Living Proof

This is a wonderful movie that is based on the true story of one doctor, who refused to give up. He battled a greedy drug company for over a decade and made it through FDA clinical trials to get a groundbreaking drug approved that changed cancer treatment as we know it. This man is a national treasure.

Oh Living Proof. How horrendously terrible you are, although, I still enjoyed watching you immensely. This is one of the best unintentional comedies I think I've ever seen. I mean it's up there with The Room and Troll 2. Now, I am going to rate this movie objectively. I'm not giving it a 6/10 simply because it made me laugh, oh no. I'll tell you right now, this movie is getting a 1/10, no question about it. Just keep that in mind. Okay, where to start with the problems in this movie? It's actually extremely difficult since literally everything is wrong with this movie. Hmm… lets start with acting, why not? To say it is not good would be an understatement. Our man guy Dr. Slamon (not salmon thank you very much) is played by someone who has probably never acted in anything before ever. Judging from this performance anyway. The only character traits he seems to have is getting hilariously angry at people and running in slow motion (seriously, I'm not kidding. I think there is a total of like 5 minutes of running. It's worse than a Tom Cruise movie.) Now to be perfectly honest, I don't remember a single side character's name. All I do remember is, they all sucked at acting and Amanda Bynes played one of the characters (who also really can't act). Moving on to writing! The writing is both the best thing about this movie and the worst. Best, because it's really funny, but worst, because from a film making perspective, it is some of the most clunkiest, most awkward writing I've ever heard. None of it sounds slightly realistic. It sounds like something that belongs on Days of Our Lives or something of the sort. I can properly describe it, you really need to hear it yourself. The pacing is all over the place as well. Maybe like 4 or 5 times, the movie will jump forward to a year later. Now, I realize this is about hopefully getting a cancer drug approved, which takes many years, but that doesn't excuse lazy pacing. Simply jumping forward in time just doesn't work. If you haven't realized by this point, these filmmakers had no clue what they were doing, even if they had good intentions. Those things are like the main problems, but trust me, there are countless miscellaneous problems that didn't really fit any of these main categories. For example, whenever they cut to another scene, they'll use a blank, white screen to transition, and it looks so cheap. Stuff like that. Now, you may say "oh, this is obviously a joke." "They knew exactly what they were doing when they made this." And I'm calling them out on their crap. They were serious about this movie. You can tell. There are several, serious toned emotional scenes where you are actually supposed to care about the situations unfolding on screen. They even have a "this film is dedicated to Dr. Slamon" (the real life guy) at the end. They clearly thought it was good enough for them to dedicate it to this guy. I sincerely hope he hasn't seen, or heard of it. It would be a shame for his legacy to have been told is this garbage pile of a movie. That about covers this movie really. Now, this movie is awful. 1/10, like I said. But, I still highly recommend you watch this movie. It's just too freaking enjoyable to miss. It is not quality film making, but you don't watch it for that. You watch it for the same reasons you watch The Room, or Troll 2, or Birdemic, or any other "so bad it's good" movie. Too die laughing. Have fun! (Also take a shot every time his drug might not make it to the next stage or whatever. You'll be dead in like 30 minutes.)

The movie was worth watching and was consciousness-raising in ways. Its depiction of the steps involved in FDA approval of drugs was informative. But the unrealistic parts of the movie made me wonder whether other parts of it were in fact accurate. For example, the cleavage shown on women said to be stage-four breast-cancer victims was laughable. And the scenes involving people undergoing chemotherapy or who had recently undergone chemotherapy were also suspect. Their full heads of hair did not appear to be wigs. My overall impression was that whoever was in charge of the details of the filming knew very little about breast cancer.

Very good true story but the treatment of the religious type is too pronounced. The music is terrible.

This is the true story of the first Doctor to find a treatment for breast cancer that did not involve killing cells in the body (radiation/ chemo). This determined physician - Dr. Dennis J. Slamon - and his vision for a new treatment and those who believed and supported him in his work is so movingly told. The producing team (Chicago, Hairspray) including Renee Zellweger, and the incredible cast of actors, and wonderfully directed - you know this film was a true labor of love. It shows in every minute of the film. I missed this on TV and just happened upon this at the Blockbuster and I was blown away it is the best movie I have seen this year. Like others I wept at times with sorrow and other times with joy. Thank you to all that made the showing of this story possible.