Extreme Measures

    Extreme Measures
    1996

    Synopsis

    Guy Luthan, a British doctor working at a hospital in New York, starts making unwelcome enquiries when the body of a man who died in his emergency room disappears. After the trail leads Luthan to the door of an eminent surgeon at the hospital, Luthan soon finds himself in extreme danger people who want the hospital's secret to remain undiscovered.

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    Cast

    • Hugh GrantDr. Guy Luthan
    • Gene HackmanDr. Lawrence Myrick
    • Sarah Jessica ParkerJodie Trammel
    • David MorseFrank Hare
    • Bill NunnBurke
    • Paul GuilfoyleDr. Jeffrey Manko
    • Debra MonkDr. Judith Gruszynski
    • John Toles-BeyBobby
    • Peter AppelDet. Stone
    • Shaun Austin-OlsenClaude Minkins

    Recommendations

    • 75

      Chicago Sun-Times

      I found myself debating the film's moral questions on the way out of the theater.
    • 75

      Baltimore Sun

      Extreme Measures, a new medical thriller with Hugh Grant and Gene Hackman as doctors with differing views on medical ethics, is an episode of "Beauty and the Beast" grafted onto an episode of "ER" as directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
    • 75

      Chicago Tribune

      Extreme Measures is a suspense picture that should excite thinking audiences as well as thrill-crazy ones. One possible exception: fans of Michael Palmer's novel, who may wonder why his plot and people disappeared. But after all, in movies as in medicine, extreme measures may be necessary.
    • 70

      The New York Times

      Brisk and unsettling.
    • 70

      Orlando Sentinel

      Extreme Measures is far from a classic. But it begins well and sustains its suspenseful tone for about two-thirds of its length...Grant's performance is one of the best things in the movie.
    • 60

      TV Guide Magazine

      Hackman's role requires him to spend so little time on screen that it's virtually an above-the-title cameo, and Grant trots out his trademark charming mannerisms, which look a bit fresher than usual by virtue of the darker than usual context. Be warned: Director Michael Apted does not resist the temptation to preach.
    • 60

      Variety

      This chilling look at emergency room politics wrestles contemporary medical ethics to an unsatisfactory draw. Similarly, its mix of real and exaggerated situations doesn't quite jell, making for a commercial diagnosis that's good but not great.
    • 40

      Austin Chronicle

      Any sincere investigation of the situation's ethical dilemmas is hampered by a plot run amok with transparently nefarious evildoers and ever-more ludicrous complications, until it sputters to a conclusion and a thoroughly preposterous epilogue in which all animosities are neatly put to rest. Somebody call a doctor.

    Seen by

    • Sérgio P.