Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Flatliners Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman January 11, 2018

Gothic, dark, disturbing. Director Joel Schumacher’s vision for the seemingly love-it-or-hate-it 1990 film Flatliners, a story of gifted medical students cheating death in search of the ultimate answers to life, extended beyond the vitality and youth and vigor of his hot, up-and-coming cast. In that original film, the students’ working environments were essentially tombs, potential final resting places and reflective testaments to their pursuit of the ultimate darkness and, in contrast, the holders of the ultimate answers. The film boasted hip and hot stars, yes, but throughout the picture they became drained, transformed, forced to explore the real demons that don't exist after death but that rather that have manifest in life. It was, and remains, if nothing else a visually arresting and thematically engrossing film, one that certainly didn’t require a remake or re-imagining but that has nevertheless received one in Director Niels Arden Oplev's film of the same name that shares basic story execution with its 1990 counterpart but otherwise misses the point and feels lost without the supportive structural and visual reinforcements that Schumacher so carefully crafted for his superior film.

Going under.

Courtney Holmes (Ellen Page) is a young medical student who has yet to recover from a tragic accident that took her younger sister's life. She's since been obsessed with death and the possibilities that exist beyond human life and consciousness. She approaches a pair of medical students -- the struggling Sophia (Kiersey Clemons) and the cocky Jamie (James Norton) -- to help with an experiment to verify what lies beyond by killing herself and tasking her classmates with reviving her a minute after flatline. The test, with the help of the more stable hotshot student Ray (Diego Luna), proves a success. Courtney experiences herself out-of-body and awakens with newfound purpose, vigor, brains, and talent. Soon, her classmates, including Marlo (Nina Dobrev), flatline in hopes of repeating Courtney's positive experiences both during and after death. But it doesn't take long for the students to realize that their actions have consequences, that their deepest, darkest pains are returning to haunt them in the land of the living.

Flatliners, the 2017 version, isn't a total loss. It begins rather well, finding a bit charm in its characters and their camaraderie as medical students and friends. A few expected but nicely executed thrills when Courtney goes under, a few nifty ideas of its own creation, some enjoyable visuals and the beginnings of some thought-provoking exercises elevate the film's first act above the negative din surrounding the picture and the general malaise and shoulder-shrug nature shrouding the project, but the goodwill quickly deteriorates and ultimately evaporates thereafter when the film reveals itself as less a forward-thinking compliment and companion to the original but rather a fairly bland, banal, rote, and predictable (with a few exceptions) Horror-Thriller. A movie enjoyable enough at face value devolves into a crude film that leans on cheap chills and scares rather than, like the original, a contemplative and stylish exercise on the meaning of life and death, the intersection of the two, and commentary on how the soul dies a little every day by the pains and burdens people carry. This Flatliners touches base with those same considerations, but never to the nuanced and finely executed -- on both sides of the camera -- near excellence of the Schumacher picture.

The film's hip and hot cast carries the roles to generic satisfaction, but none manage to bring a seriously in-depth current or sincere reflection on life and how they have lived it. They satisfy essential requirements, with Diego Luna standing a bit taller above his peers as the film's voice of reason and most even-keeled character, but lethargic scriptwriting and empty-vessel, single-beat characters rob the movie of much of its would-be significance. The film's peculiarly clean, sleek, and modern look diffuses the sense of darkness, despair, doubt, and fear that permeated the original film, too, screaming "play it safe" in nearly every scene, while several unconvincing digital visual effects fail to immerse the viewer in the darker world the flatliners envision both in death and reanimated life. The lack of emotional resonance, then, from the characters and their experiences beyond the broadest of core responses is the real death knell here. The movie has a pulse, but there's not enough juice or effort to revitalize a film that just didn't need to be brought back to life.

Flatliners Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Flatliners' stylistically clean, bright, sterile, and steely imagery translates very well to Blu-ray, yielding an impressively slick and clean 1080p image with blemishes only few and far between. Textural qualities are by-and-large pleasing, with the smooth, modern hospital equipment and the spartan backgrounds, predominantly down in the basement where the students conduct their experiments, appearing pleasingly sharp and effortlessly defined, with all the metallic and plastic lines offering true, tangible elemental clarity. Faces present with all of the absolute depth and intensive sharpness one could want from the 1080p image, though it's undeniable the movie's quintet of young leads are absent much in the way of serious skin imperfections to be seen. Colors are largely true to location, lighting, and source, with those chilly blues and steely grays presenting against brilliantly bright whites and mostly impressively deep blacks with only a few brighter, less desirable shadow details to be found in only the most challenging of shots. Flesh tones are healthy and balanced with surrounding lighting conditions. Noise is minimal and only one example of aliasing appeared (that's not to say others are not present and perhaps simply not spotted) across a building's top floor at the 11:23 mark.

Flatliners Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Flatliners finds sonic life by way of a robust and enjoyable DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. Voices, describing near-death experiences, swirl around the soundstage to begin the film, presenting with a very good sense of place and transitional movement that immerses the listener in the beautiful yet chilling recounts of various glimpses of the immediate afterlife. Musical presentation offers no room for complaint. Score and popular songs alike are robustly healthy, with plenty of spunk, surround implementation, and low end depth on tap. Atmospheric supports filter through nicely as location demands. Heavier action elements deliver a healthy allotment of room-filling intensity and definition. Dialogue is clean and precise, well prioritized, and consistently positioned in a natural front-center location.

Flatliners Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Flatliners contains deleted and extended scenes and a few featurettes. A digital copy code is included with purchase.

• Deleted & Extended Scenes (1080p, 12:08 total runtime): Lane and Courtney Break Up, Marlo and Sam at Fundraiser, Jaime Speaks French, Ray Drives Marlo Home, Marlo Sees Her Own Corpse, Marlo Fire in Hospital, Ray Discovers Brad Messed Up They Fight, Paramedics Try to Revive Marlo, and Long Wolfson Story.
• Reviving a Cult Classic (1080p, 6:01): A discussion of the female-dominant cast in the new film, a look back at the original and its staying power, the idea that this film has a more "reality driven" approach to the story, Kiefer Sutherland's appearance in the new film, challenges of the shoot, visual effects, production design, shooting locations, and more.
• Making the Rounds (1080p, 4:41): Celebrating the cast's camaraderie and diversity while more intimately exploring the characters.
• Just What the Doctor Ordered (1080p, 4:10): In praise of Niels Arden Oplev's direction.
• The Ultimate Question (1080p, 2:16): Cast and crew answer the question as to whether they would "flatline" in real life.
• Previews: Additional Sony titles.

Flatliners Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Flatliners joins the long and mostly sorry ranks of unnecessary remakes and re-imaginings. The film brings absolutely nothing new to the table, fails to do anything of interest or value with the concept, and only proverbially rearranges the deck chairs on a ship that has long sailed. The original? That's still a movie worth watching, and while this 2017 version isn't entirely without merit -- the first 30 minutes or so are by-and-large fine -- it's just not really worth the 100 or so minutes of time. Sony's Blu-ray, for those inclined to give it a shot anyway, offers excellent video and audio as well as a handful of decent extras, headlined by a few deleted and extended scenes.