Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Netflix Instant Queue Movie Review: "Puncture" (2011)

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Movie: "Puncture"
Director: Adam and Mark Kassan
Year: 2011
Rating: R
Running Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes

Mike Weiss (Chris Evans) is a heroin addict and also a young attorney that prides himself on taking cases other people don't want. He and his partner take on a huge, seemingly un-winnable case against a medical supply company. The lawsuit is an anti-trust case dealing with retractable safety needles. This new product would reduce the risk of exposure that normal needles give to nurses and doctors. Many health care officials had gotten sick and/or died as a result of being stuck, so their client attempted to sell his product to hospitals, with no avail. Despite the hospitals wanting the product, due to deals between medical supply companies and the hospitals, they were unable to purchase the safety needles for distribution. Mike is also concurrently battling his addiction and, in an effort to do his best for his client, attempts to become sober.

"Puncture" is an interesting story based off of real life events. Mike is a compelling character in that he is a man with a lot of skeletons in his closet. He is the type of person who society would view as immoral due to his drug use and a penchant for prostitutes, yet he has a strong moral conviction to do the right thing as a lawyer, even at his own expense. It's not about making money for him, it's about doing the right thing for other people. On the other hand, his partner Paul is a very straitlaced family man, one who would be considered an upstanding citizen, yet he seems more interested in personal injury cases where the victim is often lying, all to make a quick buck. Paul urges Mike many times to drop the safety needle case because of the cost in fighting for justice. This is a very compelling story, but it's hard to watch at times because it does move quite slowly. In fact, everything about the movie is sort of "meh," except for the story. If it was done better, we might have liked it better.

My Rating: 6/10
BigJ's Rating: 6/10
IMDB's Rating: 6.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 51%
Do we recommend this movie: Sure, why not?

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