Released in 1978 toward the tail-end of a string of great paranoia films (The Parallax View, The Conversation, All the President’s Men), Coma is the only one involving the medical field. French Canadian Genevieve Bujold stars as a surgical resident whose best friend slips into a coma after a routine dilatation and curettage (D&C) - an elective abortion in this case. She begins to investigate (Scooby-Doo style) after realizing her hospital has more anesthetic complications than it should.
Directed by Michael Crichton (no, really), the film has some terrific shocks using textbook horror movie techniques of string music, shadows, and long hallways. Michael Douglas is relaxed and quietly impressive as Bujold’s boyfriend. In small roles, a pre-Magnum Tom Selleck shows up as a patient as does a pre-bald Ed Harris as a pathology resident. Based on the novel by (Dr.) Robin Cook, the medical jargon is infallible, if occasionally delivered poorly by some secondary actors (J*sus Chr*st! The pupils are fixed and dilated!). The romantic interlude to the beach has laughable, dated music, but, overall, it’s a well-made doctor-based thriller. B+
(Click below for a Fat Bana and a Constipated Harvey)
Chopper (2000)
An interesting take on celebrity and diminishing cultural values from director Andrew Dominik (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford). A bulked-up Eric Bana shows the charisma and talent that brought him to America as Mark “Chopper” Read, a notorious Australian criminal in the 80s-early 90s who wrote a best seller while in prison. The film is violent and bloody with many prison stabbings with shivs and ice-picks. Dominik’s stylistic choices are strong but very different from his follow-up (The Assassination of JJ by the CRF). Here he’s playing with time, editing and camera angles (instead of the painterly imagery in TAOJJBTCRF). I’m not a big fan of celebrating criminals and this may have worked better if I had some knowledge of the Read beforehand. Bana should get some credit for making this jerk watchable, but the low budget and subject matter have limited appeal. B- 
The Two Jakes (1990)
16 actual years (but 11 movie years) after Chinatown, this sequel starts strong but is ultimately undone by its numerous subplots and superfluous characters. In 1948, Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson, who also directs) is much more prosperous as a Los Angeles private investigator, but is still haunted by the events that unfolded at the end of Chinatown. When a real estate developer (Harvey Keitel) hires Gittes to catch his wife in the act of adultery, Gittes’s past will come alive, when Keitel murders his wife’s lover. 
The movie is supposed to be an indictment of suburban sprawl and how the beautiful rural countryside in 1940s LA was ruined. It ends up pointless partly because writer Robert Towne insists on revisiting nearly every character from the first movie, no matter how insignificant. He adds just as many new characters, muddying the waters, and ultimately losing sight of any goal he had. Director Nicholson recreates the era well and paces the rudderless plot as well as possible. But Actor Nicholson was no longer and actor by 1990. He was just Jack, and bares no resemblance to the Jake Gittes in Chinatown. He looks and sounds more like Col. Nathan Jessup in A Few Good Men. File this one under interesting failure. B-
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