Tim Kidner Though the subject had potential and one or two jokes were reasonable, this comedy really did fall flat on its face. Though I appreciate Richard Pryor when he's good and has decent material, I was never a follower of him, so hold no allegiance to the comic, so no extra points just because he stars.It looks as if it was made in the 1970's, as were the attitudes to all the poorly targeted subjects within it. Bumbling, obvious slapstick followed by cheap, unfunny stereotyping at the psychiatric hospital. This where the potential lay, but not taken.The worse bits were to come - mawkish melodrama where the 'patient' becomes the Emergency Room consultant and Pryor tries to bond with the poor suffering patients. The 'romance' even worse. I almost wanted hospital treatment myself! However, the sidekick scenario of a power cut due to a thunderstorm and thus everybody on life support etc getting in all sorts of trouble was a good one and about the only redeeming feature.Unfortunately, the ending that seemed to be a shoot-out (I lost the will to care, let alone work out who) was very tedious and boring and I willed it all to be over, by any means necessary, including a power-cut in my home!

lost-in-limbo Tick off another Richard Pryor comedy vehicle, which actually wasn't too bad even though it had him playing the same sort of comic role and the humour could be put off by its heavy-handed running themes. Pryor stars as an ex-con who poses as a psycho to get out of a jail sentence, so the judge sends him to a hospital where he would find himself posing as an emergency room doctor one night in his attempt to escape during a cyclone because the doctors don't believe him to be insane. This hospital comedy is zany, crude and very often unhinged, as Pryor plays it neurotic with a certain deadpan quality and across him was the lovely Rachel Ticotin. The support cast surrounding him are quite good in their deliveries. Ruben Blades, Sylvia Miles, Joe Mantegna, Bob Dishy, Garrett Morris, Randel "Tex" Cobb, Bob Saget and John Polito. The hodge podge story throws around many ideas and gags in a downright chaotic manner, from mistaken identity to offbeat medical techniques and displaying confidence in those around you to act upon your own judgement leading the way. "Critical Condition" is far from a lethal injection, as in the end it all comes together in an amusing haphazard way led by the likable comedian Pryor. "He doesn't need a second opinion".

Charles Myers As much as I love Richard Pryor, this movie is well, awful. I haven't seen this movie in years and recently watched it on one of the paid movie services. I originally saw it when it was released in the theaters because I have always followed Richard Pryor's career. The concept of the movie just doesn't fly and having Randall "Tex" Cobb as a main character didn't help any. Honestly, I won't invest another hour and a half to ever watching this again. There are also some other "B" actors such as Joe Mantegna and Bob Saget but they are not very good either in this movie. Sorry Richard, you are a great performer but this movie stinks.

MovieAddict2016 This rather mediocre comedy from 1987 was produced at the height of Richard Pryor's (somewhat unfortunate) lapse into brain dead motion picture comedies. However, like most of his films, Pryor made standard, silly concepts -- in this case, a man mistaken for a doctor forced into pretending to be on -- amusing.Pryor plays a framed jewel thief who pleads insanity and is sent to a hospital for mental check-ups. However, once there is is mistaken for an actual doctor, and continues the charade to avoid being charged with a crime he didn't commit, etc.It's got a lot of obvious jokes that get old in five minutes - this would be an effective "SNL" skit, NOT a full-length movie. The problem with standard concepts such as these is mainly that once you've accomplished your goal -- ha ha a man pretending to be a doctor who doesn't know anything about medical practice, that's hilarious! -- there's nowhere left to go. So they add boring and uninteresting subplots, typically romances which end with the mistaken man confessing he isn't who the woman who loves him thought he was, they break up, and then they get back together again for a happy ending in which she realizes that she really loves him for who he is, not for what he is.That said, Pryor makes this entertaining - more so than it should be.