holds up better than I thought it would

I liked this movie back in the 90's in early teens and saw Comcast was offering it on demand for no additional $ and checked it out yesterday. It held up surprisingly well I thought.

Couple things that I didn't like (and didn't remember from before) such as why the heck was Kevin Bacon rappelling out of his dorm room? That was odd. Also, the flickering lights, smoke, and overly gothic atmosphere was a bit much at times. Though at other times was effective in setting an otherworldly atmosphere.

On a plot note, I kind of wish this movie could be made without the heavy moralistic overtones, like if they really saw something that could be considered a type of afterlife and explore the implications of that. What if one guy saw "heaven" and another guy saw "hell"? And someone else saw nothing at all? Or maybe reincarnation variations? Anyways, it wasn't bad but it seemed a little morally simplistic that the people saw something that made them feel guilty and then they had to atone for it or be punished for it.

What I liked was a lot of the visuals. The macabre Halloween dance on the steps of the museum was cool. The gothic and Catholic imagery. Julia Roberts' big hair looked great. Billy Baldwin was more good looking than I remembered.

The movie was far from perfect, I mean how could they have such easy access to the museum and did they really have no security? Why wasn't part of Joe's atonement to destroy the videos and apologize to each of his victims? Was Julia Roberts in need of atonement, or was that her father actually reaching back to her to get atonement for himself? Also, does defib work for someone who is flatlining?

Anyways, a good atmospheric movie with a lot of big stars when they were a couple decades younger :)