Vital signs: un anno, una vita

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

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.

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.

Although some scenes are over-dramatized, the film, as a whole, accurately depicts the cut-throat competition in medical school, as opposed to another critic's opinion that it was less accurate than the movie, Gross Anatomy, which in my opinion, was the furthest away from reality.

Some scenes in Vital Signs imply that medical school students in their third year (the first year out of the classroom) have more authority and autonomy than what is true in reality. But the film shows the human side of medicine and that medicine isn't an exact science. Physicians can practice and study for years and still not completely understand the human body.

The relationships in the movie are very realistic, especially with Kenny Rose and his wife. Medical school (and medicine in general) takes up a great deal of personal time, which can be damaging to a relationship. The "hanky-panky" between Michael and Gena happens all the time. The relationship between Michael and his father is realistic as well. Sometimes the profession consumes the physician and without knowing it, harms the family life.

Again, I found this film to be a realistic portrayal of medical school. In fact, I have this film on tape and watch it from time to time to motivate me in my medical career. I would recommend this movie to anyone in the medical field, especially students thinking about medical school.

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.