Netflix: 50/50

Posted on the 25 March 2012 by Erictheblue

A funny movie about cancer, which necessarily involves giving short shrift to some of the details.  I hope it requires no spoiler alert to note that, in the end, the very likable main character, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, undergoes a successful surgery and gets the girl you'd been hoping he would.  As the patient's best friend, Seth Rogen is as ever hilarious.  Incorporating his friend's illness into his pick-up procedures, he explains to a girl at a club that his mostly silent sidekick suffers from "type 4 back cancer."  It works like the ace of trumps, and two pairs end up back at the patient's house, where there is a large stash of medicinal marijuana.  For some reason, it's more enjoyable than I'm making it sound: maybe a spoonful of irreverence makes the schlock go down.