Review of Extraordinary Measures (2010) by Dalton G — 16 Jun 2010

No matter who you are or how hard you try, it's pretty darn difficult to make an exciting film about working in a lab to find a cure for some disease. I don't care if you're Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg or even Judd Apatow, this subject matter belongs as a Hallmark movie of the week, not on the big screen with such well known actors.

Extraordinary Measures centers around Brendan Fraser and Keri Russell as John and Aileen Crowley, parents of two kids suffering from a rare disease known as Pompe. After all hope seems to be lost, Indiana Jones is called in to help.

Let the medical lingo ensue.

I'm not gonna lie, sick kids get to me. It hits too close to home. When I was 8 years old, I was hit by a bus and the doctors had to repair me by giving me a 32 inch dick made of iron. It's been a struggle for me ever since and I don't like seeing kids go through what I went through. But the silver lining in this is that this is Hollywood so you know that it will end with a happy ending. You know, the parents crying while the kids are hugging and laughing and the doctor that "tested the odds" smiles in support in the background? Ah, doesn't it just bring a tear to your eye? I'm getting a chubby just thinking about it.

Anyways, Extraordinary Measures is a movie with an intriguing yet predictable premise that could have been eiether thoroughly emotionally engaging or it could have been boring and tedious. Unfortunately, this film falls into the latter category. Half of the script consists of medical lingo that confused and bored me instead of wanting to keep watching to figure out what's going on. All I knew was that Brendan Fraser has a really funny crying scene, Keri Russell is adorable as ever, Harrison Ford pulled off the obvious Clint Eastwood impression he was hell-bent on performing throughout the course of the film, and the kids have really cool wheel-chairs that I really want. Being the cynical S.O.B. that I am, this movie bored me to tears and instead of caring for this family, I all just wanted them to be struck by lightning so the film could end already. Instead of telling the much more emotional side of the story- The kids and the parents together- director Tom Vaughn sheds light on the much more tedious and uninteresting side of the story and ends up making Extraordinary Measures tedious rather than inspiring and uplifting like it could have- and should have- been.