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Reviews
The Lazarus Effect (2015)
The Premise s Seriously Out of Date
Yet another "back from the dead movie" that treats the subject as if it is unusual or shocking.
I was brought back from the dead 10 years ago, and I was hardly the first. To quote the male leader of "The Lazarus Project", I got the second chance I deserved. But it was 10 full years before this movie was made, and even then it wasn't new. There was nothing chilling or horrible about it.
If this movie exploited your fear of death, your fear of death is so last century! Don't count on it, but in many cases you can visit the realm of death, and come back, and continue to live a normal life until you die of old age. It's no longer the big mystery it was 30 or 40 years ago.
You, like much of the world, may have a lot of catching up to do. This movie won't help you in that regard.
The Phoenix Project (2015)
The Premise is Moot
The problem with this movie is that the premise is moot.
I personally have been dead for a period of time (granted, hours, not days), and was brought back to life. My body was brought to a hospital, not a house (as in this movie), and the work was done by medical professionals (not as in this movie). The year was 2005, ten full years before this movie was made.
Let's skip the discussion of the after-death and re-integration experience issue; leave it for another time and place. And, I don't want to write a spoiler.
The fact is I'm alive and healthy today, and I have all (or at least most) of my memories. I'm writing this review. Aside from a nurse welcoming me back as "a member of the walking dead - don't worry, there's more of you every day" (I'm presuming she was just being a wise-ass), there's nothing creepy or even dramatic about the experience. Profound, yes. But, as the nurse noted, this has become a daily phenomenon. There aren't riots in the streets, and people aren't agonizing over it. The practitioners aren't losing sleep about it or worrying about becoming pariahs.
Technically, the movie is OK, it's just that the premise is, well, way out of date. That effectively drains most of the real drama from the film.