FeistyUpper
If you don't like this, we can't be friends.
Acensbart
Excellent but underrated film
Beanbioca
As Good As It Gets
Media Staff
Consider the recent developments of the alleged "cooked books", "deleted patient lists" and "dieing patients" at several VA Facilities through-out the entire United States. In addition, the Inspector General (OIG) in involved in an investigation of "deleted" surveillance videos of alleged patient abuse at the Las Vegas VA Emergency Room. With these and many more "concerns" about the Department of Veteran Affairs and the on-going problems at their facilities, this movie should be re-released. Perhaps it would be prudent for all Staff at the Department of Veterans Affairs to view this movie as part of their "Welcome to the VA". It appears not much has changed at the VA since 1992 - 22 years ago.
Michael Neumann
There might be a good movie to be made about VA hospital neglect and mismanagement, but this certainly isn't it. The film has little to recommend it besides an attractive cast (all but invisible in their token, two-dimensional roles) and a screenplay written with obvious firsthand experience of medical red tape. Unfortunately, it was also written with every godawful comedy-drama cliché imaginable, making the film resemble a frustrated doctor's heroic third person fantasy of sex, action, gunfire, and bogus inspiration, none of it enough to distract viewers from the cardboard characters and strictly formula plot. Are all VA doctors this selfless, handsome, and good humored? And are all disabled veterans (including the maniac who drives his truck through the hospital lobby) so courageous and long-suffering? With a little more subtlety and black humor it might have been a worthwhile home front companion piece to Robert Altman's 'M*A*S*H*', but director Howard Deutch is more comfortable with crass exaggeration, limiting the film's appeal to an audience already force fed on a diet of TV ads and stale sitcoms.
metalrox_2000
It's amazing how this movie came and went, and it hasn't gotten the praise it richly deserves. Ray Liotta turns in one of his best performances, somewhat aping his own performance of Henry Hill in Goodfellas, yet outshines his work in Field of Dreams. A subject that could have easily been exploited is actually treated perfectly. Lea Thompson is believable as a doctor, and Keifer Sutherland started out quite arrogant, and somewhat naive, but turns out to be the most likable of the group. Towards the end, the viewer almost wants to rally around him as much as Liotta's Dr. Sturgis character. The movie is haunting, cause in reality, the way some veterans are treated when they need medical treatment is much different. More VA hospitals have been closed in the past two years then in the past ten, and funding for VA's is continuously chopped in half. A great movie, great cast, and excellent performances in bit roles by Randy Quiad as Shooter, and the late Noble Willingham.
aubertin-1
I loved that movie when it came out, and again when I had a chance to see it recently. I feel it is one of the best portrayals, today more than ever, of how frustrating our bureaucracy is becoming, putting dollars before people, even more-so in every public sector, where they should be leaders for the private sector and not the other way around. The solution presented in this picture doesn't seem very plausible, but one never knows. It also portrays well how conscientious underdogs/dedicated professionals feel in such working environments, and how many manage to make things right is spite of the illogical rules they get to bypass, all this while still keeping their sanity - no burnouts for them! Watch it, it's worth it, even more for anyone who is a Keefer Sutherland fan.
