Patch Adams

source: Patch Adams

I have never seen a movie with Robin Williams that I haven't liked. The man is a comic genius and a great actor as well. He uses both of those characteristics in this movie. Patch Adams is the true story about a doctor who works really hard to entertain the patients. I think it is awesome that a guy like him really existed and tried to make everything fun. The movie follows him from medical school all the way up through the rest of his life. It follows his relationships with his friends and his workers. This movie is good, but not as good as many other Robin Williams movies. It never gets boring though, and it always stays entertaining. I'd say this is for anyone who likes Robin Williams, or for anyone who wants to see a funny movie.

I was so disappointed in the audiences that liked this boring melodramatic "comedy". The story went all over the place. The same hospital patients in the storyline after a year...did these people live in the hospital? Doesn't this guy ever study ...maybe he should have been shown studying or at least reading a book! This guy was portrayed as a total goof....I wouldn't let this guy around me with a stethoscope! I want my money back!!!!

1 out of 10 Patch Adams is the worst piece of Oscar-bait I've ever seen, complete with "tear-jerking" deaths, pompous speeches, and (attempted) uplifting triumph. Too bad the movie is essentially nothing more than an oddball who acts like a god to all things involved in the medical profession. Attempts at creating sentimentality are contrived and even cringe-inducing. Anybody else felt a little shocked when Adams spouted out synonyms for death at a man near death? Anybody else felt a little stupefied at the (unintentionally) hilarious portrayal of the medical system as nothing more than incompetent, money grubbers? Anybody else felt a little cheated when you realized Monica Potter's character existed only as a romantic interest whose sole purpose is to make us cry? Anybody else felt like laughing during Adams' overdone climactic speech, complete with sick children on chemotherapy who seem to have found the time to come to court? If you said no to any of the above questions, then director Tom Shadyac struck a success in emotional manipulation.

Yes, I know this movie is based on the real life of Patch Adams but all the events in the movie feel over-the-top and highly unlikely that they really occurred. Its the reason why the dramatic scene's in the movie simply didn't worked for me. First of all, I couldn't even always sympathize for the main character Patch Adams played by Robin Williams (sometimes he's a bit over-the-top in some dramatic scene's but overall he gives a very solid performance.). I mean seriously, Patch Adams really pushes it at times and simply goes too far in his methods. I even found myself on the side of Dean Walcott (a very typical Bob Gunton stereotype role ala "The Shawshank Redemption" and "Glory".), at times. It is not a good sign for a drama when you couldn't even always sympathize for the main character. This alone is already a reason for why this drama is a failure. All of the events in the movie felt highly unlikely and unrealistic. No way you can convince me that some dying 70 year old could be entertained by a bunch of balloons. Yes, there really were some 'dramatic' scene's in the movie that simply made me cringe. Its the kind of drama that is really embarrassing to look at. The drama in the movie is very childish and way too cliché. There even is room for a misplaced, unneeded and highly unbelievable love-story. The music by Marc Shaiman is also a reason why the drama in the movie doesn't work. I mean I'm sure that the score is great to listen to outside of the movie (I mean after all, it was even nominated for an Oscar.) but in the movie itself it simply doesn't work. It's such a stereotypical and over-the-top drama score! Basically it's the same tune over and over again in every of the 'dramatic' scene's. It was really distracting for me at times. It's funny but in the few scene's that he's in Philip Seymour Hoffman truly absolutely the show. How long before this guy will win his Oscar? Yes every scene that he was in was a highlight for me. This movie is really a waste of a great cast. Its not the cast their fault that the drama doesn't work, I think its director's Tom Shadyac, who manages to deliver the drama in an highly unlikely and unbelievable manner. He should stick to making comedies, me thinks! A big failure as a movie and drama in many ways... 3/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Easily the worst film Robin Williams ever did. This "film" is really one long propaganda picture for the extreme left to champion health-care reform. I don't oppose making political points in pictures, but the film simply doesn't have the depth to support the point it tries to make. Such statements as the diner employee's lamentation "I think the government should pay for my health care," are not only baldly political and highly oversimplistic, but are not examined with the thoroughness or balance that such a topical issue demands. So, taking the failure to address the political issues intelligently into account, all this film leaves you with is a severe boredom. If you've seen ANY Williams film before, or watched even ONE episode of Mork and Mindy, you'll have deja vu. This is the same tired, old junk that Robin Williams has been doing for years. And if you like the freewheeling comedy he's typical for, go rent Aladdin, because this film doesn't bring anything new to the table.

