50/50 (2011)

Inspired by a true story, a comedy centered on a 27-year-old guy who learns of his cancer diagnosis and his subsequent struggle to beat the disease.

It's always a risk to stage the drama of a life-threatening illness and try to spice it with humor, but careful direction and an excellent cast actually help manage to pull it off.

Maltin***: "...this sure-footed film manages to blend comedy and drama with satisfying results. Gordon-Levitt is perfect in the leading role."

Psycho (1998)

A young female embezzler arrives at the Bates Motel, which has terrible secrets of its own.

Curious experiment - copying a cinema classic shot-by-shot (with an occasional minimal aberration) and offering a star cast and some magnificent color cinematography - never achieves, in any aspect,  the mastery of the original - which in itself is an interesting result.

Halliwell (no star): "A genuine curiosity, though, unfortunately, not a very interesting one: a remake of Hitchcock's thriller that hardly deviates from the original, except that it is in colour, the acting is inferior, and the content is a little tired."

Maltin BOMB: "Slow, stilted, completely pointless scene-for-scene remake...(with a few awkward new touches to taint its claim as an exact replica). The result is an insult, rather than a tribute, to a landmark film."