Den Himmel gibt's echt

I saw this movie on opening night and there were only four of us in the theater (which was just fine with me). I will start by saying that I am a Christian, was excited to see this movie, and really like Greg Kinnear. Although I liked the story, I was not impressed with the movie overall. The acting was not great, and it was somewhat slow. Again, I like the story they were trying to tell, it just did not grip me nor did any of the characters pull me in. It does make one think about death and heaven and what happens when we leave this earth. I thought it was a very interesting story and am glad it made it to the big screen, but I also think they could have taken this so much further than they did. Please see for yourself though, do not let this review make you hesitate to watch on the big screen or rental at home when it comes out.

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.

When it comes talking about heaven and hell, we just start ignoring the fact that they might exist. Everyone has heard about it, but nobody wants to believe in its existence. Well, I doubt myself. Sometimes, I want to believe in it but something always stops me from doing so. The movie talks about it, but it's only from a Christian's point of view.

I liked the concept of the movie. They don't actually make us believe in the existence of heaven (or hell), but the good thing about the movie is that, they've kept an effort to show how the world would react when something extraordinary happens. Whatever, the story and the concept touched my heart. It would have been better if they had gone deeper than this. They could have taken the lines of Bible or so, in order to have a factual conversations.

Movie says, it's based on a true story but when there's talking about Jesus, it becomes a Christian's story, not universal. It's not a must watch movie but I would recommend it. I say, we've always watched Sci-Fi movies when we know they are not true, why don't we give a try to some spiritual movies? For most of the people today, they would be only as true as the sci-fi. There's no any magic in the story, just some story of miracles. What if it was 'Your' story? How would you make people believe in you encountering miracles?

While the movie may not be at it best, it's not bad for a one time viewing. My rating would be 7 for the story, acting, dialogues and well, because it has some sort of influence to the society...

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!