Steinesongo Too many fans seem to be blown away

Nonureva Really Surprised!

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

dougdoepke Schizophrenic film that can't decide whether it's Playhouse 90 or Airplane!. In one corner are Scott and Chayevsky making with the intense psychological realism and some really powerful moments; in the other is chaotic urban hospital laboring at zany gallows humor with a few scattered laughs. In between is director Hiller hoping for single workable whole. Result is awkward pastiche that doesn't live up to super-rich potential. Film is object lesson in how miscasting of even top-notch talent can produce disappointment. I keep wishing gifted amateurs like Zucker Bros. & Jim Abrams had gotten hold of idea first. Sure, Scott is great actor, but he's so authentic he overwhelms ambient efforts at satire; yes, Chayevsky gets off some good lines, but keeps piling on the prose long after it's peaked out. What the movie really needs are more sight gags and a lot less talky angst. In short, let the visuals carry the message -- something word master Chayevsky could never allow. My advice: once hippie chick Rigg starts bragging about Scott's restored virility, switch off, because it's a downhill ride from there.

Mr-Fusion "The Hospital" is pretty much what you'd expect from a Paddy Chayefsky movie on healthcare. Its Manhattan Hospital Center is a Gothic horror funhouse in which patients are killed either due to neglect, the wrong diagnosis or any other manner of bureaucratic nightmare. All of this is played to the ridiculous extremes and it makes for some hilarious dark comedy.George C. Scott is the film's fiery main attraction (the man is incomparable, really), and his frustrated character is both energizing and exhausting. And his one-on-one dialogues with Diana Rigg help give this movie its emotional core. But the outlandishness of this hospital is what makes this movie memorable for me. Which honestly isn't supposed to subtract in any way from Scott's contribution (seriously, watch this for him), but there's also Barnard Hughes' tirade in the OR, Mrs. Cushing's badgering of despondent patients for their Blue Cross numbers, and the kind of farcical healthcare environment that really hits a little too close to home, these days.This is riveting absurdity.8/10

moonspinner55 Paddy Chayefsky's Oscar-winning original screenplay about a brilliant but melancholy doctor who heads up an under-staffed, over-crowded New York City hospital churning with misdiagnoses, malpractice lawsuits...and now, an apparent serial-killer who targets doctors and nurses. Chayefsky's tirades (made up of both coherent and incoherent anger and outage) are, occasionally, thick with a writer's pretensions; however, his protagonist (portrayed by a convincingly weary and raspy-voiced George C. Scott) is a three-dimensional, flesh-and-blood man the audience can easily identify with. Scott (and a rather amusingly miscast Diana Rigg as a missionary's daughter) head up a terrific cast of East Coast-based character actors, and Chayefsky and director Arthur Hiller keep them all walking and talking like madly-literate eccentrics. The picture doesn't look particularly good--and the sound is often crude--but with such biting humor and scathing targets, "The Hospital" succeeds greatly at being a pitch-black comedy of modern ills. **1/2 from ****

Siamois The Hospital is somewhat of a cult classic for reasons that are obvious but shows unfortunate signs of age and ends up being a mixed bag. The story centers on Dr. Bock (George C. Scott) as well as the rest of the staff and the patients of a Manhattan hospital marred by bureaucratic nightmares while mysterious deaths occur. STORY:Penned by Paddy Chayefsky, this is a rather dark comedy that tackles a lot of issues which, almost 40 years later, are still very relevant. Throughout the story, the apparent flawless nature of science clashes with the failings of the nature of men. The main character Dr. Bock most brilliantly depicts this conflict. Bock is a man with intense desires and a drive to achieve yet is a broken soul. His vocation is to heal and save lives but he suffers himself from illnesses and contemplates suicide. The main character is amazing but the peripheral characters in The Hospital rarely cut it and most seem like caricatures, lessening the global impact and social commentary of the film. Furthermore, the most interesting parts of the film deal entirely with the bureaucratic aspects and the staff. The mysterious deaths take more and more importance as the story progresses and actually detract from this movie. The last half hour makes the whole almost seem pointless.CAST:On one hand, George C. Scott delivers another performance that demonstrates why he can still be considered one of the greatest actors who ever lived. His character, Dr. Bock, is complex and Scott uses all his range. This is magnificent acting. Unfortunately, the rest of the cast is so-so, due to bad casting choices, weak acting and also uninspiring characters.CINEMATOGRAPHY:Rather bland and unremarkable but still serviceable. We do get a sense of the hospital building but very few shots really grabbed me.Overall, this is a fine script by Paddy Chayefsky and George C. Scott is amazing, but some of the dialog is badly dated and a better director would have crafted a better overall film. Director Arthur Hiller is mostly renowned for getting great performances out of lead actors but a Kubrick he isn't when it comes to crafting a cinematic masterpiece.