Desperate Measures

Well-crafted but overly contrived thriller about a man driven to desperate means to try and save his dying son. García is convincing as a San Francisco cop who's forced to choose between doing his job and being a good father when he discovers that his ill son can be saved with a bone marrow transplant. The only compatible donor: imprisoned convict and multiple murderer Keaton (in a cunning performance). The story is intriguing, and there are plenty of good performances, but the script just becomes more and more far-fetched as it goes along. Watchable thanks to the talented cast, and a witty cat-and-mouse game between the two leads. **

I haven't seen Ishtar, but I did have the misfortune of seeing Kevin Costner's Postman, This is worse. Maybe the absolute worse piece of garbage I have ever seen, and if you look at my review for Moulin Rouge? that is saying something. Bad plot, acting was substandard and even wasted (even though, yes, Michael Keaton has been in some of the worst movies I have ever seen), and this movie has no redeeming value to anybody with more than half a brain. DO NOT SEE IF YOU HAVE GRADUATED THE 4TH GRADE as you will find this an insult to your intelligence.

Way, way, way over the top for me...........Michael Keaton's character seems almost like a Hannibal Lecter type.........he escapes, he kills, he gets away (almost).He defeats an army of cops, takes over a prison, what can he possibly do to top this?? His performance is awesome, but the plausibility of certain events just didn't register with me, besides, the ending was pretty much obvious as you sit and watch the last 5-10 minutes. I don't think the director knew what kind of movie he / she wanted to make. You pretty much knew what was going to happen before it happened. Andy Garcia's performance was OK, he's made better role choices, that's for sure. Thumbs down.............all the way.

This fast paced, exciting and gripping movie was written by David Klass and directed by Barbet Schroeder. It relates the story of Frank Connor, (Andy Garcia) a police detective who's son is desperately ill and needs a bone marrow transplant. However, when the perfect donor is located, it turns out he's in a maximum security prison and belongs to one, Peter McCabe (Michael Keaton). McCabe is a serious minded, multiple murderer who's I.Q. is in the genius range. Connor's is desperate enough to try anything to save his son and that includes releasing the prisoner from his maximum enclosure, long enough to extract the necessary ingredient while under the most stringent security measures available. However, despite the nearly impregnable restrains, McCabe is incredibly versatile, crafty and learns the weaknesses of his jailers, enough to exploit their mistakes and take advantage of their ignorance. From the moment the prisoner is removed from his incarceration, the audience is given an explosive, action-oriented and dramatic film which makes for a great escape. Keaton is magnificent and his role will surely make this effort a Classic. ****

Like my summary says... with Michael Keaton in a movie... you can expect a good one. I didn't see this until 2001 when I got it on VHS, but I loved it from the first time I seen it. And Michael plays such a good villan, it is unreal! I will definantley give this a ten out of ten.

Here is an example of a film that is soooooooo bad that it actually makes for fun and indeed hilarious viewing! In sitting through this film, I honestly felt that I was watching "Airplane"! Take for example one of the crucial "dramatic" moments in which the zealous police detective (Andy Garcia) and the pediatrician (Marcia Gay Harden) are crossing over the skyway from one building to another. At that moment, Andy's character needs to get the doctor to his sick son who desperately needs a bone marrow transfusion that is to be provided by a killer on the loose (Michael Keaton). At the precise moment when the detective and the doctor are walking on the skyway, it is revealed that the doctor has a fear of heights! She then collapses into the fetal position as the detective helps her across the skyway. The film is filled with moments just like this one in which an intended serious scene turns to comedy. Take also the casting of Michael Keaton (primarily a comic actor) in the role of the psychopathic killer. Keaton has a mischievous charm, but not a killer instinct. I never once believed that he was capable of perpetrating any violence. The setting for the film was in San Francisco. Early in the story, we see the Keaton character being transported by armored vehicle from the high security penitentiary (San Quentin?) to a hospital in downtown San Francicsco. But after he makes his break from the hospital, it turns out that the prison is located immediately next door. This made no sense whatsoever in the logic of the film's narrative. The police officers in this film were especially wooden and even passive as Keaton's character seemingly took the entire San Francisco police force captive. Even such reliable character actors as Richard Riehle and Brian Cox looked ridiculous in their roles. In the end, the incompetence of the police officers was exceeded only by that of the filmmakers in this preposterous excuse for a film!

This plot had more holes in it than an OJ Simpson alibi! I noticed two Star Trek references in the movie and, yet, ironically we have a lead character played by Andy Garcia who is the antithesis of the Vulcan philosophy of, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or one." Let's just say that while trying to save his son from cancer he puts most of the rest of San Francisco at incredible risk. Michael Keaton's character is almost as unrealistic as well. He neglects to kill at numerous opportunities and yet is angered when Garcia foils his attempt to kill a bunch of cops at once. The child's doctor remains in charge of her faculties even after been held hostage several times in a short expanse of time but put her on a wide walkway 5 stories up and she loses it. Andy Garcia's child is something of an anathema in this movie. He is the most sympathetic and real character, one of the movie's bright spots. He furthermore utters a line, that must have been the result of serendipity, regarding fighting cancer that parallels Keaton's motivation to escape. All in all, the movie was not a complete waste (see From Dusk to Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money for that) but disappointing considering the talent on hand.

Poorly written, poorly acted, so lame it defies logic. I cannot think of one good thing to say about this movie. Such a waste of time, I was almost going to bypass writing a comment altogether, but I opted to be neighborly and warn others here in IMDb. Simply awful. Beware.

Michael Keaton v. Andy Garcia KEATON, a convicted murderer/criminal, is the only person with bone marrow that matches the son of Andy Garcia. Garcia, a San Franisco Police officer, goes out of his way and breaks the law in order to save the life of his son, hence desperate measures. KEATON (Peter McCabe)is able to blackmail himself back into the general public in prison, studies the hospital, computer systems, dislocates his thumb to be able to uncuff himself, hides the flint of a lighter underneath his fingernails and takes an anti-drug to co-opt the gas for the marrow extraction. GARCIA (Frank) ready for the possibility of escape . . . foils Keaton from getting away amid losing his job and letting innocent people get hurt. What matters is his son, nothing else. I love action movies that are well written and have a free-thinking director taking risks with a genre that most would say is redundant and boring. Barbet Shroeder did so with Murder by Numbers, the remake of Kiss of Death and the one with Jeremy Irons as Klauss Van Burlou and Ron Silver as Alan Dershewitz, all entertaining and unique. If the subtlety can be found, critics and people who watch too many movies, my self included, dismiss these movies quite readily, well as Hollywood because it isn't creative? What is? Some BULLSH'T story about coming to terms with a disease, fate or an independent fest about oppression of communists, the stupidity of war, racist republicans homosexuality/bisexuality, grifters, sex, women's lib, telemarketers, writing screenplays, esoteric films about movies or drug abuse. Sorry wandered off there, it happens. Great Action movie that is fresh every time you see it.