Watch Bad Medicine For Free

Why so much hype?

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Jeff Marx (Steve Guttenberg) doesn't have good enough marks to get into any American medical school. He's a disappointment to his doctor family. His father gets him into medical school "somewhat in central America". It's a run-down backwards school. Cookie Katz (Julie Kavner), Dennis Gladstone (Curtis Armstrong) and Liz Parker (Julie Parker) are some of the students. Dr. Ramón Madera (Alan Arkin) is the head of the school who is taken with Liz.It's one of Guttenberg's bad movie during the height of his popularity. The script has nothing particularly funny. Director Harvey Miller is at the end of his career. His style of comedy may be outdated. It's relying solely on Guttenberg and he's not up to the job to create something out of nothing. The movie has some good comedic actors like Arkin and Gilbert Gottfried. It's not dark enough to be a black comedy. The good cast is wasted by this broad laughless comedy.

Back in the late 1990s, the second channel of our notional TV used to air some foreign stuff after its longest newscast in 1:00 AM (Events of 24 Hours). The TV guide had the slightest idea about that. So it was utterly surprising everyday. And at one sleepless night, I met (Bad Medicine).While being no one-star-show, I believe this movie is owned by (Alan Arkin). True there were (Steve Guttenberg), (Julie Hagerty), and other – no less funny or cute – cast members, but when it comes to Dr. (Ramón Madera) I just give up ! That character is unforgettable. He's a cold-hearted, restrainedly romantic, absolutely serious and funny dean / dictator. At the part of falling in love with (Hagerty) he delivered some of his best moments, and I'm talking about both (Madera) and (Arkin). By the way, for years I used to refer to this movie as nothing but "Madera's School" ! The rest of the characters were well made and portrayed. The comedy is serene. There was no violence, cursing, sexual joking, etc; namely the heavily ugly time that they call comedy in our times. Even the corpse's sequence was done beautifully, without any disgusting sense of humor.Using certain ways, concerning arranging the letters, to memorize things while studying is perhaps something has been invented by smart student once. It's a good detail this movie captured. And it implied that this movie – as a whole – was made by smart people. Unlike many many American comedies nowadays, this little comedy gained more than the double of its budget (Cost : $1,289,783. Gross : $2,685,453). So I don't know why it isn't so popular, unless for those who don't find any sleep in 2 AM ! Bad medicine, good comedy, and nice memory indeed.

Some reviewers panned this movie rather severely, but my wife and I thought it was hilarious. Arkin is great, no matter what accent he is using. I especially like Lalo Schifrin's wonderful score. We still occasionally roll the tape and enjoy it again. From some of the comments I have read, I can only gather that the writers confused this picture with the much less entertaining "Stitches", released the same year.

Putrid comedy about a medical school where the cross-cultural transition is complicated by idiot students and curriculum. Embarrassing misfire for Arkin, who is horrible behind what is either a Mexican accent...or Jewish, whereas it would be a dead on impression of Jackie Mason.