everything you have heard about this movie is true.

An action-packed slog

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

This lesser known and short running film, didn't get the exposure it should of. This is one of those known films you go to the cinema, and really enjoy. This film has a great premise: Cop's kid needs a bone marrow transplant, the only possible match is that of a serial killer Peter MCcabe (Keaton). It's a nice chilling performance, though he's no Anthony Hopkins, who won't make you shudder, squirm, or make the hairs on your wrist stand up, but I for one, was quite impressed, especially after seeing him play it down, in the disappointing Jackie Brown. Garcia plays the determined cop, and pours a lot of humanity and heart into the role. Heavy duty prisoner, MCcabe, agrees to be the donor, of course for obvious, selfish, reasons. Now the real movie starts up with MCcabe loose in the hospital. Now consider Garcia's dilemma: he must stop his other colleagues from taking out Keaton, where meanwhile little son's condition is weakening. It's a great thunder show of explosions and shootouts, where Keaton has his humorous moments too. The car chase lead up, to a finale between Garcia and Keaton adds to the coolness of the movie, upholding the fun and excitement, which has been with us since Act 2. From the opening scene, the movie throws us right into Garcia's peril, where early in the film where father and sick son speak, I drew a few tears. It's really a well earned tear jerking moment. I can't really understand how this movie has got ridiculed so much as it has. Of course, it might seem quite far fetched, not in the way the action is delivered, but this is only a movie. In reality of course, Garcia, would of had a lot of explaining to do. From the get go this Barbet Schroder film, sets out what it wants to do, immediately involve our audience into the situation. Classic of a final frame moment too. It's a killer, preceding CCR's "Rolling On A River".

Desperate Measures is an action thriller film that stars Michael Keaton, Andy García, Marcia Gay Harden and Brian Cox.The film was directed by Barbet Schroeder. It was filmed in both the San Francisco Bay Area and downtown Pittsburgh.Garcia stars as Frank Conner, a widowed San Francisco police officer whose young son Matt is suffering from leukemia. Without a bone marrow transplant, Matt will die, but Frank isn't a donor. In fact, the only potential match is prison inmate Peter McCabe (Keaton), a psychotic but charming serial killer. At first, McCabe refused to participate despite Conner's pleas, but eventually, the convict relents and agrees to the procedure. It is all a ruse, however, as McCabe has discovered a clever way to escape the confines of the operating room where Matt's oncologist, Dr. Hawkins (Harden) is scheduled to perform the transplant. Faced with the dual nightmare of his son's deteriorating condition and a mass murderer on the loose in a major metropolitan hospital, the frantic Conner finds himself bending and even breaking the law to bring McCabe down and save Matt's life.Too bad that the film is only masquerading as a thoughtful movie that's really about something. At heart, it's an action thriller--a chase picture. It has all the usual implausible or impossible stunts, the highway carnage, the jumps off bridges, the slides down laundry chutes, and other feats that make it more of a video game than a drama.This unfortunately makes it an average picture that would thrill action fans.

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. ****

Call it "Desperate Movie," because this ludicrous thriller deteriorates into unintentional comedy. For reasons that are never explained, a sociopath killer (Michael Keaton) is the only available bone marrow donor for the cancer-stricken son of a San Francisco cop (Andy Garcia), who must capture the killer alive after a laughable escape in a labyrinthine hospital. The ensuing manhunt relies on plentiful plot holes and ridiculous shortcuts (like Keaton's use of a surgical laser to cut leg irons, or accessing hospital schematics from a prison computer). Self-consciously shot in film noir style, the cat-and-mouse routine leads to a briefly impressive car chase, but the premise (which even the movie's original press notes described as "intriguing, if unlikely") is based on "moral ambiguity" that doesn't translate from script to screen. Instead of forcing Keaton's typically "sick genius" to prove his ingenuity, the film pits him against a squad of cops who couldn't find a beer in a crowded pub.