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After.Life


Director: Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo (2009)
Starring: Christina Ricci, Liam Neeson, Justin Long
Find it: IMDB, Amazon

Christina Ricci is apparently dead, and only Liam Neeson's mortician can see/hear her. Or maybe she isn't dead and Liam Neeson is just crazy, having kidnapped her. Justin Long once again takes on a thankless doormat boyfriend role. There's a creepy kid who may or may not be able to speak to dead people. But the most important thing is this: Christina Ricci gets naked in this movie. Nipples and everything.

I'm sure there are other reasons to watch After.Life, but none of them are quite as compelling and nothing you can't get elswehere. You can't really say that about Christina Ricci's nipples. If you have no interest in Christina Ricci's nipples, then you'll have very little interest in After.Life. It boasts fine actings from Neeson, Ricci and Long, but you can't help but feel the movie doesn't deserve any of them. It's basically a Straight To TV movie granted a cast out of its league.

Quite rightly, Ricci is a bit pissed off to be told that she's dead. Neeson, meanwhile, is irate to have her talking to him. Which isn't exactly fair on his part. There are like a billion other jobs he could get which'd mean him not having to talk to confused dead people on a regular basis. That'd be like me hating ramblers and then getting a job in a well-known supplier of hiking equipment.... Oh, right. Or a vegetarian becoming a butcher.

Other than Christina Ricci's nipples, After.Life sports a couple of other gems. Justin Long punches a child in the face. Liam Neeson's gradual unraveling is entertaining to watch. I certainly enjoyed seeing him bicker with corpses. The whole thing sounds like it should make for a funny film but it isn't. At least, not on purpose.

After.Life is a dull movie punctuated with good performances and unexpectedly amusing moments. Liam Neeson, arguing with dead bodies. Justin Long bashing a child in the face. A cop, um, copping an eyeful of naked Ricci. These things all make for a passable night's viewing. Not bad for a movie which is essentially a crap ghost story built around a bunch of nude scenes.

4 comments:

  1. Yay on making it into this month's issue of Rue Morgue, ya sick freak, and I mean that in the most endearing way possible :)

    Love ya

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  2. Oh crikey, thanks for the heads up. I had no idea. Thank you. Love you too, all y'all crass lot ;)

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  3. agree with you. no masterpiece but at least quite entertaining.

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  4. I felt guilty for what was going through my mind when I was watching Casper. This movie made everything all better.

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