Task: Sentiment Analysis
Input (English): " desperate measures " was something i was excited about seeing back when it was originally scheduled to be released : summer ' 97 . for some reason , it was delayed until hollywood 's traditional dumping ground : january .
now that it 's out , i see no real reason for that delay , as it 's a simple yet highly entertaining film .
michael keaton stars as a maniacial murderer who 's bone marrow can save the life of the dying son of a san francisco police detective ( garcia ) .
keaton agrees to the transplant , only so he can attempt escape .
he succeeds , in a plan that of course could only work in the movies .
the police force is now trying to kill keaton , while garcia is working against them trying to keep keaton alive in order to save his son .
the film definately has it 's flaws .
the plot is strictly tv movie of the week fare , but the acting and direction certainly boost it far above that status .
also , after keaton 's escape , garcia 's captain barks at him " how many men have to die to save your kid 's life ? " which the film treats as such an evil and insignificant remark .
the thing is , it 's a vaild point .
how many people have to be needlessly crippled , burned , and killed just to save this one child ?
what 's the greater good here ?
many lives or one life ?
if movies really had guts nowadays , i would have loved to have seen this movie come down to a final choice for garcia 's character .
place him in a situation where he knows that he has to kill keaton because keaton is about to kill someone else .
alas , movies these days generally have no such ambition to pull the audience 's strings in ways which might make the uncomfortable .
despite a few silly moments ( and one or two really stupid ones ) , the good things about " desperate measures " outnumber the bad .
the main highlight would be keaton 's performance .
the character could have easily been an overacting , scene chewing freak , but keaton underplays it nicely .
he 's not as menacing as he was in " pacific heights " or even as menacing as he was in " batman
" ( yes kids , batman used to be a dark character ) , but you certainly get the idea that he 's evil .
even the final scene of the film , which normally i would just hate , seems strangely appropriate for this film .
so much so that i did n't mind it in the slightest . and another bonus : the film takes place in san francisco , which usually means a car chase on those hills that you 've seen a billion times before .
and for a moment , it looked as though it was about to happen .
but it does n't ,
and that 's creative .
[ r ]
Output (English): P