Flatliners (2017)
Directed by Niels Arden Oplev
Five medical students, hoping to understand the mystery of what lies beyond life, embark on a dangerous experiment. When their hearts are stopped for a short period of time, they have a near-death experience…
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3 films that influenced Flatliners
What critics say influenced Flatliners
I will give writer Ben Ripley credit for not just slavishly copying Joel Schumacher’s 1990 original, which was not a particularly good movie but became a surprise box office smash because it costarred Julia Roberts and was released in the wake of Pretty Woman.
The original also benefited from the newly minted stardom of Julia Roberts , whose Pretty Woman had recently set the box office afire.
Julia Roberts brought along everybody who had just seen her previous movie, Pretty Woman.
Back in 1990, Flatliners made a bit of a splash (grossing the equivalent of $114 million today) largely due to historical accident: It happened to be audiences’ first opportunity to see Julia Roberts after Pretty Woman made her an instant superstar.
Once the film has burned through that initial flush of concept, Flatliners is just another Final Destination or Urban Legend or I Know What You Did Last Residency.
What follows is a bland, flatly executed and joyless slog that manages to take elements of the original Flatliners , Final Destination and every single ghost movie since the mid 2000s and squander them in an inert tale that fails to leave any real impression.
It never feels distinctive and often has the air of just another entry in the Final Destination series.
For a little while, the NDE returnees get supercharged brain activity, like Bradley Cooper in that Limitless movie.