Starring: Michael Douglas, Rip Torn, Geneviève Bujold, Elizabeth Ashley, Richard Widmark Directed By: Michael Crichton Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Binding: DVD Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC Label: Warner Home Video Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: October 26, 1999 Running Time: 113 minutes Theatrical Release Date: January 06, 1978
Description: Before he created "ER" Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park, Twister) adapted and directed (his debut behind the camera) this chiller from Robin Cook's best-seller about a sinister medical conspiracy. Genevieve Bujold, Michael Douglas and Richard Widmark star as doctors caught in its web.
Amazon.com: Something is awry at Boston General Hospital. Dr. Wheeler's (Genevieve Bujold) friend Nancy goes in for a routine procedure, but never comes out of the anesthesia and slips into a coma. Wheeler learns that a tissue sample from the young woman went to the lab, then soon finds out that a high number of patients have become comatose recently. She digs a little deeper and finds a conspiracy mired in hospital politics, running afoul of the head of anesthesia, Dr. George (Rip Torn) and the head of surgery, Dr. Harris (Richard Widmark). Nobody believes the young MD, not even her boyfriend Dr. Bellows (Michael Douglas), but she soon uncovers a black-market trade in body parts, conducted offsite at the Jefferson Institute, a state-of-the-art coma-care facility. As a thriller, Coma certainly has its moments (the scene where a hit man is buried under a pile of frozen-stiff cadavers is an inspired touch), but it's not without its problems. Director Michael Crichton is an MD himself, and the film has a seamless, almost mechanical structure and plotline (taken from the Robin Cook novel). However, the movie's cold, detached feel works against it at times, making the suspense scenes oddly more effective but rendering the emotional content of the characters rather flat. Douglas in particular seems to not put much into his performance; Bujold, on the other hand, is strong and resourceful as the movie's protagonist. More telling, perhaps, is the way that the story shows its age in a time when medical ethics have changed and the phrase "organ harvesting" has made its way into our lexicon. --Jerry Renshaw
HOSPITAL THRILLER Coma BASED ON THE BOOK BY ROBIN COOK, THIS IS ONE OF THE LATE MICHAEL CRICHTON'S BEST FILM EFFORTS. GENEVIEVE BUJOLD PLAYS A RESIDENT DOCTOR WHO BECOMES CURIOUS ABOUT CERTAIN PATIENTS GOING INTO A STATE OF COMA, PARTICULARLY FROM O.R.8 (OPERATING THEATRE 8). MICHAEL DOUGLAS, ALSO A RESIDENT AT THE SAME HOSPITAL, DISBELIEVES HER AT FIRST BUT STEP BY STEP SLOWLY GETS CONVINCED THAT SHE IS RIGHT. BOND BEAUTY, LOIS CHILES, FROM MOONRAKER, PLAYS BUJOLD'S CLOSE FRIEND, WHO GOES INTO COMA, RIGHT AT THE BEGINNING OF THE FILM. THE SUSPENCE IS TERRIFIC. YOU WILL CERTAINLY BE SCARED. THE DVD QUALITY IS SUPERB. YOU CAN SEE IT EITHER FULL SCREEN OR LETTERBOXED. YOU SIMPLY HAVE TO TURN THE DVD OVER. ELIZABETH ASHLEY IS THE SPOOKY HEAD-NURSE IN THE HUGE FACILITY FROM WHERE THE ORGANS REMOVED FROM THE COMATOSE PATIENTS ARE STORED AND SUPPLIED TO VARIOUS 'CLIENTS' THROUGH-OUT THE GLOBE. THE FACILITY IS SURROUNDED BY ARMED GUARDS AND FIERCE DOGS. VETERAN RICHARD WIDMARK, IS THE HEAD OF DEPARTMENT(H.O.D)OF SURGERY. HE PLAYS HIS PART TO PERFECTION.
Do they show this film in hospital waiting rooms? Do you have any fears about going into the hospital? If so the movie ''Coma'' will probably scare the socks off you. This creepy 1978 medical horror film is based on a book by Robin Cook while the film version is directed by Michael Crichton.
The plot initially focuses on a young woman's mysterious lapse into a coma while in surgery. Dr. Susan Wheeler (played by Genevieve Bujold), friend of the affected woman, starts investigating the case, although the doctors involved discourage her. The more Wheeler digs around in hospital case records, the more cases of mysterious coma cases she finds. And all the affected patients ended-up being transferred to the secretive Jefferson Institute, where people exist in a vegetative state.
Michael Douglas plays Wheeler's boyfriend, who is baffled by her obsession with the coma cases. Wheeler also runs into trouble by crossing the path of hospital administrator Dr. Harris (Richard Widmark) and the cold-hearted Dr. George, played by actor Rip Torn. But eventually Bujold's character discovers a terrifying secret linking the coma cases and realizes her own life is in danger.
I liked many aspects of this film but overall think it's just average. The acting at time is wooden and the plot just plods along until the second half. There are some great sci-fi type scenes in ''Coma'' at the mysterious Jefferson Institute, and a horrific scene involving dozens of cadavers, but many scenes are unimaginative and clunky (especially Operating Room scenes). I also thought the ending was rather abrupt - it could have packed a lot more punch. But the film is still worth watching.
Too much dialog! I've read the book COMA and prefer it much more than the movie. During about the first part of the movie, there is a lot of dialog and is a little boring. Starting into the second half though, things start to step up! This is a great science fiction movie!
Good suspense thriller Good suspense thriller that demonstrates that you do not need a megabudget of special effexts to make a good movie
believeable I saw this film - Coma - many years ago, and it starts out very nice with the kind atmosphere you`ll find in a hospital. Some kind low voices, and some intercom orders that tells the "people in white" something. But after sometime you are shown a side of a hospital that is raising the hair on your head and make you think: I hope I will stay healthy. And you feel the scaryness when you start to be aware of that you might not come out of the hospital again - alive. But what makes this film so special to me? I have been in the technical department of a hospital for 28years, and I will assure you that this film is showing that what happens here is truely possible. Th Myrseth Molde Norway (stay healthy - remember, "one apple a day, keeps the mur... away" - dont go to sleep after seeing this film )
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