Flatliners | | Cast : | Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, Kevin Bacon, William Baldwin, Oliver Platt | | Director : | Joel Schumacher | | Studio : | Columbia/Tristar Studios | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Dolby, Widescreen | | Released Date : | August 10, 1990 | | DVD Released Date : | December 11, 2001 | | Language : | French (Dubbed), Korean (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 13, 2005 | | Summary | Break On Through To The Other Side | Content
 | There's a simple formula to remember when deciding which films, directed by Joel Shumaker, to watch. With very few exceptions, most of his earlier work is far better, than his more recent flicks. I can't figure out why this is so--Better scripts? Better actors? Whatever the case may be, the formula seems to be holding true, with each film that he makes lately (I have not seen his version of the Phantom Of The Opera musical...and I don't plan to see it anytime soon). After the fun free-for-all-teen vampire romp, The Lost Boys, Schumaker took on much darker material and gave us a solid and very entertaining thriller that holds up well some 15 years later.
Flatliners follows five medical students who are looking for more than kicks on a Friday night. Nelson (Keifer Sutherland) is their informal leader, in the sense that the whole idea of what they are about to do is his idea. As medical students, the five friends have been exposed to a vast array of medicines and resusitation techniques. Their idea of fun is simple, mdically kill yourself, stay under for a minute or two and then be brought back to life, hopefully with the answers to what lies beyond death. As the man who came up with the idea, Nelson is the first to go and come back. At first, everything appears fine, though he hides the fact that his biggest sin has followed him back from the dead. Joe (William Baldwin)has slept with countless women under false pretences, is the next to try out flatlining--he's under for an even longer amount of time. When he is revived, Joe starts seeing things that he attributes to brain damage. When David Labracio (Kevin Bacon), an atheist, goes under and comes back that he has the idea of making amends with what they brought back. This as Rachel (Julia Roberts) must come to grips with shocking childhood memories.
At first glance, Peter Filardi's script may seem like a big gimmick, and I have to admit that the set-up certainly makes it seem that way. But thanks to crisp direction from Schumaker and a great group of then rising stars, putting in some fine work, they had me hooked after the first act though. Whether you believe in the after-life or not, the soapbox for either position is thanfully kept to a minimum, in favor of thrills and suspense. Some of the character arcs admittedly work better than others (poor Oliver Platt as Randy is just there for comic relief really), but Sutherland, Bacon, and Roberts all proved here, why they are working as steady as they do today. Kudos to cinematographer Jan de Bont (Basic Instinct/Die Hard and future director of the superb actioner Speed) for some innovative work creating even more intensity.
I am really disappointed that the current DVD edition of Flatliners has no extras on it. The package I used for this review did have a three page insert (ho hum) though. I would welcome a special edition ala` the one produced for Schumacher's The Lost Boys for this film
Flatliners is not perfect, but it's entertaining nonetheless, and well worth it. A worthy precursor to another afterlife themed film--The Sixth Sense.
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| Rating | | | Date | May 26, 2005 | | Summary | Flatliners (1990) | Content
| When I saw this movie for the first time, I was scared sh*tless. This movie was just outstanding in every way. I had never heard of it and I decided to watch the whole thing. I was up from 2:00 am to 4:00 am (in Philly), watching this movie, since that was the time it came on when I saw it first. I was dead tired, but nothing was gonna stop me from watching this movie all the way through and I'll tell you why.
Five med students: Nelson Wright (played by Kiefer Sutherland), Rachel Manus (played by Julia Roberts), Joe Hurley (played by William Baldwin), David Labraccio (played by Kevin Bacon), and Randy Steckle (played by Oliver Platt) are five best friends, who want to experience what it feels like to be temporarily dead. One by one, each of the five friends are put under the gas until their brain and heart functions are shut down, where they'll be exploring the afterlife. Nelson is the first to go through with the experimental experience. As he is temporarily in the afterlife, he sees something he has kept hidden secret for the past seventeen years: he and three other guys accidentally killed an innocent kid named Billy Mahoney, an innocent little kid that Nelson used to pick on. Nelson is successfully brought back to life. Joe is the next one to go under. As he experiences the afterlife, he begins to see all of the women he has slept with and then dumped. The worse part of that is: with each girl he dated, he videotaped while he had sex with them, where he is then brought back to life successfully. David is an atheist, who is more than just a little skeptical about this experience. Wanting to prove Joe and Nelson wrong, David ends up being the next one to go through the experience, where he sees a little girl named Winnie Hicks, an innocent little girl that he and some friends used to harass. They successfully bring David back to life. Rachel is aching to try the experiment. She proves that she can be under for five minutes, longer than Joe, Nelson, and David. So, she goes under. What she sees is the horrible suicide of her father, and she is successfully brought back to life. Randy decides not to go through with the experiment.
