Completely ordinary and boring "drama" of a bunch of third year medical students.
This story is so by the numbers it's insulting. Every character has they own separate little drama and they're all tied up nice and fine by the end of the movie. Every single story line is predictable (as are the outcomes) so it gets incredibly boring just watching it. I also heard there were a lot of errors in terms of the medical dialogue...but I can't swear to that. They have a bunch of very talented actors who are just wasted. All of them struggle with their roles but they're given totally one dimensional characters to work with. No actor could make this work.
I give this a 2 only for the nude and real hot sex sequence between Adrian Pasdar (all pumped up) and Diane Lane (looking great). Still that's no real reason to watch this. Avoid.
Vital Signs
1990
Action / Drama / Romance
Vital Signs
1990
Action / Drama / Romance
Keywords: woman directorhospital
Plot summary
This movie follows the lives of medical students who are in their third year, which is the time that they have to decide what they intend to specialize in. At the center is Michael Chatham son of a respected surgeon, who's trying to be his own man. He has to deal with another third student, Kenny Rose who like Michael wants to be surgeon and the surgical internship at their school. Kenny is also having problems with his marriage because the long hours he puts in his studies. Michael is also butting heads with another doctor, Ballentine over personal and professional issues.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
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Top cast
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Utterly predictable
Prototype third year medical students learn about medicine and life
Why is it that movies about medical school always have the same formula for their characters (reference this movie, Gross Anatomy, Patch Adams...more)? There always has to be the hot-shot male lead for whom everything comes easy...except the good looking, no-nonsense female student, who feels like she has to work harder than everyone else to make up for the fact that she is a woman (and therefore has no time for men). Then there is the wacky friend, and as always there is the uptight, male student we all hate, who works really hard, but just can't seem to beat the protagonist. Surely there is some other way to develop interesting characters in this setting.
Either way, coming from the perspective of a current medical student, I found this movie to be far more interesting, realistic, and believable than any of the other aforementioned movies (yes, I know P.A. was a true story...my statement stands). Granted, you will be infinitely more likely to find third year medical students transporting stool samples and chasing down fast food for their residents than scrubbing in and performing abdominal surgery.
I found the student/patient, student/student, student/resident relationships to be very well developed and believable. The script was interesting, upbeat, and gave a good look at the tempo and pressure of third year. There were plenty of plot intricacies to keep you "tuned in" throughout the movie. The cast is short on big names, but I believe well cast, and believable as students(I've read that they shadowed medical students before filming).
I wouldn't say that this movie is a must-see, but it is the most accurate depiction of medical school that I have seen, and there probably isn't a physician out there whose stomach won't tense up a bit when the attending physicians begin "pimping" the students on Grand Rounds.
Vital Signs Gives Great Life Support ****
This is a terrific film dealing with 3rd year medical students in the tradition of television's "Ben Casey" and "Dr. Kildaire."
We live through their experiences. We see their love interests, and the latter conflicting with their medical responsibilities to themselves and their patients. We see how a young couple's marriage is adversely affected by medical school, we view competition between 2 excellent promising doctors for a top spot.
It's amazing that I would think so positively about a film that plays a song at the disco where the doctors go to relax and dance up a storm. The song goes about everyone falling on the floor, everyone kills a dinosaur!
The best part of the film is that it perfectly describes the idea that medicine in itself is not a perfect science. We view the emotions of doctors when tragedy strikes during a routine injection of a young patient.
The cast is top rate.
Notice that Norma Aleandro plays a 49 year old, 25 year elementary schoolteacher facing stomach cancer. Hard to believe that she has that position with her think Spanish accent.
What's even better about this film is that it shows that doctors are human beings, subject to the human frailties as all of us.