the film's one sheet? Instead we get packaging that looks like it coule be a bootleg.
Overall
The film review was originally published on the blog Rockets and Robots are Go! by Andy James. The A/V and supplements were reviewed by Noor Razzak. This disc can be purchased at Yesasia.com. Your source for Asian films on Blu-ray.
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