Flatliners (2017)

The 1990 original ( original ? haha) was not as good as we think we remember.At a time when the cinema needs to refresh itself and stop reworking old stale ideas..we get this ...utterly pointless.

Bad screen writing here..less than 1 dimensional at best and the acting is pretty atrocious in all honesty. The first 5 minutes made me wonder if it was gonna be any good...I could not foresee a movie go downhill so quickly...the ending was so daft I could hear people saying "What"? in the theatre.

Not even the addition of Keifer Sutherland could make this any less silly. Direction was lame and lazy...I get the idea they thought they were going to cash in..I also get the idea they are very much mistaken.

Rush release on DVD I would think to cash in before people catch on how bad it is. The story is really , really silly with enough plot holes to take the wind out the story.

Bad at best gave it a 3 because I'm in a good mood.

Fmovies: This version didn't really add anything to the first movie nor did it have an interesting event or character that didn't turn into a letdown. It was just a Flatliner movie that was in some ways similar to a Final Destination sequel. The characters were annoying and cliche. To make it worse, the cameo who was promoted, literally added nothing to the story. The movie was over. What a waste!

The movies have depicted the hereafter in varied ways over the years. From the bleached white warehouses of Powell and Pressburger's "A Matter of Life and Death" in 1946 and Warren Beatty's "Heaven Can Wait" in 1978 to – for me – the peak of the game: Vincent Ward's mawkish but gorgeously rendered oil-paint version of heaven in 1998's "What Dreams May Come". Joel Schmacher's 1990's "Flatliners" saw a set of "brat pack" movie names of the day (including Kevin Bacon, Julia Roberts, William Baldwin and Kiefer Sutherland) as experimenting trainee doctors, cheating death to experience the afterlife and getting more than they bargained for. The depictions of the afterlife were unmemorable: in that I don't remember them much! (I think there was some sort of spooky tree involved, but that's about it!)

But the concept was sufficiently enticing – who isn't a little bit intrigued by the question of "what's beyond"? – that Cross Creek Pictures thought it worthy of dusting off and giving it another outing in pursuit of dirty lucre. But unfortunately this offering adds little to the property's reputation.

In this version, the lead role is headed up by Ellen Page ("Inception") who is a great actress… too good for this stuff. Also in that category is Diego Luna, who really made an impact in "Rogue One" but here has little to work with in terms of backstory. The remaining three doctors – Nina Dobrev as "the sexy one"; James Norton ("War and Peace") as "the posh boy" and Kiersey Clemons as the "cute but repressed one", all have even less backstory and struggle to make a great impact.

Also putting in an appearance, as the one link from the original film, is Kiefer Sutherland as a senior member of the teaching staff. But he's not playing the same character (that WOULD have been a bloody miracle!) and although Sutherland adds gravitas he really is given criminally little to do. What was director Niels Arden Oplev ("The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo") thinking?

In terms of the story, it's pretty much a re-hash of Peter Filardi's original, with Ben Ripley ("Source Code") adding a few minor tweaks to the screenplay to update it for the current generation. But I will levy the same criticism of this film as I levied at the recent Stephen King adaptation of "It": for horror to work well it need to obey some decent 'rules of physics' and although most of the scenes work (since a lot of the "action" is sensibly based inside the character's heads) there are the occasional linkages to the 'real world' that generate a "WTF???" response. A seemingly indestructible Mini car (which is also clearly untraceable by the police!) and a knife incident at the dockside are two cases in point.

Is there anything good to say about this film? Well, there are certainly a few tense moments that make the hairs on your neck at least start to stand to attention. But these are few and far between, amongst a sea of movie 'meh'. It's certainly not going to be the worst film I see this year, since at least I wasn't completely bored for the two hours. But I won't remember this one in a few weeks. As a summary in the form of a "Black Adder" quote, it's all a bit like a broken pencilÂ….. pointless.

(For the graphical version of this review, please visit

Flatliners fmovies. There's been this trend in recent years to remake iconic or at least popular movies from earlier years. For the most part these movies have been met with yawns, disinterest and have been rightfully savaged by the critics and viewers. Occasionally you get a good movie out of it but more often then not it's just a big, costly mistake. And so to get around this studios no longer refer to these movies as remakes, but "reimaginings". The idea is take the concept of the movie and and try different things. This still doesn't make it a good idea.

The 80's version of Flatliners was an interesting movie. The concept of a group of medical students flatlining and then coming back was original. It brought with it elements of horror, existentialism and how our choices can affect both ourselves and others.

This one? I struggled to find a positive to give to it and I still can't. This is a bad movie from every single point of view I can give. It follows the same story of a group of medical students who in effect kill themselves for a short period of time to see what's on the "other side". Then before brain damage can occur they are brought back but each brings back with them something from their past and they are in effect haunted by this.

It's really the same story as the original even if it's executed in a different way. There's nothing else that needs to be said. Same thing but worse.

Save your money and rent the original if you want to see this. You'll be happier and it won't cost you as much.

What started off as potentially a great film, suddenly turned into a complete boring mess. While going in a different direction to the 1990's version, I don't think the creators knew exactly what that direction was as it seemed to jump all over the place. While I giggled at certain ridiculous moments, the rest was spent thinking what exactly is going on? Ellen Page's performance was okay but I think the movie itself squashed what could have been a great acting role.

Just the first few minutes of this movie sets the tone of it. How anyone could believe these kids were med students would be a laugh.