Wednesday, January 27, 2010

EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES, PG ( 1 hr & 46 min )


where: CENTURY 14 VALLEJO in Vallejo, CA
when: Wednesday, January 27th, 2010
show: 11:35 a.m. First Show Extra Dollar Off Matinee
costs: $6.25 Ticket + $4.25 junior Popcorn w/ Butter + $3.75 small Diet/Zero ( w/ Barq's & Cherry flavors ) Coke = $14.25
auditorium: 1
seat: 4th row, 8ht column

synopsis:
A devoted father, John Crowley ( Brendan Fraser ), who has two children slowly dying of Pompe Disease must make a hard choice: Stay with a company that gives him a generous health and medical plan for "band-aid" treatments or go on his own and partner with a maverick doctor, Dr. Stonehill ( Harrison Ford ), in a race against time to find a cure.

noteworthy scenes:
1.) 8ht b-day; 2.) Reading-up on Pompe Disease; 3.) 'Phone call; 4.) Making out; 5.) ICU; 6.) Cautiously optimistic; 7.) U. of Nebraska Biochemistry Annex; 8.) Bar talk; 9.) Talk with wife, Aileen ( Keri Russell ); 10.) Foundation; 11.) Megan ( Meredith Droeger ) and Dr. Stonehill; 12.) Partnership deal; 13.) Chasing the wind; 14.) Venture capital meeting; 15.) Feeding the ducks; 16.) Proposal with Dr. Renzler ( David Clennon ); 17.) Priozyme time; 18.) Generator; 19.) Pink medicine; 20.) Deadline ultimatum; 21.) Acceptable loss; 22.) Deal with Zymogen; 23.) Uncashed check; 24.) New home; 25.) Part of the pill; 26.) Meeting with victims; 27.) Bad prognosis; 28.) Decision to make; 29.) Loud music; 30.) Overall good of the program; 31.) Bad news; 32.) Amusement park; 33.) Lab results; 34.) Infants only; 35.) Fetch drugs; 36.) Sibling study; 37.) Quack; 38.) Protocol; 39.) Fired; 40.) Good news; 41.) Portland Rose Hospital; 42.) Uncle Bobby; 43.) Sugar high; and 44.) Stonehill Biotech.

audience reaction:
Although there were quite a number of people in the audience with me, I didn't hear any feedback from anyone of them.

recommendation: I liked this movie in the sense that it let me in on the behind-the-scenes issues, frustrations, concerns and arguments involving the research, the funding and the clinical testing that all go into the making of a pharmaceutical drug. It's a slow movie which, at times, pulls on the "heart strings" and can be best appreciated only by people who can relate to it in a personal way.

spoiler alert!
John Crowley probably never heard of a pocket protector. At the meeting with the victims of the disease, nobody partook of the muffins and beverages laid out neatly on a table--'must be just movie props! I didn't notice any test done on animals and/or human organ cells. It gives the false impression that pharmaceutical companies can concoct a "magic bullet" to combat any and every disease known to man. This movie shows that only the people with money and the right connection can have first dibs on a cure. Drugs are a multi-billion dollar industry and pharmaceutical companies are only concerned with the bottom line. The only Portland Rose Hospital that I could find is a veterinary one.

fyi:
In the real world, researchers generally drag on; otherwise, they lose their source of income ( think "finding a cure for cancer" ) and/or the means to pay-off their college loans. I met a lady who cures cancer using a 1930's era treatment. She even cured a chiropractor's wife who was diagnosed with advanced brain cancer and who was so debilitated by the disease that she couldn't even walk; yet, she was cured by this lady who doesn't even have a license to practice medicine and gets by only on donations.

If a doctor says that there is no cure, yet, for a disease, it could be a "white lie" because a cure is not considered a cure if the pharmaceutical industry cannot make a profit from it. So, such cures are dismissed as just a result of the "placebo effect". But when you think about it, any drug taken for a disease, to some extent, will have a "placebo effect" ( i.e. power of auto-suggestion ) if it proves efficacious.

If you want a second opinion about a medical condition, get it from a different type of doctor. Try alternative medicine. A real maverick doctor, Dr. Richard Schulze, N.D., M.H., trained by the late, great Dr. Christopher, has cured many patients who were given-up on by M.Ds. He had some serious run-ins with the FDA and the AMA because of his treatments' much greater rate of success! You can find out more on him, and others like him, on the Internet. ( I learned a few treatments from his master, Dr. Christopher, that really worked. )

word of advice:
Money talks.

It's not what you know but who you know.

tidbits: I also smuggled-in a small bag of snack, a Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate/Almond Joy Pieces mix that I put in a zip-lock bag, so that I wouldn't have to buy the bulk chocolate candies at the concession stand--and because I have to get rid of my surplus candy, a.s.a.p., so I can start my New Year's diet.