Médecins en herbe

of all the movies i have ever seen this ranks in the top ten and no i'm not kidding. complete overlooked for some reason this movie by dave thomas of sctv and grace under fire fame .... not to mention the uber cult classic strange brew ... deserves a better shot. catch it on movie channels or rent or buy it on DVD and video because there is nos shortages of laughs in this movie. who says comedy in canada film comedy films is dead? i'm no expert but this I know what makes me laughs and this had me rolling on the floor for several minutes at a time and not just when i saw it but after wards just thinking about some of the hilarious situation and great dialog between characters. lots of recognizable Canadian talent and greatly written by the legendary dave thomas look out for this film.

Usually, what I expect from former Second City, SNL or any comedy stage performers like the Kids in the Hal is an array of offbeat characters. If you are like me and expected them in this movie, then you will be disappointed. The humor would have come out of how characters said and did things instead of what they said and did. Usually the comedy would be great when it had a healthy combination of both fueling the humor. This doesn't have fun characters and the humor is missing that extra bite.

We might well ask why anyone bothered to make INTERN ACADEMY when we have SCRUBS, but so be it. Dave Thomas, formerly of SCTV, directed and costars. Dan Ackroyd is also aboard in a small role, along with Dave Foley, late of KIDS IN THE HALL. A bunch of generic young interns get a taste of hospital life at a crumbling facility. Typical hijinks ensue, including a bawdy Christmas party and an incredibly gross organ fight that ends with something very wet and very squishy splattering all over Thomas' face. The climax is a direct steal from POLICE ACADEMY, but that's OK, too. The actors playing the interns are likable enough, and the females in the cast are all drop-dead gorgeous and quick to get drunk and down and dirty and sometimes even naked (which is the way I remember my student years working as an orderly at a mid-size hospital). INTERN ACADEMY, called WHITE COATS on TV, definitely is no SCRUBS. But it will do in a pinch. It's like watching one of those mindless winter ski movies, especially the one with Lee Majors.

First of all, let me say that I was one of the few people in the theater the weekend this came out and that surprised me because, although this is not the best movie ever made, it was far from the worst. Without a Paddle is a good example of what I'm talking about. Intern Academy was WAY funnier that that movie and WAY more people went to see that piece of crap. So how come so few people came out to see Intern Academy? I guess it's the usual Canadian thing where a Canadian Distributor thinks if they put fifty bucks into promoting something, they've given it their best shot. Well too bad for Intern Academy because it deserved better. Starting with the title which put it in a league with Police Academy which has now produced 6 or 7 movies and, as always is the case, the farther down the sequel line they go, the worse the movies become. So giving it that title was definitely a bad idea. I read an interview where Dave Thomas said he didn't like that title and it was forced on him by the distributor. Figures. Also where were the TV commercials? I didn't see a single one. And the ad in the paper was pathetic. I almost didn't go when I saw that tiny little ad because it made me think that they were ashamed of it. All in all, the cast was good and although there were some gratuitous sex jokes and gory parts, the movie had a nice likable tone to it. The girls were cute and the guys were okay (I'm not gay). And the older doctors played by Thomas, Dan Aykroyd, Dave Foley and Maury Chakin were pretty good. I had a lot of laughs which is more than I can say for a lot of American movies that I have seen in the past few years. I would say go check it out, but the movie is gone from the theaters already. Too bad. It deserved a better shot.

This movie will be dismissed for political reasons. There are a few laughs at the expense of characters that certain reviewers want to see only in an elevated light. But Intern Academy as a film improves as it goes along. The look is at first kind of washed out, but eventually there are some more pleasing sets. I had heard this was shot on video, but I could not tell as I watched it opening day. Purely, I supported it because Dave Thomas deserves a hit, and he has the same birthday as me. Also, I appreciate his critical views of the media in his interviews for this film. I do think that he miscast himself a little bit in this film. Although Danny is shown in his requisite sunglasses and banging a drum in one scene, he and Thomas should have switched characters. He might be more believable as a cold authority figure teaching students and rattling off lists of maladies, whereas Dave Thomas is best as kind of a weasel or prankster or buffoon - which is especially evident when he runs. Dave Foley is right on the money as a smug, egotistical heart specialist, though it is jarring to see him in gray hair - especially because it is believable.

The movie likes to wallow, and the organ storage fight is a bit unbelievable, as is the mouth examination scene which contains Maurey Chaykin's excellent cameo performance. That character could have been more central, accidentally embarrassing people. Even though the girl who is embarrassed would have known better. Good enough, and especially welcome as a Canadian film that is just funny and not pretentious.