50/50 (15)

Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogan, Anna Kendrick

Jonathan Levine's "cancer" comedy is a missed opportunity. In its early scenes, when Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character first learns he has a 50/50 chance of surviving after contracting a rare form of spinal cancer, the film is genuinely subversive and funny.

His best friend (played by the irrepressible Seth Rogan) helps him deconstruct the myths, lies and hypocrisy that surround his illness and its treatment. By the final reel, though, we're back in terminally lachrymose Terms of Endearment territory and all the wit and bite of the early scenes have completely dissipated.