Reviews

The film has footage of people in hypnotherapist's offices, in different locations where mediums and others are able to access people on the flipside. There are interviews with Michael Newton (The Newton Institute) Brian Weiss (Many Lives Many Masters) footage of mediums who work with law enforcement on missing person cases (Jennifer Shaffer) and others (Kimberly Babcock) who are able to access people directly and get answers from them. While the locations do leave much to be desired, these are not staged interviews or done in sound stages - they're sometimes live in restaurants, cafes where people access their pals no longer here. Worth checking out along with his other documentary FLIPSIDE, filmed a decade earlier.

A review (via Amazon) by Marie: "When I read Rich Martini's book "FLIPSIDE: A TOURIST'S GUIDE ON HOW TO NAVIGATE THE AFTERLIFE", I was enthralled. I had just finished reading three rather life changing books by Dr. Michael Newton in which he described how he stumbled upon deep hypnosis as a means of taking people back to the womb, then further, into a life previously lived, then through the death scene of that life, and into the place where souls reside after one life ends and before the next begins. I read those three books in record time and was desperate for MORE. Then I joined a forum which was created around Michael Newton's work and Rich Martini just happened to join as well and let us all know about the book he'd written which took Michael's work to a new place. He interviewed Dr. Newton, his wife Peggy, and several of the therapists who were trained at the Newton Institute. He even filmed several actual hypnotherapy sessions. The book is written so well and the information Rich compiled is as astounding as what I'd read in Dr. Newton's works.

Then Rich told us there was a film! But it wasn't QUITE fully baked...still needed some tweaking here and there. FINALLY, after MUCH cajoling, coaxing, and, OK, BEGGING, the day finally came when Rich announced the VIDEO was ready and we could purchase it on DVD, video or we could stream it! I bought it immediately and just finished watching it.

I had seen much of it in little clips that Rich let us view along the way, but seeing it from start to finish in it's final form was quite wonderful. It was a visual representation of the incredible material Rich and the Newton trained hypnotherapists were able to uncover during Rich's research into this fascinating realm.

In the 70's and 80s I had read all of the Seth material (by Jane Roberts) and it was quite similar but nothing as spectacular as Michael Newton's work because Seth was one entity and the writing was quite dry and technical and most of it way over my head! Dr. Newton's clients were regular people from all walks of life and belief systems and they all told the same story more or less about the realm that we inhabit when we're not living a life somewhere else! And to now SEE some of the Newton trained hypnotherapists facilitating actual regressions and hearing the information as it's being received by the clients undergoing hypnosis was such a special treat.

We even get to see a snippet of Rich's own regression which is also a real treat! The video will certainly whet your appetite for more. I would highly recommend, after viewing this video. The one thing I missed in the video which I LOVED about the book was all the stories Rich told about his personal experience with the supernatural, and the stories of his family's experiences. So I would highly recommend watching the video and then immediately reading the book which fleshes things out a bit and then following that with reading Michael Newton's book starting with "Journey of Souls" which is the first book Michael Newton wrote about how he virtually stumbled upon and "was dragged kicking and screaming" to this information and how it consumed the next three decades of his life while he painstakingly and lovingly documented the thousands of case studies he facilitated to come up with this blueprint of the spirit realm, how we get there, what we do there, who we meet there, how and why we come back again and again and how we decide when, where and who to come back as!

A big thanks to Rich for this video, the book and for continuing to document this material along with some of the dedicated therapists who want to bring this experience to others.

If you watch the video and want to delve into the work of Dr. Michael Newton and talk to others who are also interested please feel free to join the forum which is on Facebook: The Michael Newton Institute for Life Between Lives Hypnotherapy." More info at flipsidethefilm.com

I knew Rafael when he made this film in 1985. He was a terrific actor and wonderful human being. He told me personally that Richard Brooks punched him in the stomach because he didn't like one of the takes that Rafael had done. (I'd heard rumors from other people that Brooks was a notoriously difficult director to work for). The problem was Rafael was punched so hard, he couldn't return to work. He didn't tell anyone about it, but was in so much pain from the punch, he went to see a Doctor - they did exploratory surgery to find out that Rafael was suffering from stomach cancer. He died not much longer after the incident (another film of his came out later), but he told me this story from his hospital bed. I mention it all these years later (Brooks died in 79) because its an awful story about an abusive film director - but the truth always comes out, even if it's only 25 years later. Rafael; RIP.

