Product Details

• Actors: Richard Pryor, Rachel Ticotin, Rubén Blades, Maria Cardinale, Joe Mantegna
• Directors: Michael Apted
• Writers: Alan Swyer, Denis Hamill, John Hamill
• Producers: Bob Larson, Eric Lerner, Robert W. Cort, Ted Field
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Paramount Home Video
• VHS Release Date: March 21, 1995
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6300214745
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #263,622 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

The symptoms: acute tickling of the funny bone and severe belly laughs. The diagnosis? Richard Pryor in "Critical Condition." Playing criminal who fakes insanity to avoid prison, Pryor ends up in a hospital mental ward. That's when the craziness starts as he escapes during a blackout and disguises himself as a doctor. Somehow Pryor brings order to chaos even while performing unorthodox physical examinations, delivering a baby and using a helicopter for air conditioning!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Richard Pryor, man, October 12, 2004

By 

Ryan Anonymus "Ryan" (Olympia, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Critical Condition (DVD)

Pryor is excellent in this classic from the 80's.

Richard plays a guy who is a pawn in setting up a criminal, in New York. The criminals go to prison, along with Pryor, and they swear that he'll be a dead man when he's there in prison. So he does the only thing he can do to prevent himself from going to prison, at this point: pretend that he's crazy.

He is admitted to a psycho ward at a hospital, and is just about to be released to go to prison, failing in convincing them that's he's crazy. But problems occur in the ward, and the lead administrator at the hospital is held hostage. And Pryor can't escape the hospital due to horrible flooding, brought on by a storm, so he has to stay there. And wouldn't you know it, he has to pretend that he's a doctor now.

This movie has it's funny moments, I tell ya. But some serious ones too, concerning the bad conditions at the hospital.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Need to add to library, December 10, 2005

By 

M. Reino (north carolina) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Critical Condition (DVD)

I feel a special love for this film since it was filmed in the old hospital where I live before they tore it down to build a new one. And my dad was one of the extras in the movie too. He played one of the psych patients in the basement! So I always get a kick out of hearing my dad's stories about playing dominos with Bob Saget and Rich (as my dad called him)Pryor on filming breaks.

This is not Pryor's best film, but this film is chock full of characters that keep you laughing all the way. Pryor is going to be missed! He was a comedic icon. 12-10-2005

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good, February 27, 2000

By 

A customer "mistermaxxx" (usa) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

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

i feel this film was Hit&miss.more Hits but the misses are there.Richard does a good job but the material isn't fully developed for his character.like with his Love interest Rachel Ticotin.and what about Garrett Morris? as funny as he is he should have gotten more ad-libs at least.should have been a better film.