PUNCTURE
4 out of 5 stars

this movie wasn’t what i thought at all... in fact, it’s BETTER and gives us a very raw look at how two underdog attorneys take on a powerful corporation that manufactures healthcare supplies. anyone in the medical profession should probably see this movie. ;)

based on a true story... mike weiss (chris evans) and paul danzinger (mark kasssen- he and his bro are directors of this film) are two personal injury lawyers, who decide to take on a case that’ll change their lives forever. basically, mike and paul are subcontractors for a bigger firm made possible through their friend daryl (jesse l. martin from L&O), and he suggests that they go see a nurse who was infected by a needle 3 years ago. she got infected with HIV, and has full-on AIDS...living on worker’s compensation, and shows mike and paul an invention made by her friend jeffrey dancort called the safety needle. it’s basically a contractible needle that’s foolproof, and will prevent nurses from sticking themselves, thus preventing them from contracting dangerous diseases i.e. HIV. the problem is that none of the hospitals in houston or in the state of TX want to use this safety needle because they’ve already got contracts to use another company’s brand of needles (thompson) via a healthcare supplies corporation called united healthcare supplies. because they’ve got the monopoly of healthcare supplies, there is NO room for safety point, and mike and paul believe this is a sound anti-trust case. as mike does his research and recon work on united healthcare supplies and beyond, he is baffled by the amount of backlash including firms refusing to take this particular case... mike and paul are on the verge of bankruptcy, and it doesn’t help that mike is a drug addict, whose also got hookers shooting up with him and even snorts coke in a senator’s office building. man, what a mess... :P

i think this was a 3 star movie, but i gave it an extra star due to the fact that the subject matter was interesting. it’s amazing to see how biased the healthcare system is, and how much GPOs (group purchasing organizations) have a blatant disregard for human safety, especially for the frontline nurses who are at risk for contracting these infectious diseases. chris evans does a good job as an ambitious yet drug-addicted attorney, and the script is really well-written. this movie is a good one for both those interested in law AND health. i have to warn ya...the ending is very sad, but there’s a twist at the end where justice prevails. ;)