Desperate Measures (1998)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Barbet Schroeder

Writer (WGA):

David Klass (written by)

Release Date:

30 January 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

His son needs a DNA donor to live. The clock is ticking. The only match is a vicious killer. Now all Frank Conner has to do is catch him.

Plot:

San Francisco police officer Frank Connor is in a frantic search for a compatible bone marrow donor for his gravely ill son...

Plot Keywords:

Son | Hospital | Escape | Police | Death

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Michael Keaton	...	Peter McCabe
Andy Garcia	...	Frank Conner
Brian Cox	...	Captain Jeremiah Cassidy
Marcia Gay Harden	...	Dr. Samantha Hawkins
Erik King	...	Nate Oliver
Efrain Figueroa	...	Vargas
Joseph Cross	...	Matthew Conner
Janel Moloney	...	Sarah Davis
Richard Riehle	...	Ed Fayne
Tracey Walter	...	Medical Inmate
Peter Weireter	...	SWAT Team Commander
Keith Diamond	...	Derrick Wilson
Steve Park	...	Dr. Gosha
Steven Schub	...	SWAT in Airduct
Neal Matarazzo	...	Cell Guard

MPAA:

Rated R for violence and language.

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #34792) | Australia:M | Iceland:14 | Iceland:16 (video rating) | South Korea:15 | Philippines:PG-13 | Argentina:13 | Chile:14 | Denmark:15 | Finland:K-16 | Germany:16 | Netherlands:16 | Singapore:PG | Sweden:15 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Closed Norton Air Force Base, San Bernardino, California, USA

Company:

Eaglepoint

Trivia:

The film is set in San Francisco, but actually filmed in Pittsburgh. They used Grant Street in downtown Pittsburgh because it is a brick road like many of the roads in San Francisco. Also the front of the hospital is really One Mellon Bank Center located on Grant Street, the same building in the helicopter scene of Jean-Claude Van Damme's Sudden Death (1995).

Goofs:

Factual errors: The liquid cyclopropane, in addition to not being able to be dispensed in the way showed, is no longer used in hospitals. Also, if it were in the hospital for some storage purpose, the containers are bright orange.

Quotes:

Peter McCabe: [after agreeing to transplant] These cigarettes are stale. You tell that cop and his dead kid I won't stand for stale cigarettes.

Movie Connections:

References History of the World: Part I (1981)

Soundtrack:

PROUD MARY

Garcia and Keaton are perfectly matched.

Michael Keaton and Andy Garcia are perfectly matched in this generally absorbing action thriller; you can sense right away that they had great chemistry working together, and they manage to create two characters more three-dimensional than the ones typically found in the genre. The film does have some plot holes (okay, Garcia can't kill Keaton. But why can't he shoot him in the leg or something?), and the last 20 minutes are pretty overblown, but the concept is thought-provoking and the filmmakers deserve credit for avoiding a cliched moralistic conclusion; indeed, the final scene of the film is very amusing. (**1/2)