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Zeio_Man
Reviews
Flatliners (1990)
Places morality over horror, with mixed results
Flatliners, itself, is an OK movie, with great sweeping shots, some nice acting (By Kiefer Sutherland, Oliver Platt, and Kevin Bacon, respectively.), and a very origional story. But, for every right the movie gets, the movie gets two wrongs. Julia Roberts seems out of place, and doesn't give much to the film with her acting, and William Baldwin, while excellent in some of his 'seeing things' scenes, is wasted. The movie also uses too much of the blue lighting to set the mood, almost making you want to yell out "We get the point, already!". It mostly gets in the way of, instead of adding to, our emotions about the film.
The movie also has some hard to believe moments. Kiefer Sutherland's visions about seeing a kid he accidently killed in his childhood that beats the living snot out of him are very chuckle-worthy instead of disturbing, and are only helped out by Kiefers acting, which only make the scenes go from 'Bad' to 'Camp'. The film also cheats it's viewers by giving in to the happy-go-lucky ending, leaving way too many plotlines lost.
The movie shows shadows of a great horror movie, but it's failure to continue in the horror route, opting for a moralilty story about sins and repenting, gives it a better story but leaves the film as lackluster. The scene showing Julia Roberts seeing her dead dad, blood covered and all, in the mirror for just a second, and William Baldwin's visions of his sex tapes making him get in the way of things during one of the controlled death scenes, show great promise, and the part with the shade flying up during the same death scene adds to the thought that this movie could've been something much more: A movie that doesn't say that you meet your sins when you die, but says that death is something you better be prepared to go through with. Great 'What The Hell is Going On?' scenes could've been added, like scenes from 'The Shining', but the chance is wasted on having to make everyone feel better about themselves at the end.
Also, more wasted potential ensues when Baldwin's character sees the visions of his sex tapes (Outside of the aforementioned death scene.). They could've made both the audience and Baldwin ask themselves "Huh? What is going on?", but instead opt for Baldwin to just stare and look stupidly at the visions, almost smiling to himself.
Flatliners could've been something much more, something that people could remember as a classic, or atleast a good scare, for a long time, but instead it becomes a forgettable thriller with only sprinkles of promise. It could've challenged us, but instead only bored us.
**/****
Undergrads (2001)
Unfunny and cliche
Undergrads is an MTV animated show, showcaseing the adventures and antics of Nitz, A regular guy, Gimpy, The Star Wars Geek, Rocco, Dumb drunk, and Cal, a dumb womanizer, all in College (Although 3 different ones.).
Let me start off by saying that THIS SHOW IS UNFUNNY. The jokes are forced, and you can predict the punchline to the joke with incredible ease. Case in point: Gimpy wants to recruit Rocco and Cal for a First Person Shooter game much in the spirit of Counter-Strike, Doom, etc. So he trains them in the use of their joysticks. ..you see? You know the masturbation joke will come up once they show the joysticks. And so, with the predictability of a Pam Anderson STD test and with as much force as a pack of Elephants, Gimpy tries to find Cal, and finds him in a bathroom stall, sweaty, and quote "Hey Guy (The most annoying catchphrase unleashed on Earth, by the way.), I was just practicing with my joystick." as the picture pans out to show, why, oh my gosh, he wasn't jerking off, he was just playing with his joystick! Ha ha ha, isn't it a comedy goldmine? ... ... ...My thoughts exactly. I WOULD give this show an incredibly low and incredibly generous .5/4, but since the show smashes you upside the head with it's pop music soundtrack (The openning credits are the worse I've seen in years. I just cringe at the sight of them.), I am giving this show a big goose-egg.
0/4.