Extreme Measures

Released: 1996
Reviewed: 2009
Star rating: 3 out of 5

Hugh Grant (Guy), Gene Hackman (Myrick), Sarah Jessica Parker (Jodie), David Morse (Frank), Bill Nunn (Burke), John Toles-Bey (Bobby), Peter Appel (Stone).

On duty one night in the emergency room Guy, a doctor, loses a patient with strange symptoms. Even stranger is that the body and records disappear shortly thereafter. When he tries to find them Guy then finds his life being wrecked by unknown sources. When he follows a trail to Dr. Myrick he finds a brilliant man using humans for experimentation.

This was a drama that went to great pains to ask a moral question. If you had to kill a few to save millions, would you do it? A bit slow in places, this one actually had a pretty good pace with decent action for a medical drama. A well thought out script made for a somewhat thought provoking story with some nice, if not unexpected, twists along the way.

Acting was surprisingly good from Grant who actually held his own in a serious role in this film. Hackman was very good as usual while Parker did a decent job herself. Morse was his usual cranky, brooding self which fit his role well while Nunn did a good job as his not so cranky partner.

Camera work, sets, background, sound and dialogue were all nicely done though the film is showing it’s age at this point. Soundtrack was nothing exciting but fit the film.

Overall this was a nicely done drama. Nothing extremely exciting but a good solid entry in the medical drama genre worth a look if you enjoy that type of story.

Violence, foul language, mild nudity, and adult concepts so save this for older teens and above.