Young Doctors in Love

A top US TV comedy director used to a mere half-hour slot isn't going to hang around for punchlines when he goes feature-length. No surprise, then, that Marshall directs this parody of TV hospital dramas at a maniacal pace. Meet the brilliant, callous young doctor with the secret fear, and the secret love for lovely Dr Brody, who has mysterious pain spasms; meet the overworked and oversexed intern turned speed freak, etc. And should the general idea and intermittently sharp dialogue fail to please, there are endless childish visual jokes and pieces of slapstick (fortunately the blithe egomania of the medics is matched only by the indestructibility of the patients) which come and go faster than the nurse on roller-skates. The effect is crass, crowded, and pretty funny, as though the characters from half-a-dozen episodes of General Hospital had strayed onto a big screen and decided to misbehave.