Customer Reviews

Flatliners (Widescreen)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Rather morbid film of five medical students to experiment with death and find that ghosts from the grave coming back to hauting them. The story is both morbid and lacks creditbility, which is not a surprise when you consider that it's made by the same film director who gave us Batman and Robin. Nuff Said.

This has to be my favorite Kiefer Sutherland movie. The basic idea is that five medical students "flatline" themselves to see what happens when you are technically dead. What they get is not what they expect. Consequently, their past comes back to haunt them until they can atone for their actions. A great Sci-fi thriller, but not for people who are into really scary movies. 'Flatliners' has a great cast and acting. This is a movie worth watching on a rainy day.

This film by far is one of the best when it comes to originality. Five med students (Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, Kevin Bacon, William Baldwin, and Oliver Platt) want to know what really lies beyond death. One by one they each flatline for a short time to see if they can come back with the answers to life and death. What they get is far more than they would have ever expected. One by one their sins are brought back to haunt them until they make amends with their past. The dark lighting and music keep you entranced throughout the film. The only thing that I have to complain about on this Dvd is the lack of special features. It at least should of had the Trailer, however, other than that, this movie is a "should buy." Great acting by the five lead actors that have now made great names for themselves.

Honestly I never heard of this movie until a few months ago. I am a pretty big fan of Keifer Sutherland and some of his movies and of course his tv show 24. So about a month ago I blindly bought this movie just for the hell of it. The Flatliners stars Julia Roberts, Kevin Bacon, one of the Baldwins, and of course Keifer.

The Flatliners itself is a pretty cool movie with a different concept than those in its genre. It deals with young medical students experimenting to find out if there is an afterlife. Once they come back from the afterlife they are haunted by the other side.

This is one of the ultimate "Do not do this at home" movies. Although after I saw it I couldn't help from asking my friends "How much money would you do it for", lol. I bet one you see this you will be asking your friends.

One area where it is lacking though is the DVD itself is lacking any kind of special features, interactive menus, and a decently layed out chapter selection. In all honestly the movie is pretty good but the DVD is terrible compared to other newer DVDs. To me things like that make a difference. The fact that it is cheap makes up for it though.

I think if you enjoyed movies such as Stir of Echoes, The Sixth Sense, Vanilla Sky, or even the Mothman Prophies (underrated movie) you probably will enjoy this movie. At times it is dark and sorta twisted but it always stays on track and never bores you. Definetly check this movie out if you are a fan of Keifer Sutherland, Kevin Bacon or Julia Roberts because they all shine in this movie.

Movie grade - B+
DVD Grade - D-

What a great premise for a modern horror story: Young Frankensteins bent crossing the line between life and death. It is a creative and interesting premise along the lines of so many classics, including, of course, Frankenstein, The Fly (the re-make, especially), and The Man With the X-Ray Eyes. Of course, there will be hell to pay for "going where Man ought not go." Oh yes, there'll be hell!

But where the movie fails is in its rather silly, preachy lecture on the consequences of these actions. I won't give it away here, but the film turns into a cheap spin on a familiar ghost story, something done to much better effect in The Sixth Sense. The acting is just average, with Julia Roberts looking better than average, and constraining her hideous laugh, but the rest just mailing it in--with one exception. Kevin Bacon. He has turned out to be a terrific actor all around (including in Mystic River), and he is a real stand out in this film, too. Too bad he isn't enough to save it.

Watch this movie for the premise, for the director's ability to create suspense, and try not to cringe too much as the truth is revealed. Once again, a great premise dies because of bad execution.

I don't understand why some reviews are so hard on this movie! I have been a die-hard fan of Kiefer Sutherland since "Stand By Me"! ("24" didn't exactly change that!) Kevin Bacon & Julia Roberts are great, also, as always. Contrary to some reviews, Kiefer doesn't get the idea to "simulate" death, he, & his classmates in turn, DIE & come back. The ctach is, they bring their sins back physically, & they're unhappy! Keifer's (Dr. Death) provides the biggest thrill, & suspense, of this movie. When I first saw this at the Joy's Panorama, it scared the SH - heck out of me! 15 years later, I find it didn't lose any punch. Do yourselves a favor: for young acting brilliance, scary suspense & fun, check this one out!

What really happens after death...is exactly what a few overzelous medical students try to find out in this suspence-thriller that I think is a real hair rasier! What I really loved about this movie is that they depict death a almost a journey into what the person loved most in their life. They didn't try to do the old hollywood "tunnel of light" but rather a kind of peace that watches over a person after they die. It made me wonder though that when they cheat death, death seems to have a type of "punishment" that befalls every seeker after they come back. Every one soon discoveres that they only way to say "sorry" is to embrace this "punishment" and make amends as kiefer sutherland soon discovers. This movie is stylish and fun and has many lessons that everyone can learn from. Death isn't so scary, its life that is scary and unknown.

