''Vital Signs'' is a 1990

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film directed by

Marisa Silver Marisa Silver (born April 23, 1960) is an American author, screenwriter and film director. Film work Silver enrolled at Harvard University and majored in Visual Studies. After assisting documentary filmmaker and MIT faculty member, Ricky Leacock ...

and starring

Adrian Pasdar Adrian Pasdar (born April 30, 1965) is an American film, television, and voice actor. He is known for his roles in '' Profit'', ''Near Dark'', ''Carlito's Way'', ''Mysterious Ways'', ''Heroes'' and as Glenn Talbot on ''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.''. ...

, Diane Lane and

Jimmy Smits Jimmy L. Smits (born July 9, 1955) is an American actor. He is best known for playing attorney Victor Sifuentes on the 1980s-1990s legal drama ''L.A. Law'', NYPD Detective Bobby Simone on the 1990s-2000s police drama '' NYPD Blue'', Matt Santos ...

Premise

A group of 3rd year medical students has to come with terms with the personal and professional tension that goes on in a teaching hospital.

Cast

as Michael Chatham * Diane Lane as Gina Wyler *

as Dr. David Redding * Jack Gwaltney as Kenny Rose * Laura San Giacomo as Lauren Rose * Jane Adams as Suzanne Moloney *Tim Ransom as Bobby Hayes * William Devane as Dr. Chatman * Norma Aleandro as Henrietta Walker * Bradley Whitford as Dr. Donald Ballentine *

Lisa Jane Persky Lisa Jane Persky (born May 5, 1955) is an American actress, journalist, author, artist, and photographer. She played supporting roles in the films ''The Great Santini'' (1979) ''Peggy Sue Got Married'' (1986) and '' When Harry Met Sally...'' (19 ...

as Bobby * Wallace Langham as Gant *

James Karen James Karen (born Jacob Karnofsky; November 28, 1923 – October 23, 2018) was an American character actor of Broadway, film and television. Karen is known for his roles in '' Poltergeist'', ''The China Syndrome'', '' Wall Street'', ''The Retu ...

as Dean of Students *Eric Zoltaszek as Student

Development

The film was originally to have been about a country doctor.

Release

Reception

''Vital Signs'' received mixed reviews from critics.

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reports that 43% of 7 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review. Leonard Maltin gave the film one and a half stars and wrote in his review: "Watchable, but of absolutely no distinction; stick with '' The New Interns'', where you can at least compare the acting styles of Dean Jones and Telly Savalas. Smits effectively projects quiet authority as the surgeon instructor." Valerie Schoen of the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'' also gave the film a star and a half and wrote, "I have to find ''Vital Signs'' dead on arrival." Jay Boyar of the ''

Orlando Sentinel The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company. The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by parent company, '' Tribune P ...

'' gave the film two stars, calling it "weak - very weak."

Janet Maslin Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for ''The New York Times''. She served as a ''Times'' film critic from 1977 to 1999 and as a book critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000 Maslin ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' also gave the film an unfavorable review, writing that the film "never has much energy of its own. The film's very basic problem is that it contains no surprising turns, and that its characters are familiar through and through." Michael Wilmington of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' wrote, "The movie has everything, which may be its problem. This brisk, whipped-up show has no rough edges." Jay Carr of ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' criticized the film's screenplay: "''Vital Signs'' has a much better title than last year's med school outing, ''

Gross Anatomy Gross anatomy is the study of anatomy at the visible or macroscopic level. The counterpart to gross anatomy is the field of histology, which studies microscopic anatomy. Gross anatomy of the human body or other animals seeks to understand the rel ...

''. But it's not a much better movie. In fact, this coming-of-age-in-med-school film is

DOA DOA may refer to: * Dead on arrival * Dead or Alive (disambiguation) Film * ''D.O.A.'' (1949 film), a ''film noir'' * ''D.O.A.'' (1988 film), a remake of the 1949 film * '' D.O.A.: A Rite of Passage'' (1980 film), a documentary on the genes ...

, sunk by a banal script, the kind that insists that every crisis contain the seeds of its convenient resolution." Owen Gleiberman of ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

'' gave the film a positive review: "The movie never strays far from camp, but on its own shameless terms, it delivers."

Home media

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment 20th Century Studios Home Entertainment (commonly referred to as 20th Home Video, or 20th Home Entertainment, formerly known as 20th Century-Fox Video, CBS/Fox Video, Fox Video, and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment) is a home video label of Wa ...

released the film on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

on June 7, 2005. The film was released on

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

on October 1, 2013 by Anchor Bay Entertainment.

References

External links

* * * {{Marisa Silver 1990 films 1990s romantic comedy-drama films 20th Century Fox films American romantic comedy-drama films 1990s English-language films Films directed by Marisa Silver Films set in hospitals Films with screenplays by Jeb Stuart 1990 comedy-drama films Films scored by Miles Goodman 1990s American films