Product Details

• Actors: Adrian Pasdar, Diane Lane, Jack Gwaltney, Laura San Giacomo, Jane Adams
• Directors: Marisa Silver
• Writers: Jeb Stuart, Larry Ketron
• Producers: Cathleen Summers, Laurie Perlman, Tom Joyner
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• VHS Release Date: August 18, 1993
• Run Time: 103 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301777492
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #305,236 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Medical students Michael Chatham and Kenny Rose butt heads with each other, friends, family and co-workers while living with the pressures that build around the desire to be awarded the valued surgical internship at their school.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fast-paced entertaining look at med school, January 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Vital Signs [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Adrian Pasdar and Diane Lane stand out as the med students who fall in love. The rest of the cast is just as talented and the majority of characters are three-dimensional (except the "bad guy"). This is an interesting look into the lives of med students: their duties, relationships with their patients and each other, their angst, ethical worries, and the political system within the medical community. There are enough plots and subplots to keep one's interest the entire time. There is never a dull moment and it turns out to be a fun movie and a well-written one also. One of my favorite movies of all time.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good movie about medical students, July 3, 2005

By 

G. B. Rao (Dubai, UAE) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Vital Signs (DVD)

Very well taken movie that depicts the sacrifices and passion required for medical profession. Background score goes very well with the movie.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Been there, done that..., July 7, 2005

By 

Cubist (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vital Signs (DVD)

Made in 1990, Vital Signs still carries residual of the `80s with its cheesy soundtrack. The film follows the trials and tribulations of several third year medical students as they compete for limited internships and to do so they have to earn enough honour grades.

Vital Signs is an ensemble piece a la St. Elsewhere and, later, E.R. but without the former's quality writing and the latter's adrenaline-fueled pacing. In fact, Vital Signs feels like a feature-length TV show in the way it is paced and structured. The cast is fine if not somewhat bland, with the likes Adrian Pasdar (the nondescript protagonist in Near Dark) and Diane Lane (window dressing in The Cotton Club) who are given very little to work with. Pasdar is appealing enough with his hunky, all-American looks. He plays the kind of brash, young upstart that Tom Cruise was known for (Top Gun, Color of Money, etc.). Lane is as gorgeous-looking as ever and I'm sure many of her fans would certainly like to have her as their doctor...that is until she sends a little boy into cardiac arrest and dies (albeit accidentally). The chemistry between them is pretty good. However, their characters, as written, never transcend their stereotypes or the conventional situations that they find themselves in.

Vital Signs is a little too earnest but does have its heart in the right place, it just doesn't do anything to distinguish itself from countless other medical comedy/dramas on the big and small screen.