Ed's Review Dot Com

IWC Productions, Mandate Pictures, Point Gray,

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard, Anjelica Huston, Marie Avgeropoulos, Jessica Parker Kennedy, Serge Houde, Andrew Airlie, Matt Frewer, Philip Baker Hall

Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a young broadcaster for NPR in Seattle. He’s dating Rachael (Bryce Dallas Howard) and best friends with good nature but crude Kyle (Seth Rogen). Adam has a strained relationship with his mom (Anjelica Huston) and his Dad who is suffering from Alzheimer’s. But everything suddenly comes caving in when Adam is told by the doctor that he has a very rare form of cancer of the spine. The film takes us through Adam’s life dealing with the disease, and how it affects everyone around him.

This is an interesting film. Based on a true story of writer Will Reiser who was diagnosed with cancer, and with Seth Rogen as his friend, beat the disease and under Seth’s urging wrote the script. So it’s very realistic because it’s written by the one who lived it. A lot of the misadventures in the screenplay are based on the real experiences Will went through. It has a lot of humor! How a movie about cancer can be funny is odd, but it really is. Seth Rogen does his gross out dialog that he’s famous for, so the R rating is mostly for the words that come out of Seth’s mouth! He’s so inappropriate, it’s hysterical.

There is a lot about the deterioration of Adam and Rachel’s relationship. Anna Kendrick plays a very young psychologist who tries to council Adam, and there are undertones of how much they like each other, even though it’s a doctor patient relationship. Then there’s the issues with Adam and his Mother. But the primary focus of the film is always the buddy film relationship between Adam and Kyle. After all, this is primarily Seth Rogen’s film.

Not exactly stellar, but very unique. It’s a very humorous look at something that is very serious. There are plenty of scenes that will make you cringe and look away, but it’s so light-hearted about it that makes it not a sad or depressing story. Very well written, and so it’s certainly watch watching.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Alberta Film Entertainment, Well done Productions

Jenny McCarthy, Kelly stables, Kris Holden-Ried, Paul Sorvino, Dean McDermott, Jessica Parker Kennedy, Lynne Griffin, Richard Side, Holly Anne Emmerson

Santa (Paul Sorvino) is ready for a vacation.  Actually, they describe it as a bit of a mid-life crisis.  He expects Mary to step back in and take over for him while he plays golf, and travels.  Mary is reluctant to take over, but Santa won’t budge.  Since she was here before in the original Santa Baby, changes have been made and the North Pole is more efficient giving them more free time.  Santa hired Teri (Kelly Stables) to fill in at the mail department, but she’s set on taking over the whole operation.  Teri realizes that Mary is in her way, so she sets out to make it as unfriendly as possible, first by pushing the elves to strike.  Mary, meanwhile is trying to handle her old job by telecommuting from the North Pole.  Teri’s interference at the pole, and the stresses of keep up her old job make it difficult.  Things look bad until it’s finally revealed that Teri is not who she says she it.

A followup to the original Santa Baby, this has the same old cliche’s.  Santa’s tired and wants to turn it over to the reluctant heir.  The whole deal with Teri is a bit of a diversion, but it’s good fun and a typical Christmas movie with a few laughs.  Paul Sorvino plays a pretty jolly Santa, and Terri’s pretty good as the bad guy.  Not anything really special, but it’s just a simple Santa story that isn’t too bad.