Review of Puncture (2011) by Dave J — 12 Feb 2014

Wednesday, February 12, 2014.

(2011) Puncture.

DRAMA.

One of the advantages about watching movies at home is that you're able to use your fast-forward button while playing on scenes that are somewhat deemed to be unnecessary, and that even as a result of doing that on here it's still a better movie to watch than a fine portion of John Grisham movie adaptions. The scenes I didn't care about too much are the drug use sequences which the central character was using. I also want to say that it's sometimes a fresh change to also see that lawyers are imperfect people too which is what we don't often see from many court room adaptions. The movie based on fact, centering on the number of accidental needle sticks happening throughout many hospitals all across the United States when those incidents can be avoided if safety point syringes were used instead. What is keeping these 'safety syringes' from going into our hospitals one may ask. It is the bureaucracy and pharmaceutical companies that exist to prevent that from happening. At the beginning, the movie focuses on an unwanted situation where a long time faithful ER nurse accidently pricks herself with a contaminated needle. Because she is unable to work anymore and is receiving WCB, she then notifies a small law firm called 'Danziger & Weiss'. From there it is when the two lawyers of Paul Danziger(Mark Kassen) and Mike Weiss (Chris Evans) take over the film which they initially didn't want to do had it not been Mike Weiss craving for a huge payoff. He also happens to be a frequent drug user and is unfaithful as a husband. Weiss may be the epitome of the guy you don't want as your lawyer, but what he does on his personal life doesn't seem to affect what he does during the courtroom since he does have a consistent record. But by the time he takes on this, it would almost seemed impossible since he's going after pharmaceutical giants. Viewers are then introduced to the 'rules and regulations' upon submitting any product to hospitals to use, which is something I had never seen before. We're also shown what can happened if a safety product is intervened into hospitals and why the system has to change. That it would require the involvement of the senate for anything to take action since "money" has always been the main objective and not so much on the safety and health of others.

Since popular novelist John Grisham has made court movies popular again, I have to say this is probably by far the best movie about court proceedings I had ever saw, since it's not only insightful but is also based on fact. This is not your typical pretentious courtroom drama as it's based on actual people- better than 'Erin Brocovich' and 'Michael Clayton'- two movies raved by critics because it's so polished and that the characters are black and white. It is what we see from Perry Mason and from John Grisham movie adaptions which does not reflect what happens in real life. We need to see more movies such as this.

3 out of 4 stars.