With Jim Sabatini

Dr. Hollywood

Rated: PG-13  for nudity and language
Reviewed by: Frank and Chris
Release date: August 2, 1991

En route to Beverly Hills for a job interview as a plastic surgeon, Dr. Ben Stone (Michael J. Fox) takes a shortcut off the Interstate and crashes in Grady, S.C. As punishment for reckless driving, "The Squash Capital of the South" becomes Ben's home for a few days of community service at the local hospital. It seems the town needs a doctor as the present one, a cantankerous, lush (Barnard Hughes) only shows up for dire emergencies, he'd rather drink whiskey and quote Walt Whitman.

Ben is not happy in Grady, until he meets Lou (Julie Warner) the pretty ambulance driver, bathing in the lake.

\The town is full of characters, David Ogden Stiers as the mayor, Bridget Fonda as the mayor's loose daughter, who will leave with any man who will take her to the "Big City," and Woody Harrelson as a down-home insurance salesperson. The townspeople are stereotyped as naive and slightly dimwitted (something Harrelson should have down pat after years of practice on Cheers).

The story is predictable - no surprises here - as Dr. Stone sorts out whether to stay in Grady where life is quiet and uncomplicated or trade it for the big bucks that liposuction affords. Fox does the best he can, but the film is nothing more than an affable diversion.