Critical Condition

Most violence or threats of violence are played for comedy. Guns and knives are brandished, guns are fired, and people are threatened at knifepoint. Mention of throat cutting, getting beaten in jail. A few scuffles with kicks and punches (including one between the legs); one scuffle with a nightstick. A brief fistfight. A police officer is jumped from behind, and later it's mentioned that he was found dead of strangulation; the body's not shown. Internal organs in glass containers in a laboratory aren't very realistic. An attempted kidnapping at knifepoint. A criminal starts a fire with gasoline.

Most sexual content is crass and played for humor. A scene in an adult bookstore shows blowup dolls in suggestive positions, scantily clad women posing suggestively on posters, and a "nudie" magazine with no nudity visible but the word "centerfold" featured prominently; mention of dildos. Men discuss whether a woman in a magazine (not shown) has "big ones or little ones." A man simulates masturbation. A man pretends to be a dog humping another's leg. Having "the clap" mentioned a few times. A zipper sound effect as a man leans in toward a woman. A woman in sexy lingerie pretends to need a doctor and touches her breasts over her bra. Off camera she's implied to be touching her genital area as well. A hernia exam simulates a doctor grabbing a man's testicles and squeezing hard, causing pain. A baby being born is shown from the side at a medium distance. "Blow job" mentioned.

"S--t," "f--k," and variations are frequent. Less frequent are "ass" (body part), "jerk-off" (name-calling), "slut," "bitch," "wank off," "damn," "motherf--ker," "t-ts," "hell," "goddamn," "fatso," "pee," "d--k" (body part), "chickens--t," "penis head," and "bastard." Someone is called a "piece of pig fart." Being "on the rag" mentioned once.

A prominent minor character is one of a dozen or so "junkies" at the hospital drug clinic for their methadone treatments; being a junkie, needing a fix, and being incapable of doing much are frequently joked about. No drug use is shown, and the characters do pitch in during a crisis and accomplish a lot. Men drink while negotiating business. Many background characters smoke. Kevin accepts a box of cigarettes from a stranger. Later he takes them out, says he quit smoking, but starts to light one, saying smoking relieves tension.

Parents need to know that Critical Condition is a hospital comedy starring Richard Pryor that's full of strong language (especially frequent are "s--t" and "f--k") and crass humor about sex and drugs. Violence is infrequent, not gory, and often slapstick or played for laughs (an attempted kidnapping at knifepoint isn't played for comedy, but it's not very scary, either). Teens may be drawn to the "blue" material, but it serves no purpose here and doesn't showcase the razor-sharp genius that rocketed Pryor to fame in the '70s.

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