55
Metascore
10 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80The New York TimesCaryn JamesThe New York TimesCaryn JamesFlatliners is a stylish, eerie psychological horror film laced with wit, a movie that thrives on its characters' guilty secrets and succeeds on the strength of the director Joel Schumacher's flair for just this sort of smart, unpretentious entertainment.
- 75Chicago TribuneDave KehrChicago TribuneDave KehrIt's much to Schumacher's credit that Flatliners, for all of its crazy excess, does not turn into camp.
- 75Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertFlatliners is an original, intelligent thriller, well-directed by Joel Schumacher. I only wish it had been restructured so we didn't need to go through the same crisis so many times.
- 75Washington PostRita KempleyWashington PostRita KempleyFlatliners is a heart-stopping, breathtakingly sumptuous haunted house of a movie.
- 63The Seattle TimesJohn HartlThe Seattle TimesJohn HartlTheir performances lend the movie a touch of class, even if they can't make up for the superficial writing and Schumacher's anything-for-a-jolt direction.
- 50TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineThe look is overpowering enough to delay--though not forever--examination of the plot, which has to pull a fast one at every turn to keep moving and which eventually makes a mockery of plausibility.
- 40Los Angeles TimesMichael WilmingtonLos Angeles TimesMichael WilmingtonIf Flatliners is anything at all, it's watchable: aflame with Jan de Bont cinematography, deep-focus decor, an attractive cast. The movie's problem, like many others recently, is that it isn't any deeper, dramatically or psychologically, than its own trailer. It is the trailer: the long version.
- 25Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanYou may go into Flatliners hoping for a psychedelic mindblower, but the film is about as exciting as staring at a lava lamp for two hours.
- 20Orlando SentinelJay BoyarOrlando SentinelJay BoyarFar-fetched as the premise is, I was willing to give the film the benefit of the doubt for the sake of the impressive cast. But as Flatliners rolled along, its pretentiousness became increasingly toxic.