Flatliners Review: This Thriller Remake Is a 'Fright Free-Fiasco'
Starring Ellen Page, update of a silly 1990 Julia Roberts thriller is "even more witless and dull than the original"
Directed By: Niels Arden Oplev
Written By: Ben Ripley
In Theaters: Sep 29, 2017 Wide
Runtime: 108 minutes
I'm dumbfounded by the idea of remaking a movie that was no damn good in the first place. Is it the possibility of making it better? The exact opposite happens with Flatliners, an update of the 1990 Joel Schumacher film that became a hit by corralling hot young talent of the day (Julia Roberts, Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Bacon) into a trippy premise about medical students experimenting with stopping their hearts for a few minutes to see what death is like. Credit Flatliners 2.0, with a script by Ben Ripley of Source Code, for being even more witless and stupefyingly dull than the original. That's really saying something. Sutherland, his hair gone steel gray, is back for the retread, this time playing an old-fart doctor riding hard on the young'uns. Ellen Page is stuck with the role of Courtney, a med student obsessed with life after death because she killed her kid sister during a texting-while-driving incident. Maybe she'll see her again in the great beyond before Courtney's brain goes dead after four minutes. Courtney persuades four fellow students to help her. She can't just stop her own heart in a hospital basement, she needs a team to revive her.
Though skeptical, Marlo (Nina Dobrev of The Vampire Diaries), Jamie (James Norton of Grantchester), and Sophia (Kiersey Clemon, of Dope) say yes. The older and wiser Ray (Diego Luna of Rogue One) is dragged in to assist in case the others fuck up, which they invariably do. They also go flatlining themselves, except for Ray. The scariest thing in this fright-free fiasco is thinking medical schools are producing doctors this clueless (it's like a flash-forward to a world where Trump gets his way on health care)
In the end, Flatliners is an ill-conceived belated sequel, despite the best efforts of those involved. It’s probably more or less what audiences expected when it was first announced, playing as an uninspired rehash that copies many of the plot points of the original while working up to a clunky and ham-fisted conclusion. With IT still playing for the horror crowd, it’s difficult to recommend Flatliners to anyone who isn’t a passionate, die-hard fan of the first film, as this new take has little to offer outside of nostalgia appeal. Even those intrigued by marketing would be better off waiting for home video, or simply rewatching the 1990 version.
Overall Ratings : 1.5/5
Directed By: Niels Arden Oplev
Written By: Ben Ripley
In Theaters: Sep 29, 2017 Wide
Runtime: 108 minutes
I'm dumbfounded by the idea of remaking a movie that was no damn good in the first place. Is it the possibility of making it better? The exact opposite happens with Flatliners, an update of the 1990 Joel Schumacher film that became a hit by corralling hot young talent of the day (Julia Roberts, Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Bacon) into a trippy premise about medical students experimenting with stopping their hearts for a few minutes to see what death is like. Credit Flatliners 2.0, with a script by Ben Ripley of Source Code, for being even more witless and stupefyingly dull than the original. That's really saying something. Sutherland, his hair gone steel gray, is back for the retread, this time playing an old-fart doctor riding hard on the young'uns. Ellen Page is stuck with the role of Courtney, a med student obsessed with life after death because she killed her kid sister during a texting-while-driving incident. Maybe she'll see her again in the great beyond before Courtney's brain goes dead after four minutes. Courtney persuades four fellow students to help her. She can't just stop her own heart in a hospital basement, she needs a team to revive her.
Though skeptical, Marlo (Nina Dobrev of The Vampire Diaries), Jamie (James Norton of Grantchester), and Sophia (Kiersey Clemon, of Dope) say yes. The older and wiser Ray (Diego Luna of Rogue One) is dragged in to assist in case the others fuck up, which they invariably do. They also go flatlining themselves, except for Ray. The scariest thing in this fright-free fiasco is thinking medical schools are producing doctors this clueless (it's like a flash-forward to a world where Trump gets his way on health care)
In the end, Flatliners is an ill-conceived belated sequel, despite the best efforts of those involved. It’s probably more or less what audiences expected when it was first announced, playing as an uninspired rehash that copies many of the plot points of the original while working up to a clunky and ham-fisted conclusion. With IT still playing for the horror crowd, it’s difficult to recommend Flatliners to anyone who isn’t a passionate, die-hard fan of the first film, as this new take has little to offer outside of nostalgia appeal. Even those intrigued by marketing would be better off waiting for home video, or simply rewatching the 1990 version.
Overall Ratings : 1.5/5
Post a Comment