Rijndri Load of rubbish!!

Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

JohnHowardReid Lindsay Anderson's best film by far in my opinion, this is a delightful social satire – but not for the thin-skinned, I might add – brilliantly played by an expertly chosen cast, led by Norman Rossiter. Anderson not only keeps it moving along at a nice pace, but he obviously had access to a big budget, resulting not only in well-utilized sets and locations, but generally fine production values. The clever, well-observed screenplay so expertly blends fantasy with social reality that one is willing to accept even the film's monstrous conclusion. A marvelous music score also helps and so does the superb photography and eye-dazzling sets.

Dave from Ottawa School rebel (If...) and coffee salesman (O Lucky Man) Mick Travis is back, this time as a reporter checking out a government funded hospital which is about to receive a Royal visit from the Queen Mother. He encounters vicious hardhat strikers, greedy and unscrupulous union bosses, mad scientist medical caregivers and a hospital administrator (Leonard Rossiter) whose heart is in the right place, but who finds himself having to descend time and again to the brute level of everybody around him. The picture painted of UK society here is grim and mean and there is less of the cheeky fun of O Lucky Man here, making the film more successful as satire but less so as madcap comedy, although that is clearly it is clearly intended as both. Britannia Hospital has its entertaining moments, though, especially with the brilliant chief of surgery (Graham Crowder) who turns out to be clearly insane and when government protocol officials show up to instruct hospital workers on the correct forms of address for the Queen Mum and nobody can understand their elite, upper crust accents! Worth a look for fans of O Lucky Man and social satire movies in general. Just don't expect to laugh out loud a lot.

andrew-lamb-542-716618 I guess there are a lot of Lyndsay Anderson fans out there who are prepared to forgive their hero. Although, why they should forgive him for dropping the ball with this turkey I can't imagine. Personally, I thought this slice of "satire" was a dreadful crock of brown, smelly stuff. Coming on the heels of "O Lucky Man" I was fully in tune with all the surreality. Sadly the thing was painfully let down by all those bolt-on, tokenistic and grand-standing waves to the liberal gallery. I thought the scene where the pretty little protester offered the riot cop a flower was particularly risible. The implication being that the rioters were all a bunch of peace-niks and definitely not inclined to get down and medieval with the fuzz. As for Mick Travis' snogging scene with the nurse, well....... I've never seen a less convincing affair-de-coeur, Carry-on films included.Now, that would be an idea for a subtle satire: "Carry On Anderson"

Galina After I saw during the last week the first ("If...", 1968) and the final ("Britannia Hospital", 1982) films of Lindsay Anderson's satirical Mick Travis trilogy, I realized the whole scope and magnitude of his vision. In his three films ("O Lucky Man", 1973, is a middle chapter), he had covered all aspects, politics, and institutions of British Society from 1968 to 1982 with its complex system of class and caste differences and privileges, including its public schools, its international politics, its law system, and its health care system, and he found out that something was rotten in the British Kingdom. The third and final chapter of the trilogy, takes place almost entirely in the Britannia Hospital, one of the oldest and most respectable English medical centers in London that celebrates its 500th anniversary and expects the Queen Mother herself to attend. But there are many troubles at the hospital that mirror the problems the whole society suffers from and may turn the celebration into a nightmare. Our old friend, Mick "Lucky Man" Travis (Malcolm McDowell) who had become investigative reporter arrives with his crew to cover the celebration but accidentally he becomes a witness and then an unwilling participant in the sinister human experiments that are conducted by Professor Millar. The "mad scientist" had promised to Mick in the previous movie that as a result of the experiment, he would become much better... Well, Mick is just about to find out if that is true.Very clever, very British, filled equally with dry humor and horrifying shocking sequences, "Britannia Hospital" ends the trilogy with the bang. Its final 20 minutes are the combination of the darkest surreal comedy and the serious compelling futuristic satire of the long-lasting power. As for Mick, "Britannia Hospital" left no hopes for another Mick Travis chapter ever. After all, Mick may not be a lucky man but we are the lucky viewers that have been following him on his crazy and unforgettable journey where Lindsay Anderson sent us.