Extraordinary Measures (2010)
Average Rating: 4.8/10
Reviews Counted: 136
Fresh: 37 | Rotten: 99
Despite a timely topic and a pair of heavyweight leads, Extraordinary Measures never feels like much more than a made-for-TV tearjerker.
Average Rating: 4.7/10
Critic Reviews: 34
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 28
Despite a timely topic and a pair of heavyweight leads, Extraordinary Measures never feels like much more than a made-for-TV tearjerker.
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Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 73,922
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Movie Info
Inspired by an incredible true story, the CBS Films docudrama portrays one father's desperate quest to save his children from succumbing to a rare life-threatening genetic disorder. Working-class father John Crowley (Brendan Fraser) is finally on the fast track to corporate success when his two young children, Megan and Patrick, are diagnosed with Pompe disease -- a condition that prevents the body from breaking down sugar. In time, it disables the heart and the muscles, ultimately resulting in
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Cast
-
Harrison Ford
Dr. Robert Stonehill -
Brendan Fraser
John Crowley -
Keri Russell
Aileen Crowly -
Courtney B. Vance
Marcus Temple -
Meredith Droeger
Megan Crowley -
Diego Velázquez
Patrick Crowley -
Sam M. Hall
John Crowley Jr. -
Patrick Bauchau
Eric Loring -
Jared Harris
Dr. Kent Webber -
Alan Ruck
Pete Sutphen -
David Clennon
Dr. Renzler -
Dee Wallace
Sal -
Ayanna Berkshire
Wendy Temple -
P.J. Byrne
Dr. Preston -
Andrea White
Dr. Allegria -
G.J. Echternkamp
Niles -
Vu Pham
Vinh Tran -
Derek Webster
Cal Dunning -
Jana Lee Hamblin
Renzler Scientist #1 -
Shelly Lipkin
Senior Scientist -
Chris Harder
Researcher -
Eric Derovanessian
Security Officer -
Patricia Ferguson
Reception Nurse -
Jeanette McMahon
Day Nurse (Jane) -
Claire Brennan
Julia -
Tra'Renee Chambers
Night Nurse (Marcy) -
Quigley Provost-Landrum
Maria -
Kimberly Howard
ICU Nurse -
Lily Mariye
Dr. Waldman -
Sherilyn Lawson
Day Nurse (Kate) -
Eric Martin Reid
ICU Doctor -
Sharonlee McLean
Stonehill's Secretary -
Bryce Flint-Somerville
Van Driver -
Jeanine Jackson
Nell Madden -
Gavin Bristol
Webber's Assistant -
Robert Blanche
Armed Guard -
Olga Sanchez
Pediatric Nurse -
Chrisse Roccaro
Mega Store Cashier -
Michael Shamberg
Renzler Venture Capital... -
John Crowley
Renzler Venture Capital... -
Christopher Desmond Willi...
Security Officer #2 -
Melanie Sanders
ICU Nurse #2 -
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Extraordinary Measures Trailer & Photos
All Critics (137) | Top Critics (34) | Fresh (39) | Rotten (99) | DVD (4)
Harrison Ford still retains enough of his old movie star magic to ramp up the electricity a bit when he's onscreen, but this only makes you want to see him do something that makes better use of his gifts. Brendan Fraser just seems to grow bigger over the
Top CriticModerately illuminating in parts, but the clichà (C)s of cinematic suffering tend to overwhelm it.
There's something off-putting about this film's optimism: After all, how many people can afford to do what Crowley did?
It sometimes feels like one of those "disease of the week" TV movies from the 1970s.
It's about as dramatically taut as your garden-variety board meeting. And it makes you realize that jerking a tear or two isn't necessarily a bad thing for a filmmaker to do, if it at least keeps your audience awake.
Anyway, I cried. A lot. What can I say? I'm a sucker for kids on ventilators.
Extraordinary Measures is a celery of a film; humorless, flavorless, mediocre through and through.
Extraordinary Measures strives to tug at our heartstrings, and educate us on a little publicized disease, but it ends up feeling like a drug itself - manufactured using artificial chemicals by technicians in a cold lab.
If nothing else, this movie arrives just in time to fan the flames a bit more during the heated health care debates, an every man for himself, survival for sale health care from hell thriller.
Easy to root for a loving father fighting through the system, but Extraordinary Measures shamelessly piles on the sentimentality and disregards the real work of the many scientists dedicated to fighting this disease for years.
A syrupy saga which somehow proves moving, in spite of a fairly formulaic, Hollywood approach to a truly inspiring, real-life triumph.
A garden variety disease-of-the-week TV movie dressed up with cinema marquee names.
If the two leading characters were women, this would have gone straight to the Lifetime network.
This story has merit, so it's a shame it isn't a stronger adaptation of the true events that inspired it.
If this this sounds like movie-of-the-week fodder, it is, but Extraordinary Measures hits all the right dramatic notes without tipping into sentimentality.
A touching story inspired by true events. A timely subject. Two high-profile actors in Brendan Fraser and Harrison Ford. Sadly, it all adds up to an extraordinary bore.
Soapy and unemotional, this makes a hash of an interesting true story.
Those expecting the exuberance of an Erin Brockovich from the same producers will be disappointed. Extraordinary Measures is sensitive and dull.
Harrison Ford is the clichà (C) of a scientist who cares more for equations than humans, and works to atrocious rock music. The child actors are cloying in their cuteness. A serious subject drowned by sentimentality.
Audience Reviews for Extraordinary Measures
Super Reviewer
The first feature made by CBS Films, Extraordinary Measures is largely bereft of the mawkish excess of recent kids-with-cancer slog Matching Jack. Sick children and Crowley's (Fraser) selfless wife Aileen (Keri Russell) often disappear, leaving us with starstruck Fraser and Harrison Ford arguing, or fighting the power. Jared Harris is suitably terse as a cold-hearted pharmaceutical "suit", yet professionally crabby Ford ensures that those on the front line of medicine aren't whitewashed as altruistic saints.
This is terribly tense - or draining, even with Fraser's constant effort to prove he's a serious performer by bugging his eyes in a serious manner. But being unaffected by the prime objective is impossible.
Super Reviewer
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Latest News on Extraordinary Measures
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Foreign Titles
- Ausnahmesituation (DE)
- Mesures exceptionnelles (FR)
its a nice enough heart warming, if not inspiring movie of one dads motivation to cure his kids,but this movie is only 'okay' and is okay enough to watch on a sunday afternoon.