Flatliners – Rating 4 out of 5

This is still one of my favorite movies even after all these years. Five medical students get drawn into trying to find the answers to life after death. Instead of trying to create life, they try to induce death and go “exploring”. As each one goes into the hereafter they are confronted with their demons that seem to manifest themselves in the present. They must face and conquer their demons before they’re destroyed by them.

Despite Julia Roberts being in this movie, I love it. It as comedic elements, suspense, great atmosphere and a story that makes you wonder. Kiefer Sutherland is intense and driven by his own ego. Kevin Bacon is driven and obsessed with helping. Roberts is caught up in the ghosts of her own troubled past. Stephen Baldwin has his own commitment demons to tend to and Platt is the designated driver on this one and adds the excitement of being the guy who is caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. “I did not come to medical school to kill my classmates!”

Flatliners works because it deals with the question of life after death. It deals with the idea that our past defines who we are. And we also have the notion of what if we were to die with a heart full of regret. Would we be at piece?

It’s an exciting movie that keeps the action and suspense moving. It instills real fear with dark settings, the unnerving stories and the fact that things keep happening in the present. The characters are truly scared and they show it. When Billy Mahoney comes calling you see Kiefer crap his pants as he gets the snot beat out of him.

The soliloquy at the end by Labraccio (Bacon) is a little over done with the whole stepping on Gods territory rantings, but the rest of the movie is great and I’ve watch this one a dozen times so far and still like. Plus it’s also amusing that the height of the movie kicks in on Halloween night as a part rages on outside.

Moody and suspenseful this is still a good story.

Other Articles of Interest:

• Dead Silence – Rating 3 out of 5
• Bram Stoker’s Dracula – Rating 2 out of 5
• The Grudge 2 – Rating 1 out of 5
• The Gravedancers – After Dark Horror Fest – 8 Films To Die For
• Paranormal Activity 2 – Do we really have to do this?
• An American Haunting – Rating 2 out of 5
• Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein (1994) – Rating 4 out of 5
• Mirrors
• Exorcist II – Heretic – Ranking 3 out of 5
• The Number 23 – Rating 2.3 out of 5