Puncture - David gegen Goliath

Puncture (2011)

A brave attempt to make an edgy drama from a current social event, mixing personal intensity with a critique of corporate greed and ethical inertia.

On that score, it might be loosely compared to the 1996 "The Insider," which focused on the tobacco industry. Here it is the hospital and pharmaceutical world. The trigger is a nurse who gets an accidental needle stick, and even though there was and is a solution to most needle sticks, the industry has been slow to change, at the peril of many lives.

The personal side of this is based on the lead lawyer who takes the case of this nurse, which leads to a general uncovering of the problem and a pressuring of the industry almost single-handedly. It also turns out that he's a total coke addict, and his life is in overdrive all the time, with the necessary crashes along the way. The actor here is Chris Evans, who reminded me a little of a young George C. Scott, but without the depth of character Scott managed to bring with his acidity. Evans is key here, and not quite enough. The movie holds him more than he drives the movie, mostly because he has a kind of blankness inside, a practiced intensity rather than a really out of the box abandonment we might find irresistible.

So why watch? Mostly for the plot, the story as it develops and reminds you of how the world works, and how some people have ideals that make them ignore the resistance of the rest of us. The only problem with this is that it's a story we've seen before, in the outline. It needs to be known and told, for sure, but maybe a twenty minute spot on Sixty Minutes might serve the cause best. Here, the drama and the social justice are jammed together into a single, overlong, somewhat predictable movie. Good might not be good enough.

I didn't know what to expect going into "Puncture," but what I found, surpassed even my most hopeful wishes for an evening at the movies. "Puncture" is a perfectly acted true-life story that still has me thinking about its message 3 days later. It was gripping from the opening credits and I was emotionally pulled in a number of directions. Chris Evans proved he can really act, not just dress up as a superhero and run around a big budgeted set. Mark Kassen was marvelous alongside him as his legal partner and the Houston backdrop made for an unlikely protagonist in and of itself. A story that needed to be shared and with tremendous talent. I only wish there were more films like "Puncture." I encourage people to go see the film.

I watch this movie with no expectations or aware of the cast. I have an eye for details and as I watched this the scene where they open the refrigerator and there is a news clipping on the door and it say Bellaire High School. I hit pause and rewind and freeze and read the article. No way. This movie is real and it happened in my hometown of Houston. I went to Bellaire HS and I was thrown for a loop.

The movie is one of those that tells a tale of injustice and a lawyer suing for a large group of people. Finding out that Bono liked this movie so much since it relates to his charity touches on the fact that this tries to be a feel good movie for heart.

It tells a story that after doing research on the facts, safety needles, makes you think. Makes you want to know why the Hospitals have all the power and why we have no health care in America.

Wish it touched more on personal lives of the lawyers especially since one wrote the script. Great movie.

Puncture tells the true story of Mike Weiss. Mike Weiss is a lawyer and a drug addict. He has started a case against a major medical supply company. For not supplying hospitals with safety needles that could prevent hundreds of thousands of disease infections each year from patients to nurses.

The story is definitely a legal drama no matter what you have heard. It might not be your typical legal drama with all the cliché's you are used to, but is that really a bad thing? The story keeps you interested in whats going to happen to the case and whats going to happen to Mike.

Chris Evans does a good job creating a character and making you care for the character. Even if the character always does not make the right decision. Evans portrays Mike Weiss as a flawed anti hero. Yet you wonder if he is fighting this case because he wants to help others or if he wants to help himself.

I really liked this drama, especially since it was a true story. Especially since the project was started by Mike Weiss's real life partner who had no connections to Hollywood, but worked very hard to get this movie made which has a very important message.

I gave this movie a 7 out of 10 because while it is a good movie, it does movie a little slow. The ending is also abrupt and I think it could have been longer. But if you are a fan of Chris Evans, please see this movie. He takes this role very seriously and you could tell he worked hard at this movie. You will not be disappointed in him.

By the time you read this review, you already know what the movie is about so there's no point going over that again. You know it's supposed to be a courtroom drama and a personal one as well as we take a look into Mike Weiss' demons and struggle with his drug addiction. Chris Evans' performance alone is worth the price of admission, but the movie itself, although well-intentioned, fails to deliver. It seemed as though the filmmakers didn't know how to make the two story lines converge coherently and thus gave us a shallow passage through both with an ending that.... Well, I leave it up to you to comment on it after you've seen it. Make no mistake, the movie is worth your time. But don't expect to be shaken or astounded by it; just go and enjoy a good piece of cinema that had great potential but didn't fully live up to it.