The horror thriller “Flatliners” by Joel Schumacher with Julia Roberts and Kiefer Sutherland is a real cult film. RTL II will show the remake that was made 27 years later tonight from 10:05 p.m. – and it’s just damn boring.
The original of “Flatliners” is about the aspiring doctor Nelson Wright (Kiefer Sutherland), who tries by all means to find out what happens to us humans after death. So he puts himself and his colleagues Rachel (Julia Roberts), David (Kevin Bacon), Joe (William Baldwin) and Randy (Oliver Platt) in a state of clinical death for several minutes. However, the near-death experiences provoked in this way have unexpected side effects…
We give Joel Schumacher’s cult film 4 out of 5 stars – and in the official CELEBTAP review we not only confirm the complex interpretations, but also close by saying that it is simply incredibly exciting!
You can watch the thrilling trailer here
But as mentioned at the beginning, the film (unfortunately) cannot be seen this Thursday. Instead, RTL II will show the remake from 2017 from 10:05 p.m this is not only a really lousy and above all deadly boring film compared to the excellent original! There was a certain hype around the new edition in the run-up to the theatrical release – after all, it came from “Verblendung” director Niels Arden Oplev and is also promisingly cast with the likes of Elliot Page and Diego Luna.
But puff pastry cake! Instead of exploring cinematic or psychological boundaries in addition to the medical, the disappointingly good “Flatliners” remake mainly delivers ready-made horror clichés, presented with a moral finger, but without style and tension…
That’s what the 2017 Flatliners are all about
Although Dr Barry Wolfson (Kiefer Sutherland) has given his students a special warning, Courtney Holmes (Elliot Page) is unstoppable. Desperate to know what is going on in the brain on the edge of the afterlife, she puts herself in a state of clinical death from which she saves fellow students Jamie (James Norton), Marlo (Nina Dobrev) and Sophia (Kiersey Clemons) after she its 60 to retrieve seconds. This time there are side effects again – only unlike the original, they seem consistently positive: Courtney suddenly has a phenomenal memory and shines with masterful medical diagnoses…
How are the original and remake related?
The cast of 24 star Kiefer Sutherland in both the original and the reboot suggests that both Flatliners movies are set in the same timeline – and a scene was reportedly shot suggesting that Wolfson and Wright are, in fact, one and the same person who is the doctor has only changed his last name in the meantime. Additionally, Kiefer Sutherland revealed in an interview ahead of the remake’s theatrical release that he will play the same character as in the 1990 original.
However, the scene was not included in the finished film. This deliberately leaves open how exactly the two films relate or whether the 2017 version is actually “just” a pure remake.
The most disturbing movies of all time
This is a reissue of an article previously published on CELEBTAP on the occasion of the film’s rebroadcast.
