This is a terrific film dealing with 3rd year medical students in the tradition of television's "Ben Casey" and "Dr. Kildaire."We live through their experiences. We see their love interests, and the latter conflicting with their medical responsibilities to themselves and their patients. We see how a young couple's marriage is adversely affected by medical school, we view competition between 2 excellent promising doctors for a top spot.It's amazing that I would think so positively about a film that plays a song at the disco where the doctors go to relax and dance up a storm. The song goes about everyone falling on the floor, everyone kills a dinosaur!The best part of the film is that it perfectly describes the idea that medicine in itself is not a perfect science. We view the emotions of doctors when tragedy strikes during a routine injection of a young patient.The cast is top rate.Notice that Norma Aleandro plays a 49 year old, 25 year elementary schoolteacher facing stomach cancer. Hard to believe that she has that position with her think Spanish accent.What's even better about this film is that it shows that doctors are human beings, subject to the human frailties as all of us.

Completely ordinary and boring "drama" of a bunch of third year medical students.This story is so by the numbers it's insulting. Every character has they own separate little drama and they're all tied up nice and fine by the end of the movie. Every single story line is predictable (as are the outcomes) so it gets incredibly boring just watching it. I also heard there were a lot of errors in terms of the medical dialogue...but I can't swear to that. They have a bunch of very talented actors who are just wasted. All of them struggle with their roles but they're given totally one dimensional characters to work with. No actor could make this work.I give this a 2 only for the nude and real hot sex sequence between Adrian Pasdar (all pumped up) and Diane Lane (looking great). Still that's no real reason to watch this. Avoid.

Although some scenes are over-dramatized, the film, as a whole, accurately depicts the cut-throat competition in medical school, as opposed to another critic's opinion that it was less accurate than the movie, Gross Anatomy, which in my opinion, was the furthest away from reality.Some scenes in Vital Signs imply that medical school students in their third year (the first year out of the classroom) have more authority and autonomy than what is true in reality. But the film shows the human side of medicine and that medicine isn't an exact science. Physicians can practice and study for years and still not completely understand the human body.The relationships in the movie are very realistic, especially with Kenny Rose and his wife. Medical school (and medicine in general) takes up a great deal of personal time, which can be damaging to a relationship. The "hanky-panky" between Michael and Gena happens all the time. The relationship between Michael and his father is realistic as well. Sometimes the profession consumes the physician and without knowing it, harms the family life.Again, I found this film to be a realistic portrayal of medical school. In fact, I have this film on tape and watch it from time to time to motivate me in my medical career. I would recommend this movie to anyone in the medical field, especially students thinking about medical school.

Tries to be Gross Anatomy; does an okay job. It's like Gross Anatomy Part II, but the cast isn't as good. Still, it has its moments and is in the very least entertaining.