Dead Like Me: Life After Death (2009)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Must See Movie...

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Yes, there are a ton of plot holes in this that make no sense when compared to the series. The lack of Rube really hurts, but the lack of Daisy does even more, simply because instead of just not having her character appear in this, they have another actress play her and her writing is completely uncharacteristic when compared to the show's Daisy. Her development in the show was genius and it's like this film forgot all of her episodes in Season 2 and how much she had progressed. It's pretty much a new character with the name "Daisy" and well, it's awful. Mason is also written in a way that doesn't make much sense. He's a screw-up, but he cared about Rube! Only Roxy and George have some of their show personalities. That whole reaper-Henry Ian Cusick storyline here really sucks.What saves the film a bit is the family stuff. Okay, some plot holes as well, but the George/Reggie stuff is handled adequately, and also sort of gives closure to the show's ongoing storyline.Really, this is a pretty mediocre film, and when compared to the show even worse, but it does have some good moments here and there. Stick with the show, this isn't needed.

After the departure of Rube Sofer a new head reaper takes over the quarry - after disastrously jumping from the upteenth storey of the World Trade Center in 2001 James Cameron (Henry Ian Cusick) offer a new business-minded outlook on delivering souls. George Lass (Ellen Muth) and her misfit bunch of reapers are told to quickly modernise their game to increase efficiency, while at the same time start to benefit from the fact that roam amongst the living. This new order causes George Lass to miss a reap...Never seen the original series, but from what I've heard it was quite a lot of fun. Jumping in where the series got off I must say that this feature feels like an overlong episode of a cheap TV series. If like me you haven't watched any of "Dead Like Me" I'm certain the experience will be tiresome and uninventive with boring characters and no real story to tell. Slowly plodding out trivial TV drama for 90 long minutes, the movie brought back painful flashbacks of the 80s "Highway to Heaven" series.To catch a phrase: Some things should just stay dead. The "Dead Like Me" series seems to be one of those.

