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List Price: $14.94 | | Label: Sony Pictures
Salesrank: 21560
Released: January 20, 1998 |
| Our Price: $4.98 |
| Used Price: $2.40 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
A CHARISMATIC MEDICAL STUDENT CONVINCES HIS CLASSMATES TO FLATLINE, TEMPORARILY SHUT DOWN THEIR HEART AND BRAIN FUNCTIONS TO EXPERIENCE CLINICAL DEATH. THE EXPERIMENT IS A SUCCESS, UNTILTHE STUDENTS REALIZE THAT ALTHOUGH THEY'VE COME BACK ALIVE, THEYHAVEN'T COME BACK ALONE.
Description of Flatliners:
What if you could stop your heart to simulate a temporary death, and then be revived so you could describe your near-death experience to others? The mysteries of life--and the afterlife--compel five medical students (Julia Roberts, Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Bacon, William Baldwin, Oliver Platt) to experiment with their own mortality, and what they discover has unsettling psychological implications. That's the intriguing premise of this neo-Gothic horror thriller, directed by Joel Schumacher (Batman & Robin) with his typical indulgence of vibrant colors and hyperactive, hallucinogenic style. The movie borders on silliness at times, and the near-death recollection of memories results in some repetitious scenes, but the dynamic young cast takes it all quite seriously, which is what keeps this gaudy thriller on the edge. The fascinating premise could have been made into a better film, but Schumacher's mainstream excess doesn't stop Flatliners from being slick, occasionally even provocative entertainment. --Jeff Shannon
Flatliners Reviews:
A Religious Tract For Our Time ? 
2009-11-06 - I see that this is a 1990 movie, so, presumably, everyone but me, has had a chance to see and form an opinion about it. From what people tell me Kiefer Sutherland and Julia Roberts have gone on to great success and I have heard the name Kevin Bacon. This has to be taken, therefore, as a bright opening up of careers for a number of actors. As a film, it held me in its grip through its pseudo-scientific scientists (medical students) and the effectiveness of some of their post-death experiences. Can't ask for much more than that in a DVD. That the "sins" which were brought to life by death were trivial is beside the point; no good Freudian would question the impact of such memories on the normal adult. Somehow, however, in a film propounding the profound significance of what these experimenters did, the kind of memories brought forward hardly made the grade, save in one case. Nevertheless, as I said, the film intrigued and should entertain those who may not have seen it.
Why do I (as the four experimenters do) place this in the long line of films propounding a sectarian religious thesis? Simple! It reaffirms the afterlife experience so central to the religious thought of many. That is, even while showing clearly negative responses to these experiences, it is reinforcing the notion that there are afterthoughts even though brain dead. No matter. One can deal with that element anyway one chooses and still be caught up in the film.
Adding to my collection
2009-10-11 - This is the most recent addition to my Kiefer collection. Some of his early films are more difficult to find, but "Flatliners" is still popular. The Brat Pack were in rare form for this one.
Super seller
2009-10-06 - Great movie, super seller, exactly as described, original copy not burned and great price. Thanks!
22 Subtitles Language and no Spanish 
2009-06-10 - Why are Sony so stupid? 22 different subtitle tracks and no Spanish track. Unbelievable !
The childish frontier of fear and guilt 
2009-05-11 - A film that reveals the unease of modern men and women in life when confronted to death. We are beyond the simple religious belief in the afterlife, and what's more in any kind of hell or heaven. Religion is declared dead. Yet human beings are more obsessed than ever by death, especially since we can push it away for quite a long time. What's more the scientific and technological development of our societies leads us to believe we can explain everything, know everything and do everything. That was quite typical of the end of the 20th century. Today things are changing, especially when the president of the United States himself, Barack Obama, in a public speech to journalists speaks of their search for truth and qualifies that truth as being of course relative because it is more a quest than a final end, objective or achievement. The film shows the end of the good old metaphysical thinking that was starting to evolve into a truth obsession, an obsessive conception that truth was unique and irreversibly reachable. Post modernism had not reached Hollywood yet, though today it seems to have reached the White House. So some young doctors and medical students decide to go into death and come back. Technically it is possible but the result is not surprising. It reactivates old guilty feelings and frustrations that had been buried into the unconscious. One has to do with a drug addicted father of a Vietnam veteran who commits suicide, another with a young boy who was stoned to death by some others the death tripper included, another still with a young black girl who was victimized and bullied in grade school out of racism, sexism and hatred if not fear in front of her shyness. It is so naïve that you could cry out of shame for these young adults who are highly qualified and behave like babies who are crying for their bottles of edulcorated fruit juice. The film though is interesting but in something quite different. The setting and the shooting and every single detail or treatment of any detail is baroque, morbid, decadent, quite in the style of "Death in Venice" or Greenaway, or some other works of art that deal with making friends with the basic enemy that death is. Of course that does not save the film but at least that makes it worth watching.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines, CEGID