As the days go on, the other four begin seeing horrifying things. Everywhere Joe walks, he sees the women he had videotaped, whilst they had sex. Everywhere Dave goes, he sees the image of Winnie Hicks. Everywhere Rachel goes, she sees the image of her father's corpse. Everywhere Nelson goes, he begins seeing poor little Billy. But when he sees Billy, Billy bashes him in the face with something, scarring Nelson's face all over. These images are not just images, but their past sins, the people, whom they have severely wronged. The only way to stop these sins from appearing is to reconcile. David decides to track down Winnie Hicks and apologize with all his heart. He does so and Winnie more than warmly accepts. Joe settles his homemade porno escapade after his fiancé leaves him; not because he cheated on her, but because he slept with the other women and dropped them off like they were pieces of (...). Rachel has reconciled by letting go of the guilt she felt over her father. Nelson cannot reconcile with his sin, for he feels more than responsible for the death of Billy Mahoney. Nelson feels that he deserves to die and never return. He runs back to the lab and puts himself under, where he has another vision of him and friends picking on Billy, but this time, the vision is reversed, showing Billy and Nelson's friends picking on Nelson. As Billy throws the last rock, in which it knocks Billy out of a tree, as Nelson did Billy, Nelson finds himself looking as he does now, at the age of 26. He lands on the ground and seems to be dead. Is it possible that Nelson might night return to the living or will he remain in the afterlife?
I was completely horrified by this movie. It made me not want to ever pick on innocent little children. It made me not want to have sex with women while secretly videotaping them. It made not want to ever try this experience...ever. But this is a movie that everybody should have enjoyed. Kiefer Sutherland is definitely the best actor on God's green earth. I was always a huge fan of Kiefer Sutherland's, but after seeing his performance in this film, I was just mesmorized. He is my all-time favorite actor and my biggest hero. And he can be your hero as well, if you watch this masterpiece. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 15, 2005 | | Summary | CREEPY, sad..but we always wonder what would happen if.... | Content
| ...you could go back...
This movie is very moving and one of my favorites when delving into the supernatural...and the other side. I strongly suggest you see this if you have not, it makes "the butterfly effect" and others of the genre look pretty light. Great Cast as well!
One of the most intriguing and well-constructed supernatural thrillers of the 1990s. A group of brilliant medical students decide to literally play with life and death. They put themselves in suspended animation, electronically inducing a near-deathlike state and then pulling out of it at the last possible moment.
Things get hairy when one of the students (Kiefer Sutherland) becomes obsessed with the notion of really dying, the better to experience the Afterlife before being revived-if he can be revived. In her first dramatic starring role (playing a sensitive young lady on a misguided guilt trip), Julia Roberts is very, very good-completely bereft of movie-star mannerisms. Audiences flocked to see Flatliners back in 1990 due to the highly publicized off-screen romance between Roberts and Sutherland. Kevin Bacon and William Baldwin are in the picture as well. |
| Rating | | | Date | April 05, 2005 | | Summary | Creepy | Content
| This is one of the creepiest movies I have ever seen. I would like to give it five stars but I think the ending could have been a little better. other than that I would highly recommend this movie to anyone who likes creepy movies |
| Rating | | | Date | March 09, 2005 | | Summary | A tense thriller in the league of Sixth Sence... | Content
| ...and for its' "age" (1990) it looks as if it was made in 2004. The picture is mostly dark and shaded, and the atmosphere of "Flatliners" is rather similiar to "Dark City" (Alex Proyas) -it's never spooky though as in the sence of creepy, but at the same time it is rather scary what these young medical students start experimenting on.
"Flatliners" in its' "paranormality" functions very well, the story is perhaps a bit predictable ("make up for the sins of your past, and the ghosts will go away")-but the movie is just as fascinating, and the fact that the cast could not have been better helps this ship floating from start to end (Sutherland, Roberts, Baldwin -and of course Bacon).
Yes, the atmosphere of "Flatliners" is great! Highly recommended! |
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