Jeff Marx (Steve Guttenberg) doesn't have good enough marks to get into any American medical school. He's a disappointment to his doctor family. His father gets him into medical school "somewhat in central America". It's a run-down backwards school. Cookie Katz (Julie Kavner), Dennis Gladstone (Curtis Armstrong) and Liz Parker (Julie Parker) are some of the students. Dr. Ramón Madera (Alan Arkin) is the head of the school who is taken with Liz.It's one of Guttenberg's bad movie during the height of his popularity. The script has nothing particularly funny. Director Harvey Miller is at the end of his career. His style of comedy may be outdated. It's relying solely on Guttenberg and he's not up to the job to create something out of nothing. The movie has some good comedic actors like Arkin and Gilbert Gottfried. It's not dark enough to be a black comedy. The good cast is wasted by this broad laughless comedy.

Back in the late 1990s, the second channel of our notional TV used to air some foreign stuff after its longest newscast in 1:00 AM (Events of 24 Hours). The TV guide had the slightest idea about that. So it was utterly surprising everyday. And at one sleepless night, I met (Bad Medicine).While being no one-star-show, I believe this movie is owned by (Alan Arkin). True there were (Steve Guttenberg), (Julie Hagerty), and other – no less funny or cute – cast members, but when it comes to Dr. (Ramón Madera) I just give up ! That character is unforgettable. He's a cold-hearted, restrainedly romantic, absolutely serious and funny dean / dictator. At the part of falling in love with (Hagerty) he delivered some of his best moments, and I'm talking about both (Madera) and (Arkin). By the way, for years I used to refer to this movie as nothing but "Madera's School" ! The rest of the characters were well made and portrayed. The comedy is serene. There was no violence, cursing, sexual joking, etc; namely the heavily ugly time that they call comedy in our times. Even the corpse's sequence was done beautifully, without any disgusting sense of humor.Using certain ways, concerning arranging the letters, to memorize things while studying is perhaps something has been invented by smart student once. It's a good detail this movie captured. And it implied that this movie – as a whole – was made by smart people. Unlike many many American comedies nowadays, this little comedy gained more than the double of its budget (Cost : $1,289,783. Gross : $2,685,453). So I don't know why it isn't so popular, unless for those who don't find any sleep in 2 AM ! Bad medicine, good comedy, and nice memory indeed.

OK, these folks had a cast of good actors - in fact there are some pleasant surprises in that department, enough to make this a slightly better than average film. More on that later.The screenplay and direction... well, it seems sometimes that any laughs in this thing were accidental - what may have been intended to be the big jokes fall flat, leaving incidental chances for levity. Very occasional chances until well into the film - so hang in there, people, it does get better.What excuse does the director offer for this film? If you're going to do accent and ethnic humor, DO it. Don't hire Alan Arkin, then let him sleepwalk through an acting job - make him ACT, more than he did in the first half of this film. Beat him if you must, but do it. Don't let him be a walking ad for Ambien. Good points? Steve Guttenberg actually surprised me on this one - he did an excellent job of acting, up there with his opening scenes in "The Boys From Brazil" as the young amateur Nazi hunter. So did Gilbert Gottfried, for that matter - he's much better than I have seen him perform in his other films. Bill Macy puts in an honest job, much more than I can say of Arkin, who seems to phone his lines in.Production values? The camera-work's pretty good - they shot the film in Spain and decent professionals did the technical work, but the person responsible for the soundtrack should be shot for having a very heavy hand with the brass in the orchestra and stealing the guitarist from some backyard porn studio in Marin County.Yeah, you should watch it. It's worthwhile if you stick with the film until almost halfway through.

Steve Guttenberg took some time off from his "Police Academy" films with this sleight comedy that has the youngster going to medical school in Mexico after being rejected all over the U.S. There are truly some really funny moments and there is enough interest built up to make the finale feel appropriate, even if it is somewhat forced. Watchable and not a total waste from the sorry genre that dominated the 1980s. 2.5 out of 5 stars.