90 Minutes in Heaven (2015)

Absolutely Fantastic

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Given that the movie was inspired by a massive best seller, and the cast is fairly watchable, it was rather strange that this movie turned out to be what it was. Makes you wonder if they adapted only part of the book.A preacher gets injured in a car accident and has a long painful recovery ahead. There isn't much about the afterlife - just a few minutes where he describes seeing relatives in heaven. But it didn't seem to make him deal with his ordeal any better. The main part of the movie seems to be his painful recovery and the awful things they had to do to his leg and arm. Also the financial problems are shown. It's more like a Lifetime drama. Many people criticze Hayden Christensen's acting but I think he was okay here. Wasn't much to go wrong with. Kate Bosworth looks very groomed throughout the ordeal.

Review: I wasn't really impressed with this movie, because the subject matter was a bit weird and it seemed like it was made for TV. The acting was mediocre from the whole cast but the fact that it was based on true events, made it slightly interesting. Don Piper (Hayden   Christensen) is a happily married family man with 2 small boys, a young girl and a loving wife, Eva (Kate Bosworth), who is a kindergarten teacher. The whole family is heavily into the church and Don is looking to invest in building a new church in the community. While Don is looking for investors to help him in his new adventure, he ends up in a car crash which, temporarily kills him. After being pronounced dead on the spot, a pastor prays over his body and starts to sing to him, and to his surprise, Don starts to sing along with him. Weird but true! Anyway, he finally gets pulled out of the car and is rushed to the hospital were the doctors battle to save his life. With his family by his side Don goes through some gruesome rehabilitation, which questions his faith and makes him wonder, why he was chosen to stay alive after being dead for 90 Minutes. I must admit, I did get quite bored of the whole storyline after a while and I found it slightly creepy. All of the real footage of the family, made the movie feel like a documentary, which I didn't find entertaining. At the end of the day, it's just another bad movie from Hayden Christensen, who has struggled to make a decent movie since playing Darth Vader in Star Wars. Disappointing!Round-Up: This movie was lucky to break even at the box office, because there are so many people who believe in different religions, who will find this film quite offensive. With that aside, Hayden Christensen and Kate Bosworth could have shown more emotion under those weird circumstances and the ending was pretty poor. Anyway, this film was directed by Michael Polish, 45, who also brought you Twin Falls Idaho, Jackpot, Northfork, the Astronaut Farmer, the Smell of Success, Stay Cool, For Lovers Only, Big Sur, and Unconscious. I personally haven't seen any of his movies before, and if there are anything like this movie, I don't think that I'm missing anything.Budget: $5million Worldwide Gross: $5millionI recommend this movie to people who are into their dramatic movies starring Hayden Christensen, Kate Bosworth, Michael Harding and Cynthia Barrett. 3/10

I haven't seen the movie yet as I was reading the reviews to see if it might be worthwhile. I rarely respond to comments/reviews but the leading page review by Bob Rutzel caught my eye with his comment about what he thinks "..Catholics say..".First of all, Catholics don't all say the same thing on many matters. We are free to choose what we believe and practice as long as we remain faithful to what is fundamental to the Gospel and authoritative Church teaching. Many beliefs, and practices especially, are left up to the individual to determine if they find them helpful in respect to their Faith and growth in Love of God and our fellow man.I've read that ..."Science tells us from birth to 33 our body reaches its peak. After that the body starts to decline..." This being the case, and also being in accord with much Catholic speculation on the subject, it would make sense that our "residing age" (if I can call it that) would be the age at which humans roach their peak. Any attempt to "nail things down" any more than this is, in my opinion, ultimately futile as it will be a "New Heaven and a New Earth" in which our immortal bodies reside and we will share in the very life of the Trinity. The Gospels say that once He was resurrected, Christ took on whatever appearance He saw as beneficial to the situation. As heaven is unity with Christ, I imagine we will be able to do the same if it is in any way necessary for our eternal happiness.It is still ultimately very much a mystery, as "age" is a construct of time which will not exist in eternity. Having said that, I believe St. Thomas Aquinas puts things quite succinctly and beautifully. St. Thomas Aquinas speculates: ....Man will rise again without any defect of human nature, because as God founded human nature without a defect, even so will He restore it without defect. Now human nature has a twofold defect. First, because it has not yet attained to its ultimate perfection. Secondly, because it has already gone back from its ultimate perfection. The first defect is found in children, the second in the aged: and consequently in each of these human nature will be brought by the resurrection to the state of its ultimate perfection which is in the youthful age, at which the movement of growth terminates, and from which the movement of decrease begins (Summa Suppl. 81.1).I suppose it is this type of speculation which give rise to statements about "What Catholics say".Time, or rather eternity, will tell for certain.

The movie at best, tells the events in the book. In the tradition of adaptations, it skims over events with little depth. The essence of the story, was to encourage Christians about heaven. The movie however is a medical drama, that serves to educate viewers on hospital affairs.The encounter in heaven, is put at the end of the movie as an after thought. The director choosing to dwell in the emotional scenes featuring the family. The movie has bloopers. The scene where Don advises a young man with fixator, did not involve his family in the audience. Because Don was chaperoning a group of teenagers to an auditorium.The movie did not inspire or show the motivational stories that resulted from Don telling the world his ordeal.It did not even feature a crisis of faith for Don.