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MOVIES / ON DVD / COMA
Coma

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Coma (1978)

75%
80%
83%
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75 %
Reviews Counted: 20 Fresh: 15  Rotten:5 Average Rating: 6.5/10

How does the Tomatometer work?

The Tomatometer measures the percentage of positive reviews from Approved Tomatometer Critics for a certain movie.[-]

Runtime: 1 hr 53 mins

Synopsis: Based on the best-selling novel by Robin Cook, COMA is a taught paranoid thriller and a dramatically apt metaphor for the corruption and fraud in the modern American health-care industry. Dr. Susan Wheeler (Genevieve Bujold) suspects her colleagues of foul play when her closest friend... Based on the best-selling novel by Robin Cook, COMA is a taught paranoid thriller and a dramatically apt metaphor for the corruption and fraud in the modern American health-care industry. Dr. Susan Wheeler (Genevieve Bujold) suspects her colleagues of foul play when her closest friend lapses into a coma following a routine operation. When Wheeler discovers a suspiciously frequent pattern of unexplained comas in her hospital, she becomes obsessed with finding an answer, even when it puts her own career and life in danger. Her lover, Dr. Bellows (Michael Douglas), admits there is a mystery but doubts there is a conspiracy and even suspects Wheeler of suffering from a nervous breakdown. The tension builds as Wheeler's investigation leads her to a secret corporation specializing in organ transplant experimentation and sale for profit, and she soon witnesses the defining image of the film: comatose bodies suspended on wires in a computer-controlled environment. With its suspensful plot, dramatic editing, and conspiratorial terror, COMA is a precursor to many paranoid dramas such as THE FIRM and THE PELICAN BRIEF, establishing a defined style that may yet become a genre unto itself. [More]

Genre: Dramas

Starring: Geneviève Bujold, Michael Douglas, Richard Widmark, Elizabeth Ashley, Rip Torn

Director: Michael Crichton
Screenwriter: Michael Crichton
Producer: Martin Erlichman
Composer: Jerry Goldsmith

DVD Info

Release:

Dec 10, 1999

[DVD Details]

DVD Features:

  • Region 1
  • Snap Case
  • Widescreen Anamorphic - 1.85
  • Full Frame - 1.33

Audio:

  • Dolby Digital Mono - English
  • Dolby Digital Mono - French

Additional Release Material:

  • Trailer - 1. Original Theatrical

Interactive Features:

  • Interactive Menus
  • Scene Access

Reviews

 
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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Arrange By: Name | Fresh | Rotten | Date | Source
 
 
Ratings Image
N/A

A suspense-filled nailbiter that plays on a fear no weapon weidling psycho can top.

Full Review | comment Comment
11/27/07
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
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N/A

This is a tidy conspiracy-theory thriller from Crichton, who accentuates the tension by packing it into a wholly believable, human framework.

Full Review | comment Comment
11/27/07
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
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N/A

See it and worry.

Full Review | comment Comment
09/30/06
Geoff Andrew
Time Out
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Ratings Image
4/5

corny classic thriller

comment Comment
02/26/05
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall
Ratings Image
2.5/4

Coma wastes a superb performance by Bujold on a simplistic, predictable series of cliched suspense scenes, seasoned with some last-minute moralizing about contemporary medicine.

Full Review | comment Comment
11/27/07
TV Guide's Movie Guide
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
N/A

Coma is an extremely entertaining suspense drama in the Hitchcock tradition.

Full Review | comment Comment
11/27/07
Variety Staff
Variety
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5/5

A superb suspense-thriller.

comment Comment
10/15/05
Chuck O'Leary
Fantastica Daily
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2/5

No review available.

comment Comment
07/01/05
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com
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3/5

No review available.

comment Comment
06/30/05
Randy Shulman
Metro Weekly (Washington, DC)
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3/5

Pretty creepy stuff hanging around here.

comment Comment
05/31/05
Steve Crum
Video-Reviewmaster.com
Ratings Image
2/5

The aftereffect of Coma is a catlike yawn, benign and bored.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/09/05
Vincent Canby
New York Times
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Ratings Image
N/A

Micheal Crichton in his heyday

comment Comment
01/28/05
Staci Layne Wilson
Fantastica Daily
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2/5

No review available.

comment Comment
01/17/05
Philip Martin
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
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4/5

No review available.

comment Comment
06/04/04
Sarah Chauncey
Reel.com
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3/5

No review available.

comment Comment
04/08/04
Rebecca Murray
About.com
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N/A

Genevieve Bujold puts in one of the strongest performances of her career in this well-done thriller.

Full Review | comment Comment
01/24/04
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice
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3/5

Adequate Michael Crichton thriller.

comment Comment
05/20/03
Ken Hanke
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
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3/5

Crichton does Cook in this engaging (if dated) medical thriller.

comment Comment
07/25/02
Scott Weinberg
eFilmCritic.com
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N/A

Michael Crichton's slow-paced thriller must have begun with something to say about the morality of the medical profession, but whatever it was is lost in the shuffle of unnecessary narrative detail.

Full Review | comment Comment
01/01/00
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader
Ratings Image
8/10

So scary and so effective after all those years.

Full Review | comment Comment
01/01/00
Dragan Antulov
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