Medicine Man - Die letzten Tage von Eden

In this day and age of too much reality, this movie shows reality on a grand scale. Toned down with a romantic story. Connery and Bracco are a matched team working in harness, plus the fact of the disappearing rain forests, allows this movie to work for me. I have seen it 9 times in the past 13 years and each time it is a pleasure to watch. Goldsmith's score is the icing on the cake. This is a believable plot. But then I was raised up on movies since 1935 and I wish there were more movies like this.

The scene in the trees is like a ballet. There is a real story here and I personally like the whole mix.

Well, I suppose a lot of people did not seem to like this movie. I did. It's one real flaw was obvious from the beginning, a preachy, environmental tone. Aside from that, it has a lot to recommend it. First, Sean Connery can scarcely do anything bad. He lifts a maybe ho-hum script into the sky. He is simply believable as his character at all times. Lorraine Bracco was pretty, and hit all of her part as well. Her nasal New York accent seems to have grated on some of the commentators, but I believe that it was the director's intent. The conflict may have been a bit formulaic, but you have to have SOMETHING to make a movie about. I'd say check it out.

Killer, non-blockbuster (they can't all be, and shouldn't all be, box office smashes - there has to be room for really good small films) movie. Apparently a lot of watchers of this film spent a lot of viewing time yawning or chatting because most of their complaints are addressed in the course of the film.

This isn't a high concept story. It doesn't need explosions and chest beating, flash and deafening sounds to keep your attention.

Good movie.

Timely.

Scary if you think about it. Horrifying if you keep up with rare botanicals and disease.

Absolutely last note as to the film's worthiness ... Sean Connery.

Eccentric scientist Dr. Robert Campbell (Sean Connery) asks for an assistant and a gas chromatograph after 3 years of silence in the Amazon jungle. The drug company sends Dr. Rae Crane (Lorraine Bracco) who is out of her elements. She finds Campbell completely immersed with the natives. She's actually there to judge his progress and whether or not to cut off funding. He believes that he has found a cure for cancer. Only he can't reproduce it and the bulldozers are coming.

I think people missed the fact that this is very much a formulaic rom-com. The serious matter of cancer cure and Amazon destruction masks that fact from almost everybody. The formula is simple. They hate each other and then they fall in love. I actually find Lorraine Bracco hilariously adorable but I guess most people found her annoying. Not everybody likes a woman who talks back. Jerry Goldsmith's music is memorable as always. This is a fun rom-com if one lets it be. And climbing among the trees is visually stunning.

When this movie came out in 1992, many critics seemed to feel that it was mediocre, or average at best. Even as a hardcore Connery fan I avoided the film simply based on a handful of reviews I had read in the media at the time.

Fast forward nearly ten years and the mixed reviews here on imdb reinforced my apathy towards the film. It wasn't until I borrowed a copy through a local library that I finally watched the movie just now, and I fail to see why it's supposedly not up to par. I thought it was a fine film in most respects: the storytelling was good, the dialogue was snappy, the cinematography was wonderful, and it had a positive message. It's not an action movie, but I never felt bored at all...if anything, it was a refreshing change of pace and scenery, and Sean Connery continues to astound me with his versatility. His acting was superb, which is not really a big suprise, but he seemed more into this role than some others I've seen him in. Even the wig and ponytail looked real!

Like a lot of other people, I found Lorraine Bracco's character quite annoying, almost insufferable at certain points, but that's the whole point: her character is supposed to be like that, and the truth is that if she didn't come across as so irritating then that would have been failed acting skills on her part. I think she did a great job at being annoying, which is what she was supposed to do. I imagine that if you took some ivy league lab rat scholar and dumped them right in the middle of a situation and place that's totally foreign to them, you'd probably get a reaction like the one she portrayed. I found the two leads had a good chemistry, and the constant tension and conflict between them was very convincing and helped to propel the story along.

All in all an enjoyable film, but some of the other aspects could have and should have been expanded. I felt that they spent too much time searching the trees for the plant they needed, and the whole conflict with the developers was thrown in at too late a juncture. These aren't major failings however, so I'd recommend the film to anyone looking for something a bit different, and it's a must for any Connery fan. Don't wait ten years to see it simply because some critics didn't think it was a masterpiece. Screw the critics!