It's difficult to even know where to begin! Firstly I have to repeat a common theme through all the posts I have read and that is, DLM was (still could be) a fantastic show. The wry take on the irony of everyday life, things we take for granted, death just another one of those things, the interaction,humour and frailty portrayed by the cast had me completely hooked.I think I made the mistake of watching the Two Seasons back-to-back on DVD and then expected the film to be a finale giving closure to all those who were left in the wilderness when 'The Suits' decided to cancel the show.Well, this is obviously what the suits decided it could have been', but to quote Dr. Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park; "Yeah, but your scientists (Suits) were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should".Okay, let the ranting begin, apologies, I will go off at Tangents but seriously if you spent time watching the series and followed 'The Rules', this film decides that the most fundamental rule set out in the Pilot episode doesn't matter! We don't decide who lives or dies, we take the soul to save them suffering, as-per the young child in the train-wreck. If you leave the soul, it will decay and become distorted and twisted and not the person that once-was.The film then says, "Nah......doesn't matter!" You have Roxy 'saving' a man from drowning and pushing his soul back into his body!!!!? She is one of the strongest personalities in the show, abides by the rules (apart from ripping a man's soul from his body in temper, before putting it back) and even moved into Law Enforcement, so strong is her moral conduct. Yet here we have her breaking a fundamental rule?Okay, I have read all the posts and see that Sarah Wynter takes a hammering for her portrayal of Daisy. Now I agree that she played Daisy Adair completely out of the character we had become to know. A character who's frailties and subtle cracks in the tough exterior were beginning to slowly ebb out and expose who she really was. A sad and lonely person who's years of reaping had left her emotionally damaged.This character played by Laura Harris was mesmerising and brilliantly acted. What I refuse to say though is that Sarah Wynter is at fault for completely closing all the doors on that subtlety and instead went back to the self-centred version we saw in her first appearance.Now, lets be honest, Sarah is an Actor who is told by the Director how he/she wants the character to be seen, there are also the writer's who gave the Director the duff-est of scripts to work with, I cannot blame Sarah for her portrayal just the idiots who decided that Two-Seasons of character-building was not really what the viewers needed or wanted! Are they kidding. Laura Harris's acting and character building made the viewer sympathise with her. In one-fell-swoop, they decided that Sarah would be merely a shadow (almost a Graveling!) of that dynamic, set in motion through the brilliant scripts of the show.In the Laura version I am sure that when Daisy forgot the words on stage, she would have broken down and ran from the stage. Her chance at fame at-last in her grasp, snatched cruelly from her and sentencing her to more years of misery in a world she was yearning to depart?Rube,Rube, where-for-art-thou Rube!? He got his Lights...ooooohhhh-p-leeeease!!!! What a cop-out! Lets be honest Rube was the man you just wanted to know what the heck was going on! His Authority when questioned, often brought a perfect response of "well you do that, then lets see what happens" attitude, which made the viewer wonder just what powers/options were available to him? Watching the 'Behind-the-scenes' feature, he nailed perfectly what it was that made the Second-Series for his character. He explained that each show just gave you a tiny piece of the jigsaw that expanded his character. The money in the undelivered envelope being terrible mistake, the wanted poster (alluding to a Bank Robbery), his daughter being found as a Reaper arrived, perfectly awaiting the line "I Reap what you Sow" (it never was said), as he met his daughter the day he died. Why did he need that money? Did he die the day of the robbery and manage to post the money just before his fate? Mason, a character who was the joker in the pack, but like Ying and Yang with the character of Daisy he felt a bond that almost became Brother and Sister, especially brought home when she refused his offer of the ring. Mason was a cool character, the naughty child who you just knew was going to one-day really make Rube show his colours while goading Roxy and Georgia, again an almost perfect balance of humour and again frailty as you see him find the record showing Daisy's last-words, then realising that she really is the damaged goods mentioned above.I would write more but you get 1000 words.....give the film a miss...please!

I just finished watching the entire series and this movie. I was a little afraid because I kept hearing how the movie was sub par in comparison to the rest of the series. For the most part I would agree in that the movie's storyline in regards to the rest of the characters was pretty weak, but the dynamics between Reggie and George almost completely makes up for it.While the rest of the characters seemed like just other people doing stupid crap, Mason becoming rich but still pining for Daisy, Daisy (who, I would have to say, was no where near like the Daisy from the series) becoming a theater actress but messing it up completely, and Roxy throwing everything she learned from Rube out the window so she could become a hero. In each one of these the characters were portrayed as completely the opposite of who they should be. Also their stories are no where near the line of compelling as they should be.George and Reggie finally sharing lines together is what made this movie. When you see them together it almost feels like they are real sisters who were torn apart because of a tragic freak accident. Both have been scarred and they only want to have a childhood together that was taken away. Unfortunately that isn't possible since George has to now live a different life. Also Reggie's struggle as she now loses someone else close to her, but also George's involvement with that loss, brings her to the edge of her sanity.It's only when the family dynamics, or more so the shattered family dynamics are on the screen that this movie works. George is dead, now living as a different person and a grim reaper who has to take people's souls before they die. Joy is trying to keep the one part of her family she still has left and make a connection with her. Reggie is trying to cope with the loss of her sister, even though George wasn't exactly nice to her in life, while dealing with the breakup of her parents.When the sisters are reunited, or when Reggie realizes that she has been reunited with George, it's very bittersweet. George is trying her best to make up for the fact that she was so mean to Reggie in her life, but she also understands that they can't stay together. Reggie also comes to understand that even though her older sister is there, she can't live as her sister.Don't be scared to give this movie a try. Even though some of the rest of it doesn't exactly make sense (I mean, come on, they launch a dead cat into space on a rocket?). But the story between George and Reggie was extremely well done and I actually did come away from this movie somewhat satisfied from that.