Ghosts and the Afterlife

This is the second review I have ever posted. Although I may not be a Siskel or an Ebert, I do know a lot about this subject matter.

The interviews are fantastic. James Van Praagh, without question, does the best interview I have ever seen him do and, as I am an ardent fan of "Ghost Whisperer" and James in general, I know what I am talking about.

Raymond Moody does a great job as well.

There was a whole list of fascinating topics and new discoveries. The list of experts, unlike any movie I have ever seen on the subject, in addition to Dr. Moody and James Van Praagh, the movie included Dr. Vernon Sylvest, Dr. Kenneth Rose, Dr. Jeffrey Rediger, Dr. Norm Shealy, and Captain Frederick "Skip" Atwater. Captain Atwater was the operations officer in charge of the top-secret military StarGate program.

There is a lot more, but I just got through watching it for the first time.

The NASA experiments, the experiments creating invisibility, and the top-secret research done on consciousness detached from the physical body were all fascinating.

...this movie seems to have plenty, but I couldn't make it more than 20 minutes. Tried to tolerate the host, the bad audio, and even worse editing choices but it never got better. The host's wide eyed facial expressions and overly enthusiastic tone of voice come off kind of cartoonish creating a strange feeling of dissonance between her and the topics being discussed. Sound effects and background music frequently over power the volume of the people recounting their stories. The editing choices and quality are just... bad. It's poorly made which is a shame because the idea is there, it's just hard to watch. With how all over the place it is - makes me wonder if the intention was to hold the attention of a younger audience?

As important as this topic is and the guests who appeared did their best, the film loses momentum fast.

Imagine you walk into a convention where you're excited for not only the topic but for the expert presenters who are going to appear and speak on something they've studied, researched and or directly experienced. And just as things get started, overwhelmingly loud, bad and distracting music begins playing in and starts to over pace the sound of the guest speaker, while large projectors of b-roll and graphics begin to appear in the background.

Then a host appears every 2 minutes on stage with a dialogue that inserts itself as a secondary commentary and narration for filler between acts. Except it appears the host themselves is the main act.

The actual speakers or guests are given some time, but not nearly enough. Still, you hope to see more of them but instead are being forcibly "entertained" by the flashing lights, off paced music and very off - putting b roll that is projected from every screen.

Sorry, but this production had cheesy and awfully redundant prod-values, as well, it had a knock off vibe of the "The Secret", except it doesn't even come close.

I'm sure they put a lot of hard work into this but I can't help but think this was a vanity project of some sort and no restraint was shown. It's like they stored up content graphics for years and then used every element of it at every turn. It feels disjointed and chaotic and not entertaining though I did enjoy James Van Prague who offers a brief reprieve to an otherwise fragmented and disjointed production.

I was immediately drawn to the subject matter of this documentary. But very quickly all credibility vanished with the scantily-clothed beautiful model/host and her attempts at handling subject matter as serious as life/death and the afterlife.

All I can imagine is one of the producers or writers said "I've got this gorgeous girl who will probably date me if I can get her this gig" That is about as serious as anyone could ever take her presence in what could have been a GREAT documentary. The science and the experts were great; the research done was really interesting...but the tank-top wearing college girl? Just RUINED all the credibility this documentary could have had. Why not a narrator with experience or knowledge on the subject?

There's no need for "eye candy" with a subject this serious and life changing.

Really liked it. A lot of good information. I didn't like the girl's dress speaking as a fashion designer, I think it could have been a bit longer and a different color. Also, she changed her clothes so often, it made my head spin. And, maybe, it would have been a good idea to have a man narrate the film to give it more authority. Just saying that's my opinion. Of course, there was a large number of male contributors in the expert category. Also, in some scenes she wasn't even wearing shoes, which i guess is OK. Bottom line, i really liked the movie, so in the long run, I wold recommend it with 8 stars.

-Mike.