The Age of Commercialism

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Joe Hamill (Ronald Hunter) while playing tennis with his mistress becomes short of breath, has pains in his chest and left arm. He eventually comes under the care of Dr. St. Clair (Louis Gossett Jr.) a cardiologist who becomes indignant that a patient had the nerve to check him out. St, Clair, who is having over blown marriage issues, has to play social director for Joe making sure his wife and mistress don't visit at the same time. And then there is the evil Dr. Mendlel (E.G. Marshall)...The film lacked action or real drama. The characters had only themselves to blame for their issues. The dialogue was corny, even for that age where black people could be doctors but still had to have a black wife. Fairly boring TV movie. Available on a 50 DVD pack.

Lovable cheat Graeme Souness has just had himself one of them heart attacks and ends up under the care of Lou Gossett Jnr (future star of Bram Stoker's Legend of the Mummy). Even though there are many clashes at first between the two (Souness thinks Doctor Gossett's an arse, but then Lou thinks Souness is a chug nut) it's clear that there's a bromance on the horizon.Y'see Lou's a hard-working cardiologist with a cheating wife and Souness is cheating on his own wife and getting Lou to give his wife the run around. There's rather a lot of this going on (as well as medical procedure). Then some sort of plot eventually emerges involving a drug fuelled Doctor. It's not that exciting.I wonder what the show was actually like? The cheeseball freeze frame at the end was good, and the acting was okay, but nothing great.

I acquired the made for TV 90 minute pilot episode in Mill Creek's Drive-in 50-pack collection. I found the pilot episode to be fairly interesting for a TV show pilot. I found myself drawn into the story of St. Clair's private life and his medical or public life can be intense at times. It's a good pilot episode.Louis Gossett Jr. plays Mac St. Clair. He is a brilliant but extremely moody cardiologist who is having a lot of problems in his personal life due to being dedicated to his career. St. Clair finds himself in a quarrel his chief surgeon who seems incompetent. It's up to St. Clair to smooth things over in his career and private life.3/10

This made for TV movie was actually a backdoor pilot for a (very) short- lived series that came the following year. As it turns out, the story in this movie pilot is very self-contained, so one doesn't have to seek the series for further information. Anyway, I am kind of mystified why the network heads green-lit a series from this movie. To be sure, it's not an awful movie. There are some good performances here, the standout being Lou Gossett Jr. as the lead. You can really believe he is a seasoned doctor who knows what he's talking about. And Ronald Hunter does well as the patient who get tangled with Gossett's character, and some real chemistry in their scenes are generated. However, the script needed some work. The subplot about Gossett's home life feels unfinished. And the movie is really slow in introducing the mystery that the leads uncover, and equally slow in resolving it. I've seen worse pilots, but this is one that really needed a doctor - a script doctor, that is.