Den Himmel gibt's echt

This was a powerful and emotional movie. It's sad that so many hate-filled, lost and hopeless individuals left reviews simply because they are angry at life and are hollow and empty inside. The message of this movie would do them good. God is Hope and there is something beyond this life. So, quit being depressed and angry at the world and look at the bigger picture and accept God's love. Look into it it's everything...

Or is it Heaven for the Christians? It's tough to sell to everyone just by definition. The concept is or should by familiar to everyone, whether they believe it or not. And the movie does take a few shots at it and the reaction people would obviously have if they were confronted with a "reality" like that.

All through the eyes of a child who seems to be saying all the right things at the right moments. Which brings issues into the family and the people close to the family. Acting wise this is really good and there are a few things that are a bit out there (a punching or two, screaming at God and some other things), that you might not expect. But it never gets out of hand completely. It's a movie for those who believe anyway, but has a nice speech by Greg towards the end that can be seen as uplifting.

I took my four year old to see the Pokemon movie. Not only was he able to identify dozens of characters which seemed interchangeable to me, but he could recite their relationships and histories with biblical accuracy. He does the same thing with dinosaurs. The capacity for a preschooler to memorize repetitive information and blurt it out is quite astounding.

I can only imagine how much better he would have done if I were in the Pokemon selling business and able to coach him myself, then act surprised that he's able to repeat what I spent his formative years drilling into his head. I could even write a book about it, in collaboration with my wife, claiming that the boy magically learned Pokemon names without any coaching--despite the fact that I'm in the Pokemon business and the ubiquity of Pokemon merchandise around the house.

Then we could make a movie about it, and tell all our friends who also work in the Pokemon field to give it 10/10 reviews on IMDb, merely for the fact that it propels Pokemon.

All this, proving once again that miracles DO happen. Pikachu bless you all!

I'm very spiritual but not very religious. This movie does an excellent job of sharing important information about the very real issues that near death experiences (NDEs) bring up. All the NDE stories have certain similarities and a judgmental God is not part of them at all. Religion doesn't matter either. All that matters is love for one another. IMO.

Those last few sentences were preacher than this whole movie -- which is a very good thing. It is very tough to tell a spiritual story without being preachy, but this movie does it very well.

If you have the slightest interest, you will enjoy this movie. Is it perfect? No, nothing is, but this movie is pretty good.

8 out of 10 stars. Acting is good too. Kudos to all involved in the production.

Epilogue: There's an odd phenomena happening with any movie that is religious or potentially religious, like this film. They get a lot of 1-star ratings. I'm certain these come from zealots. Mostly, I suspect they are militant atheists who think belief in God is the root of all of mankind's problems. I'm talking about the disciples of Richard Dawkins here. I'll bet serious money that most of the 1-star reviewers never saw the movie.

With a movie like this one there is another potential source of 1-star reviews, fundamentalists who like their religious ideas literal and straight from the bible. Those folks will not like this movie at all. Real spirituality is complicated.

Much more interesting than the film -- as a film -- is how cynical we have become as moviegoers. I'm as guilty as everyone else. But the film is so slowly paced (as Don Rickles likes to remark, "as exciting as a fly crawling up a drape") the mind wanders. It can't help it. But if there is nothing on screen to mesmerize it, it wanders. And the first place the mind wanders, while watching HEAVEN IS FOR REAL, is to a very cynical place (definitely NOT heaven) where it starts to wonder how such an unspectacular production merited such a big-name cast and director ... and such lavish cinematography .. and such a major studio...?

And as the mind continues to wander (because what is on-screen is still not that mesmerizing) it goes to an even darker place (yep, still not Heaven) and wonders if the real money and clout behind the production was the religious right ... and if the audience was intended to be the same market...?

Folks I don't have the answers. I can't tell you if the writer of the story really went to heaven or if the producers of this film had an agenda. I can tell you that, if you really really really lower your expectations, and allow for the slower pace, it's not bad. Not great, but not bad. There is a scene where the sister of the main character punches out two boys in the playground for poking fun at her brother. It is short and fast and by itself worth the price of admission.

Not heaven. But not bad either.