Bad Medicine (1985) User Reviews

Bad Medicine, no kidding. The movie could use a shot, too.

[vfrickey · 6/10 · 5 April 2007]

OK, these folks had a cast of good actors - in fact there are some pleasant surprises in that department, enough to make this a slightly better than average film. More on that later.

The screenplay and direction... well, it seems sometimes that any laughs in this thing were accidental - what may have been intended to be the big jokes fall flat, leaving incidental chances for levity. Very occasional chances until well into the film - so hang in there, people, it does get better.

What excuse does the director offer for this film? If you're going to do accent and ethnic humor, DO it. Don't hire Alan Arkin, then let him sleepwalk through an acting job - make him ACT, more than he did in the first half of this film. Beat him if you must, but do it. Don't let him be a walking ad for Ambien.

Good points? Steve Guttenberg actually surprised me on this one - he did an excellent job of acting, up there with his opening scenes in "The Boys From Brazil" as the young amateur Nazi hunter. So did Gilbert Gottfried, for that matter - he's much better than I have seen him perform in his other films. Bill Macy puts in an honest job, much more than I can say of Arkin, who seems to phone his lines in.

Production values?

The camera-work's pretty good - they shot the film in Spain and decent professionals did the technical work, but the person responsible for the soundtrack should be shot for having a very heavy hand with the brass in the orchestra and stealing the guitarist from some backyard porn studio in Marin County.

Yeah, you should watch it. It's worthwhile if you stick with the film until almost halfway through.

Occasionally taps your funny bone. (spoilers)

[vertigo_14 · 6/10 · 20 March 2006]

'Bad Medicine' is not one of the best med-students comedy that I have seen. It's method of comedy and hilarity wavers frequently, perhaps some of the jokes are just too subtle or perhaps they are too dated and the finished product reminds me of Young Doctors in Love, a movie full of stupid comedy that should be funnier but for some reason, just isn't.

Steve Guttenberg plays Jeff Marx, a struggling first-year med student at a fourth-rate, sketchy medical school in Mexico. Classes are taught in Spanish, they all share one cadaver, and their praticioner field trips are little more than public relations opportunities. Despite the family trend of medical professionals, he is certain that he doesn't want to be a doctor, but the outrageous situations that ensue are about to make him reconsider. The ambitious students, which includes Curtis Armstrong as pharmacology expert, Dennis Gladstone, Julie Hagerty as the soft-spoken Liz Parker, Julie Kavner as the witty Cookie Katz, and Robert Ramanus as Carlos. Working cleverly under the nose of the self-involved school director, Dr. Ramón Madera (Alan Arkin), they seek to secretly help the town peasants with their medical ailments.

The movie tends to drag on at points, but this particular comedy might be one of those 80s comedies best suited for lazy weekend 'noon viewings. If nothing else, viewers might be attracted to its fairly familiar cast, which also includes Gilbert Godfried (not doing his shtick) and my personal favorite, Taylor Negron as Pepe the Cab Driver (who ironically, also appeared in Young Doctors in Love).

S Guttenberg

[ksf-2 · 5/10 · 20 September 2021]

Not one of anyone's best work. This came out the same year as Cocoon. Guttenberg had just started the famous Police Academy franchise. Some other pretty big names in comedy -- Alan Arkin (In-Laws), Julie Hegarty (Airplane), Bill Macy (Maude), Curtis Armstrong, Julie Kavner. Also Gilbert Gottfried and Taylor Negron. He and Bob Romanus were in Fast Times together a couple years earlier! When Jeff can't get into med school, he heads off to attend class at a cut rate school. Somewhere in south america, according to the caption. Although imdb says parts were filmed in spain. Of course, the headmaster is the dictator of the country! When Jeff is shot on a field trip, he wants to leave, but Liz talks him into staying and trying to help the locals. The school has only one cadaver, so studying for the exams might be a problem. Unless they can round up another one. It's all just very okay. It's a lot of effort for the jokes they do. The running gag is how incompetent the headmaster is. Novel by Steven Horowitz, Neil Offen. Directed by Harvey Miller. He was involved in lots of television: Love American Style, The Odd Couple. Was even nominated for Private Benjamin. (really!) sadly, Taylor Negron died young from cancer, at age 57.

Not All Bad.

