March 18, 1992 -- The theme of ``Medicine Man'' is that destroying the Amazon rain forest is a very bad idea. Hard to argue with that one. A natural substance is found in the forest which cures cancer. A road is coming which will destroy the area of the rain forest where this substance is found.

The rest of the plot has to do with the relationship between the renegade scientist (Sean Connery) and his pretty new assistant (Lorraine Bracco).

This is pretty standard Hollywood faire. The forest and the natives are over-sentimentalized and you keep wondering, how do they keep the computers dry in all this rain? Where are the generators? How do they get all the gasoline to run them if they have to use these tiny canoes to carry the gas?

Another thing that is kind of irritating is the frequent use of prurient camera angles in scenes of the nude native women (the men, of course, had strategically-placed coverings). It made me feel like a kid sneaking peeks at National Geographic.

The so-called science in the film is not very believable. Why did it take so long for the so-called scientist to figure out where the cancer-fighting chemical actually was? It seemed pretty obvious. The scenery and camera work was good, but not spectacular. On the whole, I felt the film was kind of like a Chinese dinner, I knew I was swallowing a whole lot of stuff, but afterwards, I felt empty. This film rates a C-.

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