nassty_hobbitses9

I can think of absolutely NOTHING bad to say about this movie; and believe me, for me, that is RARE. As Patch, the ex-psychiatric-turned-brilliant-med-student, Robin Williams has displayed that he has talents that go far beyond the goof prancing around in drag. He adds the perfect blend of humour, drama, and real feeling to the picture- which I suppose some cynisists would call "hamminess" or "corniness", neither of which I see in this film. I do not know the story of the true Patch Adams, so I cannot comment on its historical accuracy, but as just a film in and of itself, I say it's wonderful. The script is neither over-done nor left to rot, but seems to hit the perfect note of helping the actors but not attempting to do the acting for them. Monica Potter was excellent as the defensive, book-worm, hesitant girl-friend who half-reluctantly helps Patch with his unethical schemes. She also brings a note of tragedy to the film- which I will say nothing more about ;) For cinematography and music, this film is fairly straight-forward, but it was pretty well unnecessary in this case. All around- although I hate to use the VERY old cliché- it made me laugh and cry.

While I enjoyed this series in that it was Canadian, well acted, fairly well scripted and with a good plot, it is my personal opinion that it fails to reach the standards set by such series as CSI and Law and Order. The over-involvement of the squad's personal lives is what I think galled me the most. Don't get me wrong, I like a little personal spice thrown in here and there, but it often seemed to be more about the investigators than the investigation. But hey, if that's what you're going for, then this is certainly the show for you. I'm certainly not a expert, having only seen one season, but I did see the entire first season, and what I saw there mostly pleased me. There was a good, solid plot; a script that is much more high-brow and MUCH less painfully corny than the twenty million other hack cop shows being aired; More than decent actors who are decently but not unrealistically beautiful and who wear clothes detectives would actually WEAR; and for the fellow science nuts out there, forensics is added JUST enough to make it interesting from that aspect. All in all, I'd say, for a Canadian thing, its pretty darn amazing- but out of the whole world, I've seen better.