[tfrizzell · 8 June 2002]

Steve Guttenberg took some time off from his "Police Academy" films with this sleight comedy that has the youngster going to medical school in Mexico after being rejected all over the U.S. There are truly some really funny moments and there is enough interest built up to make the finale feel appropriate, even if it is somewhat forced. Watchable and not a total waste from the sorry genre that dominated the 1980s. 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Not enough of Alan Arkin

[btm1 · 3/10 · 19 September 2006]

You'd have to be a fan of farces to like this. It has some novel ideas, such as illegally obtaining a fresh cadaver that has to be transported from the city morgue to the school, while rigor mortis is beginning to set in. Alan Arkin has a secondary, not a starring, role. He brings more to the part than the writer gave him. Steve Guttenberg is surprisingly good as the son of a doctor who can't get into an American medical school, or even a first or second grade foreign one. Curtis Armstrong, in particular, is terrific in his medical student role. Over all, however, this is strictly a B movie. Julie Haggerty is terrible as the glamorous student with whom the school director (Arkin) is enamored. There is nothing alluring about her looks, and her approach to comedy acting is out of sync with the rest of the cast's.

bad comedy

[SnoopyStyle · 3/10 · 16 February 2015]

Jeff Marx (Steve Guttenberg) doesn't have good enough marks to get into any American medical school. He's a disappointment to his doctor family. His father gets him into medical school "somewhat in central America". It's a run-down backwards school. Cookie Katz (Julie Kavner), Dennis Gladstone (Curtis Armstrong) and Liz Parker (Julie Parker) are some of the students. Dr. Ramón Madera (Alan Arkin) is the head of the school who is taken with Liz.

It's one of Guttenberg's bad movie during the height of his popularity. The script has nothing particularly funny. Director Harvey Miller is at the end of his career. His style of comedy may be outdated. It's relying solely on Guttenberg and he's not up to the job to create something out of nothing. The movie has some good comedic actors like Arkin and Gilbert Gottfried. It's not dark enough to be a black comedy. The good cast is wasted by this broad laughless comedy.

Awesome lineup

[BandSAboutMovies · 4/10 · 8 May 2020]

This movie quite literally has a murderer's row of mid 80's comedy favorites. You've got Guttenberg. Bill Macy from TV's Maude. Curtis Armstrong from Revenge of the Nerds and Better Off Dead. A pre-Simpsons Julie Kavner. Julie Hagerty from Airplane! Alan Arkin and Gilbert Gottfried as the bad guys. And, as all movies should, a perfect quick role for Taylor Negron.

Guttenberg plays constantly goofing around pre-med student Jeffrey Marx, who is sent by his father to a Central American - shot in Spain - medical school. He discovers that medicine is actually his life's calling by illegally treating the villagers, using supplies taken from the school.

Writer and director Harvey Miller also wrote Private Benjamin, Cannonball Run II, Jekyll and Hyde... Together Again, Protocol and Getting Away with Murder.

You can do worse than this movie. Of this genre, it's one of the better films and Guttenberg is pretty much Mahoney, which is the role that he's best at.

The best comedy released on November 22, 1985, that is if it was the only comedy.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 6 January 2021]

The inmates are running the hospital in this often ridiculous, sometimes very funny spoof of the medical profession, particularly supposed schools outside of the United States where students with not so great grades can get their license to practice medicine. Steve Guttenberg is way below to get into medical school so father Bill Macy sends him to a fictional Spanish speaking country which is presented as backwards where American students are either abused, fetichized or ignored while the medical school head (an over-the-top Alan Arkin) runs it as if he was a dictator.

Both Julie Kavner and Julie Hagerty seem aged out of their roles, and while Kavner gets really funny lines, Hagerty doesn't seem to want to be there. What worked in "Airplane!" fails here. Curtis Armstrong and Richard Romanus are luckier with their roles, although Armstrong's character isn't especially defined. Romanus, as a New Yorker of Puerto Rican decent, pretends to be local since he speaks Spanish to get the regular tuition, and his character is sort of Guttenberg's protector.

The writing presents the Spanish speaking characters in one dimensional ways with one school employee obviously playing up to Guttenberg so he'll marry her and take her home, while the locales have very stereotypical characteristics and often act first and barely even think later. A scene in a local prison confirms this. There are some very funny moments but a lot of it made me shudder as there are also a lot of purposely gross out gags. This isn't the big disgusting flop that I predicted it would be, but its style of humor is not for everyone.

The reason why I loved 2:00 AM !

[elshikh4 · 7/10 · 18 June 2011]

Back in the late 1990s, the second channel of our notional TV used to air some foreign stuff after its longest newscast in 1:00 AM (Events of 24 Hours). The TV guide had the slightest idea about that. So it was utterly surprising everyday. And at one sleepless night, I met (Bad Medicine).

