Product Description

Two powerful stars go head-to-head in this intriguing thriller about a cop who must protect a murderer in order to save his dying son. Scorching suspense and keatons high-octane performance make for a killer combination. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 09/20/2005 Starring: Michael Keaton Run time: 100 minutes Rating: R Director: Barbet Schroeder

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #43930 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 1998-05-27
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 100 minutes

Amazon.com
Call it "Desperate Movie," because this ludicrous thriller deteriorates into unintentional comedy. For reasons that are never explained, a sociopathic 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. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker
An exquisitely paced bore from Barbet Schroeder, concerning a cop (Andy Garcia) whose son needs a bone-marrow transplant from a convicted psycho killer (Michael Keaton). Schroeder, quite rightly, plays the whole setup economically, with Keaton trashing the hospital and making his escape in swift, well-edited bursts. But the script (by David Klass) is uninspired, and the acting, by both Garcia and Keaton, is too underplayed to be of much interest. -Bruce Diones
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Organ
His son need's a organ, and ge want his to give his kidney to him, but he doesn't give it up with out a fight.

Dramatic but never tragic
A good film indeed but it does not compare to any Seven or Silence of the Lambs. It has punch, rhythm, inventiveness, creativity even. It has some good dramatic stuff with a kid who is going to die of leukemia as the main stake. It has the antagonistic situation needed for a good film with the only donor being the serial killer who is going to try anything he can to escape. A criminal donor for the son of a cop. We avoid the easy tear forcing unreal situations like when the child is confronted to the escaping criminal who had taken him hostage, but we are not far from it with a child of 9 slightly too mature for his breeches. The female doctor, or rather surgeon is quite valiant and faces danger with elegance and courage. But in spite of all it is nothing but an adventure film more than a thriller because we know the transplant will take place, hence we know the end and we also know that the killer is going to try to escape again and the last scene is outrageously amateurish on the side of the security forces. Well done, good rhythm, good suspense but not more than good, a few creative ideas but nothing really poignant with pathos at any moment.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

Stat!
Finally, a movie that helps explain why I'm so unusually nice to homicidal maniacs - one man's homicidal maniac might be another man's son's bone marrow donor. Happens all the time!