The inmates are running the hospital in this often ridiculous, sometimes very funny spoof of the medical profession, particularly supposed schools outside of the United States where students with not so great grades can get their license to practice medicine. Steve Guttenberg is way below to get into medical school so father Bill Macy sends him to a fictional Spanish speaking country which is presented as backwards where American students are either abused, fetichized or ignored while the medical school head (an over-the-top Alan Arkin) runs it as if he was a dictator.
Both Julie Kavner and Julie Hagerty seem aged out of their roles, and while Kavner gets really funny lines, Hagerty doesn't seem to want to be there. What worked in "Airplane!" fails here. Curtis Armstrong and Richard Romanus are luckier with their roles, although Armstrong's character isn't especially defined. Romanus, as a New Yorker of Puerto Rican decent, pretends to be local since he speaks Spanish to get the regular tuition, and his character is sort of Guttenberg's protector.
The writing presents the Spanish speaking characters in one dimensional ways with one school employee obviously playing up to Guttenberg so he'll marry her and take her home, while the locales have very stereotypical characteristics and often act first and barely even think later. A scene in a local prison confirms this. There are some very funny moments but a lot of it made me shudder as there are also a lot of purposely gross out gags. This isn't the big disgusting flop that I predicted it would be, but its style of humor is not for everyone.
Both Julie Kavner and Julie Hagerty seem aged out of their roles, and while Kavner gets really funny lines, Hagerty doesn't seem to want to be there. What worked in "Airplane!" fails here. Curtis Armstrong and Richard Romanus are luckier with their roles, although Armstrong's character isn't especially defined. Romanus, as a New Yorker of Puerto Rican decent, pretends to be local since he speaks Spanish to get the regular tuition, and his character is sort of Guttenberg's protector.
The writing presents the Spanish speaking characters in one dimensional ways with one school employee obviously playing up to Guttenberg so he'll marry her and take her home, while the locales have very stereotypical characteristics and often act first and barely even think later. A scene in a local prison confirms this. There are some very funny moments but a lot of it made me shudder as there are also a lot of purposely gross out gags. This isn't the big disgusting flop that I predicted it would be, but its style of humor is not for everyone.