Death. It’s pretty final. No matter how many times we go to the gym and work out or pop a pill … one day the Grim Reaper will come calling for each of us.
But do really REALLY want to know what happens after death? This is the premise behind “Flatliners,” a sorrowful remake of a really great 1990 film that boasted one of the youngest and brightest acting classes of its day, including Kevin Bacon (“Footloose”), Oliver Platt (“2012”) and Kiefer Sutherland (from TV’s “24”).
The concept of “Flatliners,” the original and this dreg of a remake is that “five medical students experiment on near-death experiences that involve past tragedies until the dark consequences begin to jeopardize their lives.” Oh, sorry.
That was the moniker of the original 1990 version. Here’s the one for today: “Twenty-eight years after Nelson Wright (Sutherland) survived his ordeal of experimenting on near-death experiences, a young group of medical students attempt the same procedure through the help of aspiring doctor and theorist Courtney Holmes.
But once they take their turns in flatlining in order to see these visions, dark secrets and side effects of the past come along to haunt them.” See much of a difference? Me neither.
Original writer Peter Filardi returns to this new version with the exact same concepts he presented 27 years ago. Instead of Julia Roberts (“Pretty Woman”) we have Ellen Page (“X-Men: Days of Future Past”) as Holmes, one of the leading stupid med students who want to chase death. One of the things the original cast and these new folks have in common.
It’s not nice to fool with Mother Nature. She bites back.
As in the original, each of these idiot med students do just that—stop their hearts and see if they can be brought back to life in one, two, three or up to seven minutes.
The longer the duration, the weirder the experiences they singularly and as a group, experience. The entire premise of “Flatliners” falls into the realm of stupid science fiction when—just as in the original – a lot of the bad stuff these people see on the “other side” are not welcoming to visitors.
It was the same in the original—just with better acting back then. Sutherland’s cameo appearance in this new version is a vain attempt by director Niels Arden Oplev (“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”) to have some sort of nod and connection to the original which falls flat.
I remember the 1990s and there was nothing like blue/green screen backgrounds in which, in post-production, computer artists could drop in anything their devious little minds could create.
Some of these people in today’s “Flatliners” can fly like Superman.
Others experience the really bad “dark side” of the “Force”. Yuck.
How can you document what happens to a human after death? And if you have someone stop your heart, would you be silly enough after surviving the procedure to go through the entire experience again–or for that matter—challenge your med school classmates to do likewise?
The issue with “Flatliners” is not what happens to you during death but the dopey people in real life who, after seeing the original movie nearly 30 years ago, tried this out for themselves.
Many people died, for real, trying to be beautiful and sexy and dead like Ms. Roberts. This is not like test driving a car and seeing how it handles during rush hour.
I really do not want to know what will happen to my soul at death and beyond. As a Christian man, that is why I have faith.
People who do know and have experienced “life after death” have knowledge and no longer need faith. My time will come soon enough as it will to you.
Rent the original or if you must, watch “Flatliners” with a sense of objectivity and whatever you do, do not try this at home.Because death will follow you home.The Grim Reaper wouldn’t like that.
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