Why so much hype?

A Disappointing Continuation

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

This is one of my top two films without doubt. Curiously the other (The Devil and Daniel Webster) also features a jury of the dead: read into that what you will. It is brilliantly shot. The colour is vivid, lurid and generously used. The black and white in heaven is strikingly lit and shaded; the art deco feel of heaven is inspired. The shot of the heavenly receptionist framed by the shining clock is one of my favourite ever.Michael Powell is one of the greatest directors ever. Not a moment of celluloid is wasted, nor an opportunity missed. David Niven has his best role ever, Marius Goring as comic foil is wonderful, Roger Livesey is authoritarian... I could go on.The plot (without spoiling it) treads a very careful line between David Niven being a fugitive from the afterlife, and a man suffering hallucinations. So fine that on repeated watching, I still don't know which I think I am minded to favour. Finally, I am a big, ugly emotionless man, who has never shed a tear at a funeral in my life, but the first five minutes of this film when David Niven is still alive makes me cry without fail. Which has to be worth something.

Wow just wow, that's my reaction after watching this.to be fair this is one of the best movies i have seen in my lifetime.fantasy movies are always enchanting to watch but they don't always have this type of engaging story and screenplay.the craft in that surrealistic moments are awesome.this is placed 20th on the British films institute list of best 100 British films.in 2000 a poll by the magazine total film of 25 critics named a matter of life and death the second greatest British film ever made. the visual beauty is so high that you cant take your eyes off it. the trial scenes are done with lot of sly humour and and also a part of pro American propaganda.this is one hell of a Christmas show .highly recommended to every true movie lovers. P.S. THIS IS MY FIRST REVIEW SO...........

What have I learned from the first semester of my course? This type of film by Powell & Pressburger is better for entertainment value than trying to do a film studies essay out of it, especially when concerning Language & Style (never again!), although this film would have been better than Peeping Tom which I chosen as I ended up details as small as pencils dropping from a height which wasn't worth it, and Black Narcissus, which I didn't choose as I felt too confused by the plot, so much so that I didn't use it as research for the final essay. Long sentences was another one of those reasons I failed by the way. Ah well! A nice film for a lazy day, with a brilliant ironically used aesthetic (B&W used in heaven) and charming actors and script. The court scene did drag a bit until the very end but moving it a bit but a lot of the film is pretty much flawless. As much as I could accidentally be considered a communist, as I prefer the Directors Cut ending of Little Shop of Horrors (1986), I'm glad that there was a happy ending, which would have been much needed after the end of the war, also he would have survived in a "miracle", hence why he's alive even though he must got injured, if not found until later. Nicely done, chaps!

Wow that was an awesome movie. I'd love to be more analytical in my review but I think, after this watching, that I might just recount the circumstances of how I came to write this review.I swear there's a point to this!Just so the reader knows, I have seen a lot of old movies. I've seen the AFI Top 100 and about 2/3 of the IMDb top 250 at any given time. In reality though, I love Star Wars and Lord of the Rings and Quentin Tarentino, Martin Scorsese and Sergio Leone movies. When I sit down to watch a movie I expect a certain sex, violence and swearing quotient. That's just who I am.So tonight I decided to watch the first 10 minutes of "A Matter of Life and Death" (or "Stairway to Heaven"?) because I couldn't remember if I had already seen it. That's how old I am now. Well dear reader, I didn't stop after ten minutes because I COULDN'T! Between the premise, which was not particularly novel and the cast, which just happened to be completely made up of people I really like I was sucked in beyond escape.Let's lay it out. The first scene in this movie would usually be the last one in a normal war movie. David Niven and Kim Hunter just acted the HELL out of that first scene and because of those two I actually bought them as having fallen in love in one day. That is VERY hard to do to me because... y'know... I'm dead inside. They did it though!I saw a problem early on and was preparing for it only to pleasantly surprised. The problem was this: In most movies where someone dies and comes back the "Supernatural" element is emphasized toward the beginning of the movie and then it becomes a normal love story until the last scene when the dead person's fate is finally decided. Think "Chances Are" or "Heaven Can Wait". This does not happen here, the "supernatural" element is not only kept up throughout but called into question. At the end of this movie everyone will have an opinion on whether there was a "supernatural" element at all. When our hero steps up to the celestial court and Raymond Massey steps up to prosecute I could only think ONE thing and that thing was: "Good Morning Worm Your Honor.. The Crown will plainly show the prisoner..that stands before me.. was caught red handed showing FEELINGS! FEELINGS OF an almost HUMAN NATURE!!... This will not DO!" (That's from Pink Floy's the Wall for the uninitiated). There are plenty of odd associations like that here.But I Digress...If you get right down to the point this movie is telling the same story of of self-sacrifice winning over selfishness... this is a tired story but the actors here breathe life into it with great aplomb. Kim Hunter is simply beautiful here and the male leads are in top (or ALMOST top) form. The photography is beautiful and the color/Black and White switches serve a direct purpose. There's really nothing that doesn't please.In short, if you like movies that are beautifully filmed and have good actors and some really beautiful scenes, you could do worse than this movie. I said at the beginning of this review that I couldn't really be analytical here. I actually did better than I expected but this isn't a movie that needs analysis, at least on first viewing. Just take it in and enjoy, then you can analyze the hell out of it. In either case check this one out and you won't be disappointed. As always: Good Watching