Following the hyped-up Oscar-push of fall, winter marks the time of year movie studios clear their shelves and terrorize the movie-going public with an unavoidable slew of summer rejects. Whether for budgetary reasons, missed deadlines, or overall catastrophe, some movies just don’t make the summer cut. In extremely rare cases we somehow manage to find a “Titanic” diamond in the rough, but more often than not we wind up with movies like Barbet Schroeder’s “Desperate Measures.” Entirely contrived from beginning to end, “Desperate Measures” tells the story of Frank Connor (Andy Garcia), a San Francisco police officer forced to break the law in an attempt to find a compatible bone marrow donor to save his 9-year-old son from leukemia. As luck would have it, Connor finds his only match in the form of incarcerated psycho-extraordinaire, Peter McCabe (Michael Keaton). Less than thrilled by Connor’s initial proposal, McCabe revels in the power of taking another life from behind bars, and true to sociopath form, takes his own sweet time concocting an elaborate escape plan before agreeing to undergo the lifesaving procedure.What follows is a gun-toting free-for-all, complete with all the formulaic convolutions of the typical second-rate thriller. Because bone marrow becomes useless upon death, Connor finds himself both pursuing and protecting McCabe through hospital buildings teeming with a trigger-happy SWAT team and an impossibly courageous hospital staff. Oddly enough, Connor’s steely resolve is unfazed by the dead and wounded left in McCabe’s destructive wake, and McCabe is essentially allowed to kill at will with minimal consequence. Though “Desperate Measures” has its fair share of thought-provoking twists and turns (most notably those leading up to McCabe’s escape), screenwriter David Klass (“Kiss the Girls”) displays a curious inattention to logical detail throughout the film’s 100-minute running time. How does a convicted killer with years of solitary confinement under his belt gain unrestricted Internet access to antiquated hospital blueprints under prison supervision? And more importantly, how in the world can Connor ignore the killing of numerous innocents in a selfish effort to save his ailing son? Unfortunately, these issues go unresolved and do nothing but confound the believability of a marginally believable film.Similarly suspect is Schroeder (“Reversal of Fortune”), whose lazy direction is an unwelcome reminder of past commercial failures (“Kiss of Death,” “Before and After”). Scenes of thoroughly unconvincing emotion become lost in the total carnage of McCabe’s assaults, and the film takes a counterproductive tone of indifference in the process. As for Garcia and Keaton, there isn’t much to say. Neither actor embarrasses himself with over-the-top performances, so it’s likely they’ll both save face when “Desperate Measures” inevitably tanks at the box office.If you’re in the mood for nonsensical bloodshed with very few amusements, “Desperate Measures” is the movie for you. But if you’re interested in seeing something other than a summer bench warmer that never should have made the winter cut, you’d be better off revisiting the “Titanic.”