You won't be disappointed!

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

OK this movie is not brilliant and it is no Citizen Kane but that's fine and I don't care. It was really entertaining and scary and original. The remake is kind of a turkey but this one had a great cast and was just really fun to watch, especially with friends. Seriously look at how famous the main cast are now! Kiefer Sutherland is great in this, and I loved Platt too.

while Joel Schumacher might be more of a joke as a director, but back in the 1980s and early 1990s Schumacher was on top of his game. Assembling a group of talented actors in a taut and gripping supernatural film, this film is often overlooked in the stars' and director's filmographies. "Flatliners" tells the story of four medical students who decide to experiment with playing God when one student wishes to explore the concept of "life after death". What results in a frightening nightmare that brings three of the students' darkest secrets to the surface and forcing them to confront their flawed humanity and the ethical dilemma of what they are doing.Keifer Sutherland leads the charge as the arrogant and seemingly unhinged Nelson Wright. Sutherland plays the character with trademark cockiness and debonair manner in the way that only the actor can deliver. Nelson tries to act calm and collected until his dark murderous secret begins to eat away at Neslon's psyche, sending Nelson into a downward spiral that could end in his demise.Complimenting Sutherland's brash Nelson are the secretly traumatized Rachel Mannus played with subtle grace by Julia Roberts at the beginning of her stardom, the morally just but soon corrupted Randy Steckle played by Oliver Platt who tries to be the moral center and fails to do so, the playboy member of the team Joe Hurley played by the lesser known Baldwin brother, William, and then the film's actual moral center who tries to end the madness but can't convince anyone to listen, David Labraccio, played by the wonderfully talented Kevin Bacon. Each character balances the narrative with their own dark secret in their lives though we never learn the background of Platt's Steckle, but the trauma Rachel had endured is truly heartbreaking and relatable in its effect on her guilt. The concept of 'playing God' has been a staple of science-fiction and the sci-fi horror genre ever since Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" was published in 1818 and its subsequent film adaptations. In this film, instead of using body parts and reanimating a corpse the filmmakers choose to have the students as living human guinea pigs. You hold your breath as each of them (except for Oliver Platt's Randy Steckle) tempt permanent death when they go under the procedure especially during the film's terrifying climax. The film makes us question whether medical science should try to experiment with the aftermath especially if a person would have to confront their traumas or try to understand what might await after leaving the Earth.

As probably the last person (and certainly the last sci-fi-loving person) in the world to see "Flatliners", I am compelled to conclude, not merely that this film has failed to age well, but also that it may never have been that great. And this despite what seems from today's perspective a stellar cast.Put simply, it was hardly worth waiting all this time for.While the makers do eventually pull together a more or less coherent explanation for what happens to young student-doctors so cocksure that they think they can play about with death itself, this understanding is a long time coming, and on the way we get rather few scares, precious little enlightenment, a dubious artistic/aesthetic experience, and not much fun of any kind. To cap that, when we finally do gain insight, that moderately satisfying near-end moment is followed by a cheesefest of a very ending.Much of the film has a melodramatic, mad-scientist, Frankenstein look about it, which might be OK, were it not sandwiched between slices of ordinary medical-student life that seem to take us nowhere at all, despite the fact that they obviously need to be present - these are real people after all, aren't they? Aren't they? Certainly we need to philosophise about life after death and so on, but that needs to be put in the hands of believable characters that we care about. Kevin Bacon's character David comes closest to this, and it's nice to seem him here as the second-least villainous and wrong-headed of the protagonists (after Oliver Platt as Randy Steckle, who does the job well-enough then, as now ... which may not be exactly a compliment to his career, if one really thinks about it).The principal flaw (doubtless more so when seen from today looking back) is that makers and cast alike were probably too convinced they were on to a groundbreaking winner, and it made them lazy.Individuals within this small group of people are prepared to have their colleagues electric-shock and drug them into death for several minutes, also leaving the revival process entirely in their hands. And yet, when they come round, they are totally secretive about what they experience subsequently. Question: in what possible circumstance does that ring true? Answer: in none! Beyond that, we have some almost absurdly grandiose Chicago settings in which all of the study, the crazy experimentation and even the residing takes place (given the absolutely palatial surroundings in which some of our young medicos live). What seems impressive for the first 10 minutes later becomes oppressive and then simply ludicrous. Buildings subject to renovation are not guarded, and are accessible, not only to our interloping "heroes", but also to crowds of Halloween-partying students. Hadn't Health and Safety been invented in 1990? And Chicago seems to have shifted up to the North Pole, since in October there are so many hours of darkness that it hardly ever seems to get light! Thus, much as one would like to present "Flatliners" as a golden oldie, pioneer trendsetter and launchpad for some pretty good acting talent, it doesn't really come over that way for a new viewer in 2016.

