Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Meh, I think I am 20 years older than what I should have been to enjoy this.

Shane (1953)

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[ J ] - [ S ] - [ F ]

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Look, Dr. Lesh, we don't care about the disturbances, the pounding and the flashing, the screaming, the music. We just want you to find our little girl.

I wasn't prepared! Cried so hard.

That would be a negative.

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Too weird to live, and too rare to die.

Joel Schumacher is a competent director who gets a bad rap due to his legacy in the Batman franchise. A quick look at his filmography shows some really good movies, Flatliners is among them.

"Today is a good day to die" is the opening line to this film, where four medical students plan to kill themselves for a short period of time to experience the other side, look for proof of life after death. Each one experiences something different and begin to hallucinate troubling images back in the living world. Maybe they brought something back they shouldn't have.

Flatliners has a really interesting premise and one that could be visually stunning. The film doesn't wow with the visuals, but Schumacher manages to keep the train on the tracks here and delivers a creepy film with memorable performances. Kiefer Sutherland plays Nelson, the man behind the entire idea of flat-lining. He's driven by the need to know and his passion consumes him to the point of no return. Kevin Bacon, Julia Roberts, Oliver Platt and William Bladwin fill out the rest of the cast, all doing fine work. Each one plays into their acting characteristics, for better or worse.

The characters seem to have a disregard for the fact that they legitimately die for a few moments, so they begin to wage their time under. "3 minutes"..."3:30"..."5 minutes" We find out who is too scared to be dead longer, or who has a total disregard for their own lives. Flatliners is a great idea that was executed moderately well. There is nothing wrong with the film, but nothing memorable about it either. The plot seems to reuse the same dilemmas over and over for these characters which becomes a little redundant. Flatliners is a good film, but it should be a great film.

I want to see a Flatliners film from Tarsem Singh. That would take me to the edge of their experiences for sure.

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"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews

A Touch of Sin (2013) -
OJ: Made in America (2016) - +
Inside Look. The People vs OJ (2016) -

12 Academy Award nominations with Jane Wyman winning best actress as a young deaf-mute woman who lives with her father and aunt in Nova Scotia. She is befriended by a nice doctor who is an outsider to the rest of the folks in the village. The dummy gets raped and pregnant, and the finger pointing begins. Perhaps it leads to murder? Great performances, a good story, and a nice location. My wife enjoyed it too, not a common outcome.

It's pure coincidence that I did a Joel Scumacher double feature this weekend and that both films starred Kiefer Sutherland. Even though he played a character with anger issues in Flatliners, he's downright terrifying in A Time To Kill, which is something that Sutherland does so well.

A 10 year old black girl is brutally raped and hanged by a couple of rednecks. The girl survives and identifies her assailants. While on their way to the courthouse they are shot to death by the girl's father. Now her father is the one on trial and a young hot shot attorney must do what he can to make sure he doesn't get the death penalty. The case has world wide coverage and it ignites the Klu Klux Klan to come back and cause trouble.

I was eight years old when this film came out and I clearly recall seeing the trailer on television. There were three scenes that stood out to me; Samuel L. Jackson shooting people with an assault rifle, the burning cross on the front lawn and the famous line "Yes, they deserved to die and I hope they burn in hell!" All three moments in the film took me back to my youth, which is a strange sensation for this type of movie. Going in, I had no idea about the KKK angle and thought it was a straight up court room drama. Seeing the actions of those character dawning the robes was terrifying and I can't imagine the fear I'd have being a black person in the south in this time.

Strong performances all around, with Jackson being a quiet stand-out, believe it or not. I only wish that Donald Sutherland had a little more to do here. He's part of the team, but is never around doing anything. It's easy to see that this film launched McConaughey's career and rightly so, he delivers a strong performance as a man defending a killer. The film constantly seems to ask the viewer "What if it were your daughter?". Many people say they would do the same. A great monologue at the end of the film is delivered by McConaughey, but the ending lacks some power. "Now imagine if she were white." Is that line all it took to convince a jury? Seems odd and the film could be used as a case for presenting vigilantism in a positive light. Is this a time to kill someone?

Typical courtroom dramas showcase a lot of yelling, shocking reveals and emotional tears. This film hits those notes as well and if it were not for the heightened tension of the KKK aspect, it might fall into "another courtroom movie" and nothing else. The added danger to the character's lives up the steaks for us. These people, with these convictions, exist and they are more terrifying than any boogeyman under your bed.

Another 48 Hrs. -

Gotta hate it when a sequel is so bad that it makes you question how much you really liked the original.

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

My wife picked this for our movie night, and it is my 2nd viewing.

Not bad for a low budget.

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You talkin' to me?

Caught this in the theatre and OMG what a classic. Why did I wait this long to see this!?

Black Narcissus (1947) - Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger



The Third Man (1949) - Carol Reed

Saw this in the opening weekend, and this movie does not disappoint.

IMO, this kind of movies are more worth to watch than spending money to watch stupid Hollywood blockbusters like Transformers, The Mummy, etc.

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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.

I feel about the same, it was a sluggish slow film to get through.

I think this belongs here rather than on the TV show forum, because this clearly was a 90 minute movie that was chopped up into four episodes. I can only guess why Netflix decided to do this (testing the waters?), but the episodes end far too abruptly and the pacing feels really odd; which could have been avoided if just left as a straight 90 minutes.

Besides that, I was really impressed by Castlevania. Though its been a solid 2 to 3 years since I've played any video game, during my youth I was a pretty big fan of the Castlevania series (I've been itching to play Symphony of the Night as of late). Richard Armitage as Trevor Belmont is what shines here; though I would have enjoyed more screen time with Dracula. The music is good, but not nearly as good as a Castlevania game. The violence, for lack of a better term, is straight up awesome. This is probably my favorite video game adaptation ever. Can't recommend it enough.

RATING:

Definitely sounds like one I need to see

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What I actually said to win MovieGal's heart:
- I might not be a real King of Kinkiness, but I make good pancakes

~Mr Minio