Product Details

• Actors: James Spader, Kyra Sedgwick, Helen Mirren, Anne Bancroft, Albert Brooks
• Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Live / Artisan
• DVD Release Date: February 18, 1998
• Run Time: 109 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0784011192
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #73,205 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Critical Care" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

CRITICAL CARE, directed by Sidney Lumet and starring James Spader, focuses on a young medical doctor, Werner Ernst, who rebels against the hospital that employs him when he realizes that the doctors favor wealthy patients and those with generous medical insurance.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a great movie !, February 23, 2002

By 

Mian Sukiman "M Suk" (Jakarta Indonesia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Critical Care (DVD)

Sidney Lumet directed some classics (Network, Serpico, Dog Day afternoon) but lately none of his movies ever did much of a business (A Stranger among us, Guilty as Sin, Gloria) but this one is surprisingly good. It has wonderful casts that include James Spader, Kyra Sedwick, Helen Mirren and Albert Brooks.

The movie started out like a cheap hospital comedy but along way the way it got serious with issues like health care, insurance, lawsuit and whether it is ethical to let go a patient that has no chance of survival. It is funny and heart warming as well. Given the price of the DVD, it is a must buy. The DVD provided both WS and FS versions of the movie but not much of extra features but for the price, you can't complaint.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great satire on the health care system, July 13, 2005

By 

Dr. Dave (Lombard, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Critical Care (DVD)

I'm a physician and I thought this was a great commentary on the health care system and not too far off the mark. James Spader gets caught in a catfight between two daughters of a dying man, either of which stands to inherit $10 million, depending on when the old man goes. Helen Mirren is the angel of Mercy/Death who is Spader's Jiminy Cricket. Ed Hermann plays the sleazy hospital attorney, and Albert Brooks is hysterical as an old physician who has the perspective of his many years. His memorable line about physicians: "We used to be gods. Now we are glorified auto mechanics."

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Starts out comedy, ends up serious. Liked it., September 25, 1999

By 

Pat ([e-mail]) (Montana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Critical Care [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I thought I wasn't going to like this movie, but I ended up liking it a lot. It started out as a comedy that was pretty silly. But about half way through, the tenor of the movie changed and it became a much more serious look at the ethics of prolonging the life of terminally ill patients. This part of the movie grabbed me and even made me cry as I watched the main character try to sort through the maze of conflicting emotions surrounding a decision of whether or not to terminate a life.