Review of Flatliners (1990) by Olli H — 07 Dec 2010

Movie about five med-school students who, with the lead of Nelson (Kiefer Sutherland), tries to break the mysteries of death by killing one of them and then bring them back to life. The only problem is that, after the experiments are done, their past comes to hunt and in Nelson's case, beat the living shit out of him.

The best bit about this movie is Sutherland, whose character Nelson is the only one who has real, physical horror to fear, the others suffer only verbal & psychological experiences. That and the little traces of insanity & jealousy makes Nelson the best thing in this.

The story was also quite interesting, with the usual stories about death (the light at the end of the tunnel, the tree of life, life flashing before his eyes) making it enjoyable to watch, but in the end the story was very easy. There was no big twists nor surprises and some "problems" are solved very easily and in one scene. That and the mentioning of God and showing the statues of saints, which ultimately ment absolutely nothing to the story.

Overall, "Flatliners" had the early 1990's brightest young moviestars in it, the dirty horror city (like in "Jacob's Ladder" & "The Crow") and an interesting story but the script was without surprises and some solutions were way too simple and that hurt the entirety of the movie.