While being no one-star-show, I believe this movie is owned by (Alan Arkin). True there were (Steve Guttenberg), (Julie Hagerty), and other - no less funny or cute - cast members, but when it comes to Dr. (Ramón Madera), I just give up!

That character is unforgettable. He's a cold-hearted, restrainedly romantic, absolutely serious and funny dean / dictator. At the part of falling in love with (Hagerty), he delivered some of his best moments, and I'm talking about both (Madera) and (Arkin). By the way, for years I used to refer to this movie as nothing but "Madera's School"!

The rest of the characters were well made and portrayed. The comedy is serene. There was no violence, cursing, sexual joking, etc; namely the heavily ugly time that they call comedy in our times. Even the corpse's sequence was done beautifully, without any disgusting sense of humor.

Using certain ways, concerning arranging the letters, to memorize things while studying is perhaps something has been invented by smart student once. It's a good detail this movie captured. And it implied that this movie - as a whole - was made by smart people.

Unlike many many American comedies nowadays, this little comedy gained more than the double of its budget (Cost: $1,289,783. Gross: $2,685,453). So I don't know why it isn't so popular, unless for those who don't find any sleep in 2 AM!

Bad medicine, good comedy, and nice memory indeed.

I thought it was hilarious

[tvce · 8/10 · 21 May 2003]

Some reviewers panned this movie rather severely, but my wife and I thought it was hilarious. Arkin is great, no matter what accent he is using. I especially like Lalo Schifrin's wonderful score. We still occasionally roll the tape and enjoy it again. From some of the comments I have read, I can only gather that the writers confused this picture with the much less entertaining "Stitches", released the same year.

I lived Bad Medicine

[jjoneswriter · 7/10 · 14 October 2006]

This movie is hilarious to those of us, over 10,000 people in the US, who attended the school that this movie is based on. Yes, there really is a school like this. The guy doesn't get a test grade because he was in the wrong seat - yep, they really do that. You know how the people in red jackets come to take attendance? Everyone runs to their seats as soon as they see them coming. There are armed guards in the streets, guards on the road to search your car or bus. It was quite an experience and adventure being there. The movie is a fun remembrance of life in Mexico,....eh um Guatamala I mean....I loved it! There is some macabre humor with the cadavers, but for most people in the medical field that's how the deal with working on them.

Good Medicine

[the93man · 4 November 2001]

This typical 80's comedy "Bad Medicine"stars Steve Guttenberg as Jeff Marx,a young guy who does'nt want to follow his family tradition,but when cold-hearted cynic Dr.Madera(played brilliantly by Alan Arkin)uses a"saving the peasants"field trip as a publicity stunt,he soon changes his mind.Set in a spanish medical school,he meets new friend such as Jeff Gladstone(played by Curtis Armstrong,infamous as"Booger"in"Revenge Of The Nerds"),a hickish drug addict,Carlos(played by Robert Romanus,whose decent,but was better in"Fast Times At Ridgemont High"),Cookie(played by Julie Kavner,before her Marge Simpson voice fame),and Liz(played by Julie Hagerty,whose cute as a button as the dead-pan love interest of Guttenberg's).The movie is full of incoherent humor with mexican stereotypes and medical stuff.It does get gross after a while(notably,Guttenberg's flesh wound from being shot by an unsatisfied patient),but this comedy is very good.Guttenberg delivers the same lines and witt he's done in other films like the"Police Academy"series,"Short Circuit","Three Men And A Baby"and"Cocoon".Alan Arkin's performance is also great,this film should of been a major box-office hit.I give Bad Medicine a 8 of 10.

One of the better and more tasteful mid80s comedy's

[knightkp · 7/10 · 8 April 2022]

While cranking out repetitive police academy movies or ski movies or the worst of the worst, bicycle movies being pushed as comedy drama's. This one actually attempted passive compassion mixed wit young people sex drives and culturally intermixed scenarios take lightly. It has many funny bits but could have been more centric to the Alan Arkin character to give it more depth. It's a good time filler on a rainy day. And at least it did not have Tom Hanks in it!

The Good times in bad Medicine

[deanofrpps · 8/10 · 15 October 2006]

The archetype of Medical School Comedy is the British film DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE to which no American flick can hardly dare to be compared.

Yet this film and Gross Anatomy deserve an honorable though distant second place. In BAD MEDICINE young Americans out of the zone of consideration for American schools transplant themselves to Latin America to study medicine against the challenges of a strong local culture, particularly the absolutism of Latin schools where discipline is considerably more rigorous than back home.

There are two characters who best represent the reaction of the locals: the director of the school who openly tells Americans: HERE WE ARE THE ELITE and the director's secretary who proclaims her love for American culture having studied it thoroughly through Philip Roth's pulp novels.

