29 lines
2.6 KiB
Plaintext
29 lines
2.6 KiB
Plaintext
" desperate measures " was something i was excited about seeing back when it was originally scheduled to be released : summer '97 .
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for some reason , it was delayed until hollywood's traditional dumping ground : january .
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now that it's out , i see no real reason for that delay , as it's a simple yet highly entertaining film .
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michael keaton stars as a maniacial murderer who's bone marrow can save the life of the dying son of a san francisco police detective ( garcia ) .
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keaton agrees to the transplant , only so he can attempt escape .
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he succeeds , in a plan that of course could only work in the movies .
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the police force is now trying to kill keaton , while garcia is working against them trying to keep keaton alive in order to save his son .
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the film definately has it's flaws .
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the plot is strictly tv movie of the week fare , but the acting and direction certainly boost it far above that status .
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also , after keaton's escape , garcia's captain barks at him " how many men have to die to save your kid's life ? "
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which the film treats as such an evil and insignificant remark .
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the thing is , it's a vaild point .
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how many people have to be needlessly crippled , burned , and killed just to save this one child ?
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what's the greater good here ?
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many lives or one life ?
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if movies really had guts nowadays , i would have loved to have seen this movie come down to a final choice for garcia's character .
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place him in a situation where he knows that he has to kill keaton because keaton is about to kill someone else .
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alas , movies these days generally have no such ambition to pull the audience's strings in ways which might make the uncomfortable .
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despite a few silly moments ( and one or two really stupid ones ) , the good things about " desperate measures " outnumber the bad .
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the main highlight would be keaton's performance .
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the character could have easily been an overacting , scene chewing freak , but keaton underplays it nicely .
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he's not as menacing as he was in " pacific heights " or even as menacing as he was in " batman " ( yes kids , batman used to be a dark character ) , but you certainly get the idea that he's evil .
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even the final scene of the film , which normally i would just hate , seems strangely appropriate for this film .
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so much so that i didn't mind it in the slightest .
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and another bonus : the film takes place in san francisco , which usually means a car chase on those hills that you've seen a billion times before .
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and for a moment , it looked as though it was about to happen .
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but it doesn't , and that's creative .
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[r]
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