Critical Condition

 

Picture: B-     Sound: B-     Extras: D     Film: D

 

 

Director Michael Apted certainly has a lengthy career with making very average films along the way.  His 1987 Critical Condition marks a low point, which would star Richard Pryor, who manages to put some spark into a rather dull and tedious story, and remember this is a comedy!  Pryor was not coming off the peak of his career anyway after doing Superman III and Brewster’s Millions and he would only have one more top performance with See No Evil, Hear No Evil in 1989, but let’s get back to this tired film first.

 

There is something that just does not work when it comes to comedy and medicine, it just doesn’t work right!  Hospitals are almost sacrilegious and trying to put comedy into them, just make for a painful experience, take Patch Adams for example.  Pryor plays a man framed for being a jewel thief and upon his plea of insanity he is sent to a hospital for review, but is mixed up for a real doctor, who must take over when a storm hits.  This is not even much of a premise to begin with so the rest of the film is trying to make unfunny moments funny. 

 

Picture and sound are both below average; the Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono mix is flat while the anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 picture never exhibits the right amount of picture detail to give a lively presentation.  It would seem that the goal was to just get the title out there, which for a film this poor it only serves it right to get substandard treatment anyway.  No trailers or any sign of extras here, but who cares anyway?

 

 

-   Nate Goss