FLATLINERS (DVD/KEEP/ENG&KOR-SUB/SP-BOTH/FR-DUB/ST&WS 1.85/DSS) DVD

Flatliners
Despite its occasional lapses into silly self-consciousness, Flatliners is one of the most intriguing and well-constructed supernatural thrillers of the 1990s. A group of brilliant medical students decide to literally play with life and death. They put themselves in suspended animation, electronically inducing a near-deathlike state and then pulling out of it at the last possible moment. Things get hairy when one of the students (Kiefer Sutherland) becomes obsessed with the notion of really dying, the better to experience the Afterlife before being revived--if he can be revived. In her first dramatic starring role (playing a sensitive young lady on a misguided guilt trip), Julia Roberts is very, very good--completely bereft of movie-star mannerisms. Audiences flocked to see Flatliners back in 1990 due to the highly publicized off-screen romance between Roberts and Sutherland. Oh, yes: Kevin Bacon and William Baldwin are in the picture, too. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cast Kiefer Sutherland as Nelson Wright Julia Roberts as Rachel Mannus Kevin Bacon as David Labraccio William Baldwin as Joe Hurley Oliver Platt as Randy Steckle Kimberly Scott as Winnie Hicks Joshua Rudoy as Billy Mahoney

Crew Jim Dultz - Art Director Mali Finn - Casting Rick Bieber - Co-producer Michael Douglas - Co-producer Susan Becker - Costume Designer Joel Schumacher - Director Robert Brown - Editor Peter Filardi - Executive Producer Scott Rudin - Executive Producer Michael Rachmil - Executive Producer James Newton Howard - Composer (Music Score) Dick Rudolph - Musical Direction/Supervision Dave Stewart - Songwriter Lincoln Chase - Songwriter Ve Neill - Makeup Eugenio Zanetti - Production Designer Jan de Bont - Cinematographer Stephen Homsy - Set Designer Paul Sonski - Set Designer Anne Kuljian - Set Designer Philip C. Cory - Special Effects Hans Metz - Special Effects David MacMillan - Sound/Sound Designer Rick LeFevour - Stunts William Erickson - Stunts Larry Nicholas - Stunts Bill Erickson - Stunts Peter Filardi - Screenwriter James Seidelman - Additional Editing

Flatliners
Taking on some very tough subject matter to translate cinematically, Flatliners is a benchmark film in the supernatural thriller genre. Putting a face to the phenomenon of the near-death experience, this grotesquely dark picture works reasonably well until it goes from the macabre to the contrived. While crucial to its plot structure, the moralistic bend Flatliners takes toward its ending almost single-handedly undermines the film as a whole. Set in the Windy City, fertile ground for the film's eerie life-and-death concepts, director Joel Schumacher and cinematographer Jan de Bont bathe the screen in rich, rippling green tones to give the film a spooky, ethereal effect. Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Bacon, and Julia Roberts give sincerely paranoid performances in the lead roles and Oliver Platt and William Baldwin support them equally well. Schumacher can be commended for tackling the frontier of the afterlife with ardor and open-mindedness, but had he exercised more restraint and less pedantry, the picture would remain more effective than the spine-tingling imitators it spawned. ~ Mike DiBella, All Movie Guide
 

Charles L. Campbell: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Sound Effects (nominated) Richard Franklin: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Sound Effects (nominated)

General Specifications: Language Options: English, French, Spanish Subtitle Options: English, Spanish, KO Sound Processing: DS: Dolby Surround (4.0) Additional Features: English 2-channel Additional languages: Spanish, French Subtitles: Spanish, Korean Scene selections Widescreen or full screen formats DVD Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1: Cinemascope 1.33:1: Pre-1954 Standard MPAA Rating: R DVD Discs Included: 1 DVD Sides: 2 DVD DVD Region Code: 1 Content Length: 114 min   DVD Chapters: Side #1 -- Widescreen 0. Scene Selections 1. Start [4:31] 2. "I saw myself" [2:05] 3. Pathology class [7:00] 4. Setting up [7:03] 5. Nelson's visions [3:01] 6. Something out there [2:33] 7. Bidding war [:53] 8. Dog in the alley? [1:21] 9. Bad dream [2:41] 10. Joe's visions [2:57] 11. Defining great [4:59] 12. An alley & tunnel [3:11] 13. "Halloween morning" [1:44] 14. Trick or treat [1:30] 15. "Party Town" [2:24] 16. Dave's vision [6:22] 17. Playing hockey [2:23] 18. What the voices say [1:15] 19. Train names [2:34] 20. Rachel's visions [8:16] 21. Daring Billy [1:53] 22. Billy's best shot [:55] 23. Too late [:49] 24. Taunting Winnie [3:58] 25. Calling Mrs. Hicks [2:57] 26. Visiting Winnie [2:43] 27. Dave apologizes [2:54] 28. Picking on Nelson [4:23] 29. "Father shot Himself" [1:04] 30. Shortcut [8:30] 31. Nelson Calls [2:08] 32. Going under again [4:24] 33. 12 Minutes [1:35] 34. Atonement & return [2:48] 35. End Credits [4:06] Side #2 -- Standard 0. Scene Selections 1. Start [4:31] 2. "I saw myself" [2:05] 3. Pathology class [7:00] 4. Setting up [7:03] 5. Nelson's visions [3:01] 6. Something out there [2:33] 7. Bidding war [:53] 8. Dog in the alley? [1:21] 9. Bad dream [2:41] 10. Joe's visions [2:57] 11. Defining great [4:59] 12. An alley & tunnel [3:11] 13. "Halloween morning" [1:44] 14. Trick or treat [1:30] 15. "Party Town" [2:24] 16. Dave's vision [6:22] 17. Playing hockey [2:23] 18. What the voices say [1:15] 19. Train names [2:34] 20. Rachel's visions [8:16] 21. Daring Billy [1:53] 22. Billy's best shot [:55] 23. Too late [:49] 24. Taunting Winnie [3:58] 25. Calling Mrs. Hicks [2:57] 26. Visiting Winnie [2:43] 27. Dave apologizes [2:54] 28. Picking on Nelson [4:23] 29. "Father shot himself" [1:04] 30. Shortcut [8:30] 31. Nelson calls [2:08] 32. Going under again [4:24] 33. 12 Minutes [1:35] 34. Atonement & return [2:48] 35. End credits [4:06]