Summary:
Five medical students want to see what happens when you die: Nelson Wright (Kiefer Sutherland), Rachel Mannus (Julia Roberts), David Labraccio (Kevin Bacon), Joseph 'Joe' Hurley (William Baldwin), and Randal Steckle (Oliver Platt). What they find is that there are things in their past of which they are not proud.

My Comments:
The premise is truly brilliant - it is a great question. But why do they have to deal with their 'sins'? It never really makes sense. However, the impression I get is that someone is trying to push a 'Christian' theme on the viewers of the movie - what people need is something to atone for their sins. However, even if this was the intent of the writers, I decided to take it a bit further and see the atonement taking place inside the people's minds - more of an atheistic approach.

Anyway, that is really just my interpretation of the movie and not really much of a critique of the production. I thought the acting was satisfactory, not Oscar worthy, but bearable. The setting was fun, an old-school type medical school - something of a gothic feel to it. I thought the movie was well done overall, though it was not always convincing. Some of the scenes with Billy Mahoney (Joshua Rudoy) chasing Nelson weren't very convincing, even with the leeway of a dreamworld. The movie tried too hard at times to be dark; sure, the experiment was dark, but it was also light in other ways, something they chose not to emphasize.

Overall, if you enjoy movies that offer a topic to think about and are a bit on the dark side, you would probably enjoy this. If death and dark movies are not your thing, this one isn't for you.

Everyone has moments in their life they wish they could re-invent. This movie is about what happens when you don't face your sins after they have come back to haunt you.
The five main characters have moments in their past brought to life by an unproved medical proceedure that forces them to face the things they have done or experienced. What it comes down to though, is that you have to face your sins eventually, or they will destroy you.
Amy Davies

This movie is not exactly high on people's lists of Great Horror, but as a scientific-religious allegory it's sheer brilliance. The themes first explored in the original Frankenstein come back to haunt: that being the idea that the seeker of knowledge who stops at nothing to gain that knowledge should beware as the object of his desire may turn and bite him in the end.

Keifer Sutherland is a young, arrogant medical student who cajoles his friends into playing what might be termed the Ultimate Game of Chicken: explore the afterlife through "flatlining" (i.e., artificially inducing a temporary state of medical death, followed by revival). It's sticking your nose in the Ultimate Don't Go Here Door, and he and his buddies--Oliver Platt, William Baldwin, the then-still-exquisite Julia Roberts (and her two friends, Port and Starboard), and of course Kevin Bacon, with whom they are all within One Degree of Separation From--discover that God Is Not Amused at trespassers.

As each of them flatline, they explore the other side, then discover that when they come back to this world they are facing a world unexpected and unknown: the Real World, where their sins (yes! Sin! A three letter word NEVER heard in the movies anymore) come back and literally haunt them. Bacon is plagued by a child he once tormented; Baldwin, by the women he secretly filmed during sex (a sort of Sex, Truth, and Videotape Kodak moment). Roberts is seared by the memory of her father's suicide, and as for Sutherland... well, I have to leave SOME things undescribed. Let it stand that He Has a Little Secret and That Little Secret Is Seriously Pi... er, Ticked.

What's remarkable about this film are the little things--the scene where Roberts is reunited with her father as the viewer can almost taste the wine of forgiveness; the moment where Bacon's victim, now grown to full womanhood and obviously as tough as nails, roasts him for an instant with her eyes, then sheds tears in remitting his wrong to her. Baldwin gets it between the eyes from every woman he has filmed, and then fifty times worse from his fiancee. But what makes all of this fit together is a moment of revelation by Sutherland, when he reveals that Bacon "has found the answer to our karmic problems. Atonement, gentlemen."

The overall dark style, reminiscent of the later Badman films (that was supposed to read Batman, but I think I'll leave the typo unchanged) works most of the time, although the first time we encounter Sutherland's dog we see artwork on the walls that is best described as hideous-cheapie... but you take a horror flick as you get it.

The idea that "everything matters, everything we do matters," is a message that Hollywood would rather not repeat. But it's true, and to anyone raised on a steady diet of Old Fashioned Catholic Guilt, it's not necessarily a bad thing to be reminded of occasionally. Sister Mary Brimstone may have been a nasty old bat, but she DID teach the truth about why we're in business. This movie is a small reminder of why.

I've seen comparisons to THE SIXTH SENSE; but young Haley Osborne would not have been a good addition to this cast. Aside from the fact that he would have been about four months old during filming, the otherwise unknown child actor who plays Keifer's Ticked Secret is terrifying to behold. He may be a munchkin, but he's a Munchkin from Hell.

Five stars in my view, but most will find three stars or so. Fair nuff. I like it anyway. A lot.