Critical Care

Sidney Lumet filmed this hospital satire at a Canadian studio. Alcoholic Dr. Butz (Albert Brooks in old-age makeup) advises younger Dr. Werner Ernst (James Spader) to only treat patients with much insurance. "When the lawyers start crawling all over you," says Butz, "that's when you know you're a ...more

For those viewers who haven't seen The Hospital (1971) or Brittania Hospital (1982), this darkly comic satire about people dying in a money-hungry hospital might seem fresh and wickedly funny. Others may find the tale of a doctor (James Spader) caught in the middle of a lawsuit between half-sisters over the fate of their comatose father tasteless or cliched. Whatever the case, there are some amusing wrinkles, including Wallace Shawn as an emissary of the Devil, Helen Mirren as a compassionate ...more