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Extreme Measures (1996)

Rate: 5
Viewed: 6/24

ExMe
6/24: I avoided Extreme Measures for a while because of the similarly titled film: Desperate Measures.

Both are somewhat different. Hugh Grant was doing a very good job during the first half. Then, I started to lose my patience because the mystery had gone on far too long. By the time he's somewhere below the subway, it's when the show lost me for good by turning into a run-of-the-mill medical thriller.

After Teddy Dolson was turned over to expose his back, I figured out the mystery just like that: homeless people were being taken advantage of as lab rats for nerve cell regeneration because nobody would miss them anyway. Then, director Michael Apted went on to set up the cliché philosophical confrontation to invoke questions that I 100% knew were coming.

The more Gene Hackman pointed out the benefits, the more I couldn't help asking this question: "Then why do you need hired killers?" If he wanted to make the scheme work, he should've relocated it to South Dakota or somewhere similar, had the homeless people kidnapped, and done everything in a big, tall black building, and nobody would ever notice what he's doing.

The reunion of Dr. Guy Luthan and his erstwhile boss (Paul Guilfoyle) at the end of the film bothers me. Why would the former be okay with that? The latter fired him without attempting to believe in his innocence. How about a drug test to see if there's any cocaine in Dr. Luthan's system? I thought for a while that his boss was part of the cover-up. Another mistake is the casting of Sarah Jessica Parker; she's one of the worst actresses I've seen.

All in all, Hugh Grant's performance is the best aspect of Extreme Measures, but the film is ultimately ruined by poor direction.