I mainly found out about this film because of it being joked about in one of the EE Kevin Bacon adverts, I knew it was something to do with stopping your heart or dying, so I was certainly interested in watching it, directed by Joel Schumacher (Falling Down, Batman Forever, Phone Booth). Basically medical school student Nelson Wright (Kiefer Sutherland) is fascinated, having spoken to various people who had near death experiences, e.g. during childbirth, during an operation, to discover what lies beyond death. Nelson convinces four of his classmates: Dr. Joe Hurley (William Baldwin), David Labraccio (Kevin Bacon), Randall "Randy" Steckle (Eraser's Oliver Platt) and Dr. Rachel Mannus (Julia Roberts), to help him experiment. Nelson has his heart stopped, he flatlines for one minute, before his classmates resuscitate him, while "dead" he experienced a sort of afterlife, which included strange visions, of a boy he bullied, all he says is that he cannot describe what happened, but something does exist. With the experiment a success, the other four students one by one follow this daring feat, including extending the flatlining an extra minute each, they too have strange visions of an afterlife. Joe flatlines next, he experiences an erotic afterlife, he agrees with Nelson that something does exist, and David is third to flatline, he sees a vision of a black girl he bullied in school. The three men start to experience hallucinations related to their afterlife visions, Nelson ends up beaten up, Joe is haunted by home videos of women he slept with and secretly recorded, David sees the little black girl who verbally taunts him like he did to her. Rachel decides she wishes to go ahead with the experiment, David tries to stop her from having the same fate, but he is too late, Rachel nearly dies permanently during a power cut, the defibrillator paddles do not work, but she is revived, she too is haunted by visions, with the memory of her father committing suicide when she was young. They may have proved a theory with the experiment, but the three men talk to each other and reveal their harrowing experiences, David decides to put his visions to a stop, he finds the black girl now grown up, Winnie Hicks (Kimberly Scott), he apologises to her, she accepts, and he feels a weight has been lifted. David finds Nelson beating himself, he thinks it is the boy he bullied grown up, Billy Mahoney (Joshua Rudoy), doing it, meanwhile Joe's fiancée Anne Coldren (Hope Davis) breaks up with him, after discovering his videos with other women, his visions stop after she leaves, and Rachel seeks comfort with David, they make love, while Nelson in a graveyard reveals to Randy and Joe that he killed Billy Mahoney as a child, he then leaves them stranded. David leaves Rachel in order to rescue Joe and Randy, while alone Rachel has a vision of her father (Benjamin Mouton), he apologises to her, her guilt over his death is lifted when she discovers he was addicted to heroin. Nelson calls Rachel saying he needs to flatline again in order to make amends, he apologises for involving her and the others in the stupid plan, he has been dead for nine minutes when the other three join her and race to save him. In the afterlife Nelson dies from being stoned by the boy he bullied, his friends cannot revive him, they are about to give up, but David gives him one last shock and he is brought back, Nelson says "Today wasn't a good day to die", it is unclear if they tell anyone about their experiments. Also starring Aeryk Egan as Young Nelson, Kesha Reed as Young Winnie, Jim Ortlieb as Uncle Dave, John Joseph Duda as Young David, Afram Bill Williams as Ben Hicks, Deborah Thompson Duda as Terry, Elinore O'Connell as Rachel's Mother and Sanna Vraa as Bridget. The cast all do their parts fine, the concept is certainly interested, the question of what happens after you die is definitely one scientists are still curious to know the answer to, unfortunately the afterlife stuff and haunting visions the characters have are clichéd, it is supposed to be chilling with all the supernatural strangeness, but I just felt a little bored, I can't see myself watching this sort of film again, a weird but bearable I suppose science-fiction psychological thriller. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing. Okay!