But there is a serious side to the dictatorial ways of the director. A doctor handles people's lives and must account for his actions.

That degree of understanding of the serious task at hand is bye the bye entirely lost in PATCH ADAMS who can cause a young med student's death and make a joke of it.

Weekend at Bernie's?

[mccall-bryan · 7/10 · 3 June 2022]

Just watched this again for the first time in over 30 years. Did the guys that wrote weekend at Bernie's get their idea from this? Over all it's a pretty good 80's movie. There was a good run of movies about medical school in the 80's early 90's and this one falls right in the middle somewhere.

funniest med school movie of all time

[magsanoc · 13 April 2001]

I first saw this movie when I 10 years old. I came across it again last year, after finishing my second year of medical school. Its quite hard to find, and I hope they release it in DVD(which I doubt cause they never even released it in LD). My country was even mentioned in the film. They said that there's a med school in the Philippines that's accepts any one who applies. I've seen Gross Anatomy, Vital Signs, PAtch Adams, and the Interns. But this one is my favorite. This is Steve Guttenberg best movie but it is Curtis Amstrong (From Revenge of the Nerds) who steals the show. This is a must-see for medical students.

Not bad comedy medicine

[videorama-759-859391 · 6/10 · 28 November 2022]

Following his Police Academy status, cute boy, Guttenberg has found a not so matching competitor, more aimed at the straight to video market, but the film is not a total miss. It's quite and surprisingly entertaining, and there are some quite funny moments, and less funny ones. What's interesting is the film's location. Motivated to become a dream physician, and having to go to medical school, he (Guttenberg) is off to a pretty bleak start, getting turned down by many med schools, except one, and with other comedies and these scenarios, we know the remaining one can only mean.... yes, another crazed institution, whatever (check out movie Recruits hitting video around the same time) run by Alan Arkin, at first unrecognizable, and easily the films best performance, and there are some other really good ones too (Grifisi, Armstrong, Gottfried) while Guttenberg is just so so. The comic film has real genuine moments too, with a ending of predicability, well so.... predictable. A gladdened watch, though nothing mind blowing. My analysis.

Highly underrated picture, following the same premise of Police Academy!!

[elo-equipamentos · 6/10 · 7 October 2023]

After a massive apparencies at Academy exploitation pictures made strong damages on Steve Guttenberg's career as dramatic actor, he shone in Boys from Brazil and to accept Police Academy runs to stigmatized actor henceforth, although Bad Medicine follows the same premise it somehow is slight different due it took place at south America country, the companion of the versatile actor Alan Arkin relief the critics a little bit, the screenplay suggest a black humor oriented concerning Alan Arkin's mother in the movie alluding a possible inces.tuous relationship carried out by his possessive mother in nasty way.

The story takes place on a small town somewhere in Latin South America, (Shot in Spain) a poor country non specified, Jeff Marx (Steve Guttenberg) was sent there due he is in a quandary on America high patten's Universities, a bit faltering about be a doctor pushed by his famous doctor father, on there he meets with an American weird girl Liz Parker (Julie Hagerty) and also American Dennis Gladstone (Curtis Armstrong from Police Academy neither), they are dealing with a rough Spanish rector Dr. Ramón Madera (Alan Arkin) recently widowed who falling in love of younger Liz Parker, causing some distress on the new couple Liz & Jeff on flirting, due the higher local poverty they steal the University's medical supplies to aid the poor people's illnesses.

The picture touches in several neuralgic points on Latin America's background as the figure of Xama as spiritual cure, also highly widespread of sexually transmitted deceases on jail on facetious way, rising many laughs fro the audience, overall a fine entertainment regarding the old costumes of a Spanish country, Alan Arkin had a stunning performance as tyrannic owner of University, far away to be bad as some reviewers want implied.

Thanks for reading

Resume:

First watch: 2023 / How many: 1 / Source: Youtube / Rating: 6.

Bad Medicine

[Coxer99 · 9 July 1999]

Putrid comedy about a medical school where the cross-cultural transition is complicated by idiot students and curriculum. Embarrassing misfire for Arkin, who is horrible behind what is either a Mexican accent...or Jewish, whereas it would be a dead on impression of Jackie Mason.

A laughless film that tries to call itself a comedy

[soranno · 26 October 2002]

Steve Guttenberg, the comedic actor who hammed it up with such goofball roles in films like "Police Academy", "Short Circuit" and "Three Men And A Baby" has the lead in one of his few non-series films. Whew. It's a very good thing that a film this bad wasn't reduced to making sequels. One is bad enough.