Stitches

this is one of the medical school movies the eighties produced. all follow the English romantic comedy 1950s era DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE to an extent but none quite attain the elegance and sophistication of English template.

of course directed at an American audience this films do have to have an element of silliness and teenage humour to sell tickets. three students are charting a course through medical school; one is an American --- ugh -- who is quite a comedian; a foreigner who befriends him is a far more serious student but there's a serious matter at hand. who teaches whom and what exactly must be learnt? the film does have an important point which it makes well, against the backdrop of a ridiculous pageant of body parts. it isn't quite so bad as some have said and is worth revisiting.

the film lacks the charm of certain of its rivals. It isn't quite as genteel as GROSS ANATOMY or as rich in social comment as BAD MEDICINE but certainly towers over PATCH ADAMS which is a pure abomination.

I wasn't in stitches watching this sordid teen sex-comedy, but it did offer more than a few chuckles as Stevenson and fellow interns (including Brian Tochi) get up to the usual hijinks during their medical training.

It's no more or less entertaining than others of the ilk ('Hot Chili', 'Private School' or even 'Police Academy'), and certainly no more offensive in context. Likeable characters, veteran cast (Eddie Albert, Geoffrey Lewis and Sydney Lassick), solid acting and plenty of puerile gags aimed squarely at the teenage male audience who'll appreciate the casual plot structure and cheeky antics.

Fun, easy viewing if you're familiar with this sub-genre and don't have high expectations.

Fun at med school. Hurray! Yeah right! This is a stupid, ridiculous movie, not even good for its genre. Lots of beer, a few body parts, a bad dean, what else...

The first scene with the cadavre sets the tone of this abysmal movie. How low can you go? This one go pretty low on the tasteless, unfunny scale.

Why bother watching if not just to satisfy a bizarre urge to rate a bad movie.

Out of 100, I gave it 49. That's good for 0 stars out of 4.

Seen at home, in Welland, on December 14th, 2001.

As you probably know, the name "Alan Smithee" is the standard pseudonym a director uses when he feels that their movie has been altered from his original vision, which is apparently what happened here. But to be honest, from what we do get to see, I don't think a director's cut would be that much better than this current version. It's true that some scenes in this version play out in a slightly incomprehensible manner. But even the scenes that do make sense suffer from the fact that the level of comedy is simply not funny at all. The humor is for the most part extremely lame, but also at times racist and homophobic. Other script problems include not only the fact that the three central protagonists are really obnoxious and irresponsible, but that there is no real plot for the first seventy or so minutes of this eighty nine minute movie. The only person connected with this movie who more or less survives is actor Geoffrey Lewis; his scenes do have a little spark, and he comes across as somewhat likable. But when a movie can't get any fun out of a cameo by cult movie star Sydney Lassick, you know something is really wrong.