Bonded and Unbound: Sean Connery, 1930-2020, Disney+'s The Mandalorian Makes a Valiant Return in Season Two Opener, Amazon's Truth Seekers is Missing Jokes and Scares. Defending Your Life and other afterlife narratives can offer, if not a guidebook on how to live better, then at least suggestions worth weighing. As Daniel begins to come to his senses inside an after-death Ramada Inn, he meets his defender, Bob Diamond (Rip, Torn), who explains to Daniel that he must undergo a trial in which moments of his life are reviewed like clips on a movie review program to determine whether fear had held him back from growing into a higher consciousness. At first Dan is understandably dazed at finding himself dead, but the staff takes good care of him. He stars, writes, directs, and probably cleans up in this one. Enter your location to see which Bob Diamond asks Daniel during their first meeting. Then he discovers that in the afterlife he must defend his actions on Earth in order to ascend to a higher plane of existence. Forgot your password? Rotten Tomatoes, home of the Tomatometer, is the most trusted measurement of quality for Movies & TV. Doesn't it make sense that heaven, for each society, would be a place much like the Earth that it knows? But with muddled thinking infecting most of the produced scripts coming out of Hollywood, Brooks must have caught the virus himself. As Daniel's afterlife defender Bob Diamond, played by the inimitable Rip Torn, explains, humans on Earth only use 3 to 5 percent of their brain because the rest is devoted to managing fear. Albert Brooks doesn't make many films, but those he does make are always welcome. In the before-COVID times, I spent multiple nights a week at the movies. | Rating: A-, March 11, 2005 He literally does it all. A sweet, mildly profound romantic comedy. Fandango helps you go back to the movies with confidence and peace of mind. September 7, 2011 And you didn't want to toot your own horn. Defending Your Life is an unforgettable movie that gets better with repeat viewings. But the movie doesn't argue you have to be like Julia. Rip Torn and Lee Grant are pretty great as well. Sign up here. The best joke in "Defending Your Life" is that heaven is run along the lines that would be recommended by a good MBA program. Dan visits her hotel and is dismayed to discover that she has much better facilities than he does - Four Seasons instead of Motel 6 - and he wonders if maybe your hotel assignment is a clue about how well you lived your past life. But nobody in Judgment City will give him a straight answer to a question like that. We want to hear what you have to say but need to verify your email. By opting to have your ticket verified for this movie, you are allowing us to check the email address associated with your Rotten Tomatoes account against an email address associated with a Fandango ticket purchase for the same movie. Though visually impressive, the film shows problems with tonality, which veers from outright comedy to earnest therapy session--the "seize the day" lesson is not strong enough for a full-length picture. Get your swag on with discounted movies to stream at home, exclusive movie gear, access to advanced screenings and discounts galore. "Everything"; the big brain/little brain dichotomy). Whereas his trial involves recounting humiliating moments, like the time he was unable to speak at a conference, hers features scenes like the time she saved her children from a burning building and ran back in to get the cat. Maybe. Unfortunately, DEFENDING YOUR LIFE suffers from a slushy-headed pop fever. Cinemark As a self-assured, obnoxious Foote, Cone, and Belding executive, Albert Brooks recasts his egocentric, but lovable, yuppie advertising genius from LOST IN AMERICA and leads him to an otherwordly domain which forces him to reevaluate his grasping values and his shallow soul. Then the virus made it impossible to get away from that. Since many of them obviously deserve to go to the other place, if only for owning cars with burglar alarms that go off in the middle of the night, a movie like "Defending Your Life" makes perfect sense. Sign up for a FANALERT® and be the first to know when tickets and other exclusives are available in your area. Don’t worry, it won’t take long. | Rating: B- In love and desperate, not to lose her, Daniel overcomes an electrified force field surrounding his bus and races across the tarmac to her bus, clinging outside her window and telling her that he loves her. What Albert Brooks' 1991 Movie 'Defending Your Life' Can Teach Us About Fear It's perfect for the anxiety prone during the pandemic. New York City has lost more than 20,000 people; cross country, the Los Angeles death toll sits at more than 5,500, and cases across the state continue to surge. Slightly amusing the first time, after three or four more shots, they become as deadly as tracer bullets (constantly repeated references to the quality of the food at Judgment. It just gives us a satisfying idea of what life's really about, while remaining a smart comedy with an edge. Throughout the spring, just down the street from my Brooklyn apartment, there was a refrigerated truck outside a hospital, meant for bodies. Please enter your email address and we will email you a new password. | Rating: 5/5. Watch Defending Your Life movie trailer and get the latest cast info, photos, movie review and more on TVGuide.com. and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and Fandango. Daniel is helped aboard a tram with the other wheelchair-bound men and women, leading, the passengers to Judgment City, a post-death Disney World where the recently deceased, while awaiting judgment on their lives, can enjoy nightclubs, golf and delicious gourmet meals. By Esther … The image is an example of a ticket confirmation email that AMC sent you when you purchased your ticket. Not only does this detract from the comic acting but it points out. We're still stuck with images of angels playing harps, which worked fine for Renaissance painters. A sweet fantasy into a weigh-station where the departed make cases for whether they lived fearless lives, and after judgment, they move onto greener, more intelligent pastures or get reincarnated back to Earth. Your AMC Ticket Confirmation# can be found in your order confirmation email. Rack up 500 points and you'll score a $5 reward for more movies. But his notion would finally have no place to go if Brooks didn't add a romantic subplot, in which he falls in love with another sojourner in Judgment City. Scream Queen Showdown: Who Is the Ultimate Final Girl? Daniel is then told by Bob that he has lost the case and must return to earth. Eventually, it's affection for her that prompts him to make a truly fearless gesture. The process is like an American courtroom, with a prosecutor, defense attorney and judge, but the charges against us are never quite spelled out. As a self-assured, obnoxious Foote, Cone, and Belding executive, Albert Brooks recasts his egocentric, but lovable, yuppie advertising genius from LOST IN AMERICA and leads him to an otherwordly domain which forces him to reevaluate his grasping values and his shallow soul. To live completely without it would be irresponsible and you would look like one of those revelers who continue to insist that worldwide health concerns cannot stop their party. She had a Halloween message for the former vice president. |, August 16, 2017 |, March 22, 1991 This 10-digit number is your confirmation number. MRQE Metric: See what the critics had to say and watch the trailer. Sign up here for our weekly Streamail newsletter to get streaming recommendations delivered straight to your inbox. Just leave us a message here and we will work on getting you verified. Check out the exclusive TVGuide.com movie review and see our movie rating for Defending Your Life Join / Sign Up Keep track of your favorite shows and movies, across all your devices. She is a sweet, open-faced, serene young woman named Julia and played, of course, by Meryl Streep, who is the only actress capable of providing the character's Streepian qualities. and the Terms and Policies, The percentage of users who made a verified movie ticket purchase and rated this 3.5 stars or higher.