Peanuthead 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.

Pepper Anne This movie is very much like Gross Anatomy, released the previous year, only it is much more dramatic and involves third year med students in action. It looked like it could've been a pilot for a television show, except the ending when everyone disbands to practice their own specialties across the country. Third year medical students are faced with a greuling year of endless days of rounds and heated competition for residencies, internships, and specialties. The center of the story is Michael Chatham (Adrian Pasdar), a surgeon hopeful who learns the reality of hospital life as well as what is necessary to get ahead, competing with a fellow surgeon hopeful Kenny Rose (Jack Gwaltney) and butting heads with a conniving surgeon resident (Bradley Whitford). Rose is heatedly competetive against Chatham to get the internship with Dr. Redding (Jimmy Smits), so much so that it jeopardizes his marriage (his wife played by Laura San Giacomo) and tests the faithfulness of his friendship to Chatham. Somehow, though, everyone wins in the end.Diane Lane plays Chatham's love interest, Gina Wyler, who I suppose is to this film what Daphne Zunigan is to Gross Anatomy, only not so reluctant to enter a relationship with Chatham. Suzanne Maloney (Jane Adams) and Bobby Hayes (Tim Ransom) play the other two students in their third year group, who make an amusing distraction from the main plot as roommates who try the 'couple' thing, but can't make it work. Vital Signs isn't all that bad, though there is some repition between this and Gross Anatomy and moments where you are just aching for something important to happen as they tend to drag on with petty subplots and other trivial situations. They were building up to something good with Smits as the laid-back mentor and should've given more attention to just that. Nonetheless, it is still a rather entertaining movie documenting a day in the life of a couple of determined med students. Best recommended for Adrian Pasdar and Jimmy Smits fans.

wmarti Why is it that movies about medical school always have the same formula for their characters (reference this movie, Gross Anatomy, Patch Adams...more)? There always has to be the hot-shot male lead for whom everything comes easy...except the good looking, no-nonsense female student, who feels like she has to work harder than everyone else to make up for the fact that she is a woman (and therefore has no time for men). Then there is the wacky friend, and as always there is the uptight, male student we all hate, who works really hard, but just can't seem to beat the protagonist. Surely there is some other way to develop interesting characters in this setting.Either way, coming from the perspective of a current medical student, I found this movie to be far more interesting, realistic, and believable than any of the other aforementioned movies (yes, I know P.A. was a true story...my statement stands). Granted, you will be infinitely more likely to find third year medical students transporting stool samples and chasing down fast food for their residents than scrubbing in and performing abdominal surgery.I found the student/patient, student/student, student/resident relationships to be very well developed and believable. The script was interesting, upbeat, and gave a good look at the tempo and pressure of third year. There were plenty of plot intricacies to keep you "tuned in" throughout the movie. The cast is short on big names, but I believe well cast, and believable as students(I've read that they shadowed medical students before filming).I wouldn't say that this movie is a must-see, but it is the most accurate depiction of medical school that I have seen, and there probably isn't a physician out there whose stomach won't tense up a bit when the attending physicians begin "pimping" the students on Grand Rounds.

MSJanke 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.