Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Peereddi I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

Monkeywess This is an astonishing documentary that will wring your heart while it bends your mind

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Kieran Wright I really wanted to like this movie, but in the end couldn't even bear to watch it to the end. The one redeeming feature was Leonard Rossiter and I found myself wondering whether even he would have doubted his sanity in signing up to this when he saw the final rushes. Malcolm McDowell, whom I considered to be a good actor, was reduced to little more than a 'Carry-On' performance. The juxtaposition of farce and horror to me seemed miscalculated. Just dreadful and one I'm trying to forget... Tip: don't watch this whilst consuming food.

Dave from Ottawa School rebel (If...) and coffee salesman (O Lucky Man) Mick Travis is back, this time as a reporter checking out a government funded hospital which is about to receive a Royal visit from the Queen Mother. He encounters vicious hardhat strikers, greedy and unscrupulous union bosses, mad scientist medical caregivers and a hospital administrator (Leonard Rossiter) whose heart is in the right place, but who finds himself having to descend time and again to the brute level of everybody around him. The picture painted of UK society here is grim and mean and there is less of the cheeky fun of O Lucky Man here, making the film more successful as satire but less so as madcap comedy, although that is clearly it is clearly intended as both. Britannia Hospital has its entertaining moments, though, especially with the brilliant chief of surgery (Graham Crowder) who turns out to be clearly insane and when government protocol officials show up to instruct hospital workers on the correct forms of address for the Queen Mum and nobody can understand their elite, upper crust accents! Worth a look for fans of O Lucky Man and social satire movies in general. Just don't expect to laugh out loud a lot.

OldAle1 I've been wanting to see this, the last part of the "Mick Travis" (Malcolm McDowell) trilogy, for over a decade, and not sure why I waited until now. Perhaps it was unavailable back in the VHS days? Perhaps it was the relatively poor reputation in comparison with the two earlier films, If.... and O Lucky Man!, both of which I loved when I first saw them back in the 90s.Well, perhaps I shouldn't have waited. Seeing this film in isolation didn't do it any favors in all probability. It's a jumbled mass of incoherent ideologies and ideas played out against the backdrop of "Britannia Hospital" which is getting ready for a visit by the Queen Mother while a strike rages and a mob gathers demanding justice for an African dictator residing in the luxurious "first class" room at the top of the hospital. The satire on British class couldn't be any more obvious, and the misanthropy is equal in savagery with the strongest of Twain's or Vonnegut's work though not nearly on a par in quality. It's fitting, and not really surprising, that Travis should die as he attempts to report on the goings-on of mad scientist Professor Millar (Graham Crowden, in the most entertaining performance in the film), but what is surprising is how bland and dull his character is, how meaningless his end as he becomes something of a Frankenstein creature. The finish to the film, as Millar addresses a crowd composed of all the principal groups that have been arguing and fighting throughout, is moving in its way but seems utterly out-of-keeping with the lunacy that has gone before, and the wrap-up far too abrupt and forced.Honestly, I barely remember it a week later. A slightly positive mark for this DVD rental, because it did keep me entertained for a good chunk of it's running time, but that's probably being overly generous of me.

author1995 I couldn't decide whether this is a good movie or a bad one, but I don't think it will leave you unshaken. People die in the corridors (probably painfully) because of the staff's neglect, and I remember being very shocked by the sheer callousness of this (but that's satire, after all). But the thing that stayed with me was the experiment in the new wing - creating a new human being from parts. Even though it has been years since I saw the film, just writing about it makes me feel sick again. The mad doctor's ghoulish interest in his patients was shocking, and the despairing expression on the transplanted head's face was worse - but when the new man finally bit the doctor's hand and the surgery staff literally tore the body's head off to free the doctor was nothing but revolting. It's strong stuff, really strong stuff, and even though I sometimes wish I hadn't seen the movie because of that scene alone, I don't know... it was a learning experience, after all, that was nicely summed up in the final shot of the disembodied brain quoting Shakespeare: when man wants to play god, the result can be indescribable.