In Critical Condition, comedy legend Richard Pryor plays a con artist named Eddie. Eddie gets framed on a con job and ends up in front of a judge. Rather than risk jail time, Eddie claims to be insane and is sent off to a mental hospital where he is to undergo some psychiatric examinations.  One thing leads to another and Eddie finds himself impersonating a doctor.  Of course this leads to some hilarious moments... or at least it's supposed to.

Richard Pryor is incredibly funny but even he can't save this film. Pryor is great in the lead, delivering some killer one-liners!  Unfortunately, he’s not given a whole lot to work with. Critical Condition had a lot of potential considering the subject matter and the casting but it fell short mainly due to its director and writer.  The film lacks focus, and at times dialogue and even scenes themselves, seem forced.  I think I can honestly say that director Michael Apted is not suited for comedy.  He should stick to films along the lines of his Gorky Park, The World Is Not Enough and the Oscar nominated Nell.

The DVD contains an anamorphic widescreen transfer that shows a bit of natural grain and some mild print damage.  As such there are some specks and a few scratches here and there but otherwise the image looks pretty good. The colors are a little soft in a few scenes, black levels are fairly strong and flesh tones are generally lifelike. This isn't a great transfer, but it is still pretty good.

The audio is presented in a Dolby Digital Mono soundtrack.  Dialogue is clean, bass response is minimal at best and being a mono track, there is no surround action.  It's not a great track but as a mono soundscape it suits the film quite well.  There are also optional English subtitles for those needing them.

Paramount has jam packed this DVD with tons and tons of extras. Oh wait, that was the DVD I watched yesterday.  This DVD has absolutely nothing in terms of extras.  Not even a trailer or filmographies. Both of these extras are easy and should be included with every DVD ever produced.

This DVD release is too minimal to recommend for purchase except to hardcore Pryor fans.  But the above par audio and video presentations make it at least good for a rental even if the film itself is slightly lacking much of the time.