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EXTREME MEASURES

EXTREME MEASURES ($35) is a diverting medical thriller starring Hugh Grant, Gene Hackman and Sarah Jessica Parker. Grant stars as an eager young doctor in charge of the emergency room of a New York hospital. One night a patient is brought in nude and displays symptoms that can’t be explained. The patient shows signs of recent spinal surgery and is wearing a hospital bracelet, which gives no indication of the facility where the surgery took place. The patient dies, and Grant’s character hopes that a postmortum will shed some light on the bizarre case. Unfortunately, the body disappears from the morgue. This sets Grant’s doctor character off on a crusade to solve the mystery. Of course, the parties behind the conspiracy don’t want the mystery solved, and set out to destroy the doctor’s credibility before he can uncover the truth. Director Michael Apted does a good job of keeping the suspense level up, as the story unfolds. Gene Hackman’s role is on the supporting level, but he does a good job as the misguided doctor justifying his unethical research as a means to an end. Sarah Jessica Parker’s role is also on the supporting level, and could have been filled by almost any actress. David Morse gets one of the film’s meatiest roles as the primary villain. The cast of EXTREME MEASURES also includes Paul Guilfoyle and Debra Monk.

Columbia TriStar Home Video has done a fine job with the Letterboxed transfer which restores EXTREME MEASURES to it’s proper 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The transfer is well detailed, even throughout some very difficult low light situations. Film grain is held in check and the transfer has respectable colors. The digitally encoded Dolby Surround soundtrack had a good mix, which highlighted Danny Elfman’s moody score. The Sony DADC pressing had noticeable speckling. EXTREME MEASURES makes for a good evening’s entertainment and is certainly worth a look. FYI, EXTREME MEASURES is another Columbia TriStar Laserdisc whose jacket is in the exact style of Warner Home Video.

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THE CINEMA LASER is written, edited and published by Derek M. Germano.