Coma

As soon as I heard Coma was out on video I had to put it in my Blockbuster at Home queue. After watching it I think it was way below par for Ridley Scott. I know some people have called it a 'mini series' but at almost 3 hours of pointless characters it is anything but mini. I definitely liked the original version better and after talking to a few guys in my office at DISH I know I am not the only person that holds that sentiment. About half way through Coma I took it to the to the Blockbuster store down the street for a free exchange. I paid to watch a movie that night and I am happy I didn't have to do it twice at least.

COMA is a 2012 television miniseries based on the Robin Cook medical thriller of the same name. If it seems familiar, that's because Michael Crichton already directed an adaptation in the form of a movie back in 1978. It was a great little film, and the miniseries seems destined to pale in comparison.

Not that this new COMA is bad; it turns out to be quite decent, especially by TV movie standards. The reason it works is that it focuses throughout on the developing suspense and conspiracy situation, which means that it's never less than involving. Yes, there are problems with the direction and the acting, not to mention plenty of hulking plot holes, but the crucial thing is that COMA remains watchable from beginning to end.

Very nearly, anyway; the last twenty minutes or so falls down with a silly, sci-fi scenario which goes against all that's come before. It's something that belongs in a SyFy Channel movie, not this, but at least it's only at the very end that things fall apart.

The young actors in this production aren't bad, but the most fun comes from 'spot the star' in the older cast members. James Woods, Richard Dreyfuss, Ellen Burstyn, Joe Morton and Geena Davis are all present, and there's fun to be had from guessing which of them is involved. It certainly helps to pass the time, anyway.

The original is more disturbing both visually and psychologically, despite being made in 1978. But this film, complete with high-tech horror effects and a psychotic performance from Ellen Burstyn, is a keeper. I watched both parts and found it a bit strange why they didn't just release it as a single film. I had the same technical confusion with Bag of Bones with Pierce Brosnan. You do have to seriously suspend some disbelief. While the original has its moments of cheese, and dated 70s gimmicks, it is far more believable than this one. Characters are relentlessly picked off in the most public of places and no one notices. An entire unit of gore and horror lurks in the bottom of a shady medical center and yet, despite a video clip of such horrors being on Youtube, no one issues a warrant to search the place. The victims of the conspiracy in the original were more elaborated upon (including an empathetic and very young Tom Selleck who meets his end in OR 8). Here, the victims are seen after surgery in their comatose states, so we have no connection to the human being who once was conscious and lived. The film underuses a very talented case, which includes James Woods, Geena Davis, and Lauren Ambrose. Their characters needed to be seriously elaborated on. Someone was having too much fun with the FX and not with the emotional meat which was desperately needed. It's more outrageously inventive than the original, but far less plausible or thought out. It's a fun, frightful romp that definitely is a grisly charmer and one to keep though.

One would have thought that something produced by Ridley Scott, who directed Alien and Blade Runner, would have been tightly knit. It wasn't. The movie totally drags during the first half and the first hour of the second half. This, like the original, should have been a two-hour film. I was bothered from the start when during the first commercial break, there were cast interviews revealing what was going to happen. The only thing really interesting were the special effects towards the end. Fortunately, I recorded it and was able to use fast forward or I, too, might have lapsed into a coma from having to sit through all of the initial tedium.

Well, talk about disappointing.

"Coma" is a two-part miniseries from A&E directed by Ridley Scott and starring Lauren Ambrose, Steven Pasquale, Richard Dreyfuss, James Woods, Joe Morton, Geena Davis, and Ellen Burstyn. Great cast, great director, bad script.

The original coma in 1978 starring Michael Douglas and Genevieve Bujold was more compelling. The story concerns a medical student (Ambrose) who discovers an inordinate number of people at her hospital are going into comas after surgery. Her investigation leads her to the Jefferson Institute, where all the comatose patients live out their lives. Her investigation puts her in a great deal of danger.

In this version, the action in the finale is moved to the Jefferson Institute and takes on horror movie aspects.

Lauren Ambrose has a real workhorse role and does it well as the curious and ultimately terrified Susan Wheeler. In this version, Wheeler comes from a prominent family in medicine, so even though she makes more trouble than Dracula loose in a blood bank, she isn't thrown out, though she manages to get her roommate expelled, someone else fired, and the senior resident set up on a drug charge.

Where Susan in the original was seen as unstable, this Susan is seen as a royal troublemaker. Also, in the original, there was an excellent reason why Susan looks into the comas - her best friend goes into a coma after a D&C. Here, it's someone she used to see at the pool. Frankly, I would have been upset but I don't know if I then would have been borrowing people's IDs so I could violate HIPAA regulations and search patient charts.

What this Coma does give us is a realistic look at the way people are treated in hospitals, including ignoring dying people in the emergency room, neglecting the elderly, and being disrespectful to the dead. These things do go on, which is why it is important to have a family member or friend looking out for you when you are hospitalized.

Coma dragged on and because we never got to know these characters, did not hold interest despite this stellar group of actors, many of whom had very little to do. Steven Pasquale is no Michael Douglas, and his added May-December romance with the psychiatrist played by Geena Davis seemed unnecessary.

As it turned out, watching it was unnecessary too. See the original, which gives us a love story, characters we can relate to, and some good suspense.