Critical Condition (film)

1987 film by Michael Apted

Critical Condition is a 1987 American comedy film starring Richard Pryor and directed by Michael Apted. The film was released in the United States on January 16, 1987.

Kevin Lenahan is a con man who is framed in a jewel robbery. To escape custody, he fakes insanity before a judge and then poses as surgeon Dr. Eddie Slattery at a local hospital when he switches places with the administrator Arthur Chambers. During a flood and a power outage that follows, Kevin takes charge of the hospital and tries to maintain some order in his unorthodox way.

In 2014, Alan Silvestri's score was released on a limited edition album by Quartet Records, twinned with his music for Summer Rental.

The film debuted at No.1 with $5.7 million.

The New York Times film critic Janet Maslin remarked, "No one in Critical Condition, which opens today at Loews State and other theaters, is working at top form, least of all Mr. Pryor, who looks haggard and agitated much of the time. Still, the film does have an interesting cast and an energetic tempo." The Los Angeles Times wrote that Pryor's performance "is as good as anything he's done in a non concert movie" but "it still somehow misfires". The South Florida Sun Sentinel called it a "misguided semicomedy" and wrote, "Judging from this lamebrained film, Richard Pryor's crown as a screen comedy king is slipping off his head." The Chicago Tribunes Dave Kehr wrote that the film "adds, with what has become a glum predictability, one more disappointing title to Richard Pryor's credits". Kehr suggested that Pryor's stage persona, more able to work off immediate audience feedback, worked better than his film persona, with which he "musters only an unctuous sweetness".