Urgences

Tries to be Gross Anatomy; does an okay job. It's like Gross Anatomy Part II, but the cast isn't as good. Still, it has its moments and is in the very least entertaining.

I can just picture Larry Ketron sitting in a producers office pitching this film. "We'll use a bad 80s medical drama as our base line.We'll get a director with no experience and no talent, a cast that could have been rejected from "The Hightes" and stick Jimmy Smits right in the middle of it just for fun." Vital Signs makes scrubs look serious by comparison. The pacing of this film is so slow that at times it feels longer than all the Lord of the Rings movies put together. I have seen Italian operas that felt shorter then this movie. It's partially the director, Marisa Silver's fault. Hey Marisa, can you say An Alan Smithee film? The film looked like it was cut with a chain saw, and it was incredibly disjointed. I don't know if the writer of this movie was UN-knowledgeable or just didn't care about facts, but the factual errors in this movie would have ruined it had it been filled with the greatest actors on earth. The movie is about 3rd year med students, but they are doing things that only residents and attendings can do. Pluse why is everyone referring to these students as "Doctor"? They aren't doctors! Far worse however is the acting. This cast has shown up to do one thing, and that is collect their pay checks. When Jimmy Smits is the most talented man on the team, you know you are in trouble. Diane Lane is good to look at, but that's about the best I can say for anyone in the movie. Even her one love scene, though hot, comes at the wrong time in the film, thanks again to our friend the editor. I bet this is the film on which William Devane finally realized his career was over. I rented this movie for .25 cents from the video store down the street, and I am thinking of asking for my money back.

Michael's blue crop top in the end scene is my favorite styling moment in the last 50 years *chef's kiss*

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.

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.