'Patch Adams' is one of the worst melodramas I've ever seen. It's cloying, trite, and coldly manipulatize. While I have no doubt that Patch Adams and his philosophy, I have serious difficulty believing his life was ANYTHING like this movie. This movie is so... conventional. It goes through all the motions of melodrama, and I didn't care. There's so much sap in this movie that I started to feel ill in the final act. And there is one scene that just made me mad-the pointless death of a character I will not reveal. This scene and the aftermath is so badly handled that I wanted to rip the film apart. Everyone in this movie gives their worst performance of their career. Everyone except Phillip Seymour Hoffman. At least he remains unscathed. Robin Williams gives, and I know this is hyperbole, one of the singularly worst performances I've ever seen on film. 'Patch Adams' is bad. Bad bad BAD! I hated it.

This movie was absolutely terrible! I loathed it thoroughly. It was emotionally manipulative, exploitative, sentimental, sappy, saccharine, formulaic, aaagggghhhh! I can't go on long enough how much I hated this film. How could Robin Williams agree to make such an awful film? I wish I could collect my thoughts together well enough to coherently explain what was so bad about this, but I am just so angry at this movie that my emotions cloud my mind. Vomit!

(****Spoilers****) This is my number 1 worst movie of all time. It was so soppy and over sentimental it literally made me feel nauseous. I loved Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting (one of my favourite movies) this movie has pretty much put me off him forever. I found the character of Patch so completely annoying he made the movie impossible to enjoy. The part when he is about to kill himself and finds meaning in life again from a butterfly and the scene where all the children come in to the court room with clown noses on were the worst. The sad thing is that the fact that it is based on a fairly remarkable true story, And could have been done so much better. This is in my opinion jointly the fault of the screenplay and of Robin William's over-acting. I give it a 1 out of 10.

I feel VERY sorry for people who have given "Patch Adams" positive criticism. Why? This story is based on a true life story and it completely makes it false. Why tell a true story in film when you can't tell it right? Here's some reasons why Patch Adams is terrible. 1) Now supposedly Patch Adams makes his way to University of Virginia Medical School straight from the institution. No, can't happen, especially at Mr. Adams' age. How is the university with the top medical teaching in the country supposed to accept Adams just out of the blue? Wait, doesn't Adams have to go through community college first? Yes, then a four year college, THEN University of Virginia medical school. But NO, the film never explains the progress. It automatically assumes Adams was so successful that it didn't need to be explained how he got accepted into University of Virginia. 2) How are we supposed to believe laughter is the true key to medicine when it seems every patients can be cured by laughter. WHAT?! What kinds of patients are these? Probably just ones with physical injuries. I know that for a fact that autistic children wouldn't respond to Robin Williams' "Patch Adams." It's just not possible. The patients just get instantly cured by Williams' pranks. How is this possible? Nothing is ever explained, it just happens. God, Steve Oedekerk is a terrible writer. 3) Why is Patch Adams in such an opposition in this film to doctors? What from his mental institution experience with doctors? Bah. The fact is, you need a doctor who can treat you with the right prescription medicine and treatments. You DON'T need the fictionalized loony Patch Adams in the film. Stay AWAY from him as far away as you can. Now there is a Patch Adams in real life. I'd rather be interested in hearing about how he was able to do his laughter for medicine in his patients versus this film. As a film based on real life, it's the worst ever made. Again, read these words and remember them... "if you can't tell the true story right, why tell it at all?" STAY AWAY FROM THIS FILM AT ALL COSTS! Avoid it like the plague! Zero stars By the way, Siskel & Ebert couldn't have said it better in their reviews of "Patch Adams."