Review: Paul

Pegg and Frost team up once again to showcase their natural chemistry once again as a pair of nerds setting out on a once in a lifetime US road trip, but despite taking the lead roles they settle for being the links between several not so-subtle spoofs 80s sci-fi as the rest of the cast get most of the good lines - with Seth Rogen shining as the CGI alien Paul, showing he suits a supporting role and delivering an excellent voice performance that could've ruined the film if he hadn't delivered the goods.

Relying a bit too much on swearing for laughs and the lack of any truly memorable jokes stop this film from being a classic, but simply describing Paul as a more mainstream effort from Pegg and Frost downplays how entertaining and likeable this film is.

TV Club #8 Beastie Boys - Fight For Your Right (Revisited)

The latest inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame were announced this week, featuring the likes of Guns N' Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Laura Nyro, The Small Faces/Faces, Donovan and New York rap trio Beastie Boys.

Looking back over their 30 year career, the hip-hop group has changed an awful lot since their 86' breakthrough Licensed to Ill, a point which the cameo-tastic Fight For Your Right (Revisited) makes better than anything else could.

Featuring the likes of Seth Rogen, Elijah Wood, Danny McBride, John C. Reilly, Will Ferrell, Jack Black, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci and Will Arnett: this star-studded video picks up immediately after the original Fight For Your Right video and ends up in a dance battle with their future selves.

Review: 50/50

A comedy about a young man who learns he has cancer, and his battle to beat the disease: 50/50 essentially takes the good half of Funny People and turns it into its own full-length feature film.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a step up from Adam Sandler in that he can actually handle the dramatic stuff when it comes his way and 50/50 features several beautifully shot sequences that show both the desperation of the disease alongside an uplifting live for the moment attitude alongside it. One particular scene brings a new meaning to the term hospital trip. Seth Rogen is probably meant to be seen as comic relief, but the whole vile and nasty man-child routine seems horribly out of place with the film. The highlight isn't JGL's relationship with Rogen, but his with fellow patients Philip Baker Hall and Matt Frewer in combining successfully mirth with morbid in the way the film sets out to.

However, the major downer on the film for me was how it portrays its female characters - Bryce Dallas Howard's Rachel reprisals for her failings as a girlfriend are particularly unpleasant and aggressive. Right from the start she is castigated for not fulfilling her duty of sex with a man who later admits has never said he loves her. This nasty streak is present throughout with Adam's mother shown as smothering and a bit mental. Countless anonymous bimbos are lined up who can't resist the lure of a cancer sufferer just to reinforce what women are simply good for. Even though Anna Kendrick gets shown some sympathy as love interest, she spends most of the film being portrayed as hopeless at her job and can't wait to ignore all that professional ethics gubbins and get with Adam.

It's a shame the misogynistic undertones are the lasting memory of what is an interesting film, with Levitt's nuanced performance having plenty to recommend about it. 50/50 seems pretty apt in the end.