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Patch Adams
MCA/Universal Pictures


4.6

based on 21 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 20 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for some strong language and crude humor

Starring Robin Williams, Daniel London, Monica Potter, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bob Gunton, Josef Sommer, Irma P. Hall, and Frances Lee McCain

Robin Williams is Patch Adams - a doctor who believes in laughter as medicine and will do just about anything to make his patients laugh - even if it means risking his own career. (Universal)

GENRE(S):	Comedy \| Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Steve Oedekerk Patch Adams (book Gesundheit: Good Health Is a Laughing Matter) Maureen Mylander (book)
DIRECTED BY:	Tom Shadyac
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: June 22, 1999 Video: June 22, 1999 Theatrical: December 25, 1998
RUNNING TIME:	115 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

This film mas nominated for a 1999 Academy Award in the category of Best Music, Original Musical or Comedy Score (Marc Shaiman).

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack

A perfect vehicle for Robin Williams. He again plays the compassionate, manic clown that has been his main character throughout his movie career. And audiences love his wild end runs.

Variety Joe Leydon

Shamelessly sappy and emotionally manipulative, Patch Adams is an aggressively heartwarming comedy-drama that may be roasted by critics but embraced by ticketbuyers.

LA Weekly F. X. Feeney

Williams is a great clown, and Oedekirk and Shadyac give him room to really cut loose, and cure the movie. That’s as it should be.

Empire Darren Bignell

So the prognosis is generally positive, though there may be a touch too much sugar in this motion picture panacea, which is, in places, shamelessly sentimental to an extraordinarily manipulative degree.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The movie starts with insights about the need for more humane values in health care, then buries them under an avalanche of frivolities, vulgarities, and clichés.

San Francisco Examiner Edvins Beitiks

Could have been maudlin from start to finish. Instead, more than half the 154-minute film is riveting - filled with funny, touching bits that don't stoop to cheap sentimentality.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The kind of film that will work for an audience that's just interested in having an emotional experience (with a happy ending) without caring how obviously or clumsily they are manipulated. I find this sort of sledgehammer film making to be offensive, but there are those who enjoy it.

The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

Low humor might count for more here if it weren't constantly overshadowed by the film's maudlin streak.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

The film begins to resemble the dramatic equivalent of a porno movie, with emotional orgasms spewing forth at a rapid clip. By the time Patch Adams reaches its narrative climax, it has long since shot its dramatic load.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

The perfectly acceptable shtick executed by Williams--whose I-know-you-better-than-you-know-yourself seduction techniques ought to make him a hotter leading man--occasionally justifies the relentlessly light tone of this preachy 1998 comedy-drama.

Los Angeles Times Jack Mathews

Williams knows when material is working, and he knows the sound of an honestly aroused crowd. This ain't it!

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Made me want to spray the screen with Lysol. This movie is shameless. It's not merely a tearjerker. It extracts tears individually by liposuction, without anesthesia.

TV Guide Angel Cohn

Williams isn't really playing Adams: He's once again playing himself, and the act is getting tired.

Washington Post Rita Kempley

If laughter is the best medicine, Patch Adams is but a sugary, fitfully amusing placebo.

New York Daily News David Kehr

Patch Adams is either a brilliantly sly, straight-faced parody of the standard Robin Williams tearjerker or the soggiest movie of the season. [24 December 1998, p. 29]

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Ray Conlogue

Patch Adams is a flawed visionary, but surely he deserves better than this crass and manipulative movie.

The New Yorker David Denby

This shameless piece of sentimentality is indignantly on the side of feelings and spontaneity and against coldhearted technique, as if those were the only two choices in training doctors.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

There should be a special room in Hell where the makers of films like Patch Adams are sent.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Audiences may find this pap brimming with heart and sympathy for the little guy, but as prescriptions go, Patch Adams is pure placebo.

Village Voice Dennis Lim

The year's most repugnant movie.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Oooh, this is toxic.

The average user rating for this movie is 4.6 (out of 10) based on 20 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Harry gave it a10:
Nominated for two Golden Globe awards including best Picture (musical or comedy), “Patch Adams” is by far, one of the most heartbreaking comedies or hilarious tragedies I have ever seen. After reading a few reviews of the site, I noticed that most critics bashed this film because it was against the medicine techniques. Well, to those naïve persons, I have to tell you that “Patch Adams” is based on the autobiography of the person of the same name. I rarely cry in a film and I cried in this one so that gives it even more credit. Plus, the performances are top notch, especially Robin William’s believable interpretation of Patch. All I’ll tell you, ignore the critics, go watch this film. Take it seriously and cry of emotion.

Gilbert Mulroneycakes FM gave it a1:
No. This is a very well made annoying film. I've often said that movies NEED to be manipulative, but they don't need to kick you in the crotch to make you cry. I'm really here to defend Robin Williams, who's a damn good actor and turns out a great performance in the irritating central role of a doomed movie. Not enough to save it, because his good performance pushes with the tide instead of against it. You want a good film with Robin Williams in a serious role, rent Good Will Hunting or...there is another one. Awakenings, that's it. Or, at a push, What Dreams May Come, similarly manipulative to this film, but with imagination and life to balance it out.

Brian G gave it a10:
A very heartwarming movie. Not to mention funny as hell, of course, since Robbin Williams is the main actor. Ignore the ciritics on this one, afterall, it's their job to be critical.

Frederick S. gave it a6:
Underrated but no masterpiece.

J Hawkins gave it a0:
Robin Williams singularly bastardizes the perfectly (worthwhile??) work of Patch Adams (well, maybe not...). At any rate, this film is unendurable, and appeals only to those of prurient taste.

Omar S. gave it a0:
Robin Williams is simply horrific in this leaden dud.

sara a. gave it a10:
This movie is amazing!!!!!

Patch Adams MCA/Universal Pictures

Patch Adams
MCA/Universal Pictures