This is my film. I took the camera on the trip around the world, and the film only cost me $300 to make. I submitted it to the dogme95 group in Denmark because it had all the earmarks of a dogme film - no special lighting, no extra sound, no costumes, makeup - not a genre film per se - and they sent me the certificate. I'd like to clarify that neither Oliver Stone nor Jack Nicholson appear in this film - they're look alikes that do a hell of an impersonation. That's the magic of this film - you don't know if what you're looking at is what you're seeing. Especially the sequence with Carol Alt - and it really is Carol Alt - but it's an incident that actually happened to her in real life, and she's quite brilliant doing the improv that we did, the first take, in Santa Monica. The second take some guy came over and knocked me down for harassing her. That was pretty funny. But WARNING - this is a movie hobbled together, shot on DV camera, and done for $300. It looks like it was made for $300. Please don't be disappointed by the cheezy quality. That was the idea. I want to inspire anyone who has a DV camera to pick the dang thing up and make your own movie! Rich Martini

I wrote this movie. It was my first major film, and I went to the set to visit while they were shooting it in Arkansas. Charlie Sheen, who had just starred in "Platoon" told me he loved the script, but what they were shooting was .. well, let's just say rewritten. I thought he was exaggerating, until I told my friends to meet me at the Egyptian theater in Hollywood for the opening weekend. 3000 seat theater - and only 8 people attended the 8 p.m. show. I hated it. I hated the reviews it got, it made me decide that if my movie was going to get screwed up, I was going to direct it, and at least I'd be responsible for it. So, for better or worse, that's what I've been doing since then. However, I have some nostalgia for this piece - its genesis was seeing Senator Moynihan's daughter dancing on a bar in Cambridge when I went to college. The original story was about a Senator's daughter who is ruining his re-election bid by staging protests. He decides to send her to a reform school and assigns his young up and coming assistant to do the job. His roommate is a stringer for a Washington rag, and he begs to come along. Along the way the daughter escapes multiple times, but mainly wants to find her mom - who abandoned her father. She thinks its because the mom agrees with her politics; I thought Dabney Coleman would have been the perfect Senator. It runs out her mom was just 'getting high' too much when she was in college, got pregnant and didn't want to have a family. Depressed with the truth, the daughter decides to shape up and take reform school in stride. By the end, she's transformed the Senator's assistant, who's fallen in love with her and won't let her compromise her principles. There's a twist at the end, but basically it was a rip off of my former boss Robert Towne's brilliant take on "The Last Detail." This was my "Last Detail." Sorry it's not better than it is, but now you know the truth. Rich Martini

Ten stars just because you've got to see this weird film. I happened upon it on HBO the other night, just in time to catch Sean Penn (not credited) playing this blond pony tailed Irishman in a bar, spouting lilty prose, and trying to buck up a hapless Woody. Hank Azaria and Woody have more weeping, shouting scenes than any chick flick I've seen, and combined with a Cormanesque art direction, this is one classic sad sack story. I was desperate to find the remote, but was glued to my seat as Woody, the painter who only paints this one woman over an over.. finally confronts her - after she slashes her portraits at Woody's big coming out show. (in a gallery that looked like an abandoned warehouse, of the backside of the same set for Woody's 'loft') Hank Azaria's jealous melt down over Woody's being the 'guy who gets all the girls' over a pool table, complete with cue ball tossing (Off Camera - "hey watch where you throw that!") and cuestick smashing.. well, the movie Gods are to be thanked for not having this flick stop all of their careers. But really tune in for Sean Penn's off beat barfly - the guy does a spot on irish accent up until he reveals he's just a handy man from the valley with bon mots of relationship wisdom.. or is he? Was it God all along masquerading as an Irish wit? Not to be missed.

I got a chance to catch this film recently after all these years. Ray Charles plays God! Hilarious. Nancy Allen in a role that would have been great for Sharon Stone. Danitra Vance is hilarious doing her own comic twist - I saw her on Broadway some years ago, before she passed away - and comic Brad Hall from Sat. Night Live does a cool comic turn as the goofy boyfriend. Good wins over evil, and Ray Charles rules the day once again. In a nutshell, this soybean trading floor runner meets up with her guardian angel (which she thinks is the devil - it can't be a spoiler if the movie is this old) who tries to get her to corner the soybean market. Why would anyone care if the soybean market is cornered? Turns out that soybeans run the world, or so it's told in this fairy tale. I don't know, maybe I'm just not as jaded as I should be, but I loved seeing the soybean traders screaming bloody murder over their daily cash, and Ray Charles doing comedy. I wish this film would come out on DVD.

I can remember when I first saw "Walkabout" so many years ago, and how it completely took me out of the world I lived in and put me somewhere completely different. I can also remember the effect "The Last Wave" had on me, with only it perifery depiction of aborigines and their dream worlds that they live in. It's not until I caught a screening of this film at the Film Market in LA this past month have I really felt anyone has depicted these proud, mysterious, elegiac people before. From the moment the grandmother takes rock to her own head to grieve for the loss of her granddaughter, and I heard the gasps of everyone in the audience, did I realize I was going to finally get a glimpse into this world. The three child actresses are amazing and touching, and haunt me still. The face of the tracker alone is reason to see this film, which seems to have the history of his people etched on it. It's amazing this story has never been told before, since it happened, and continued to happen all the way into the 1970's in Australia. The director did a terrific job of putting me in the hearts and minds of these people, even the ones who thought they were doing something good to help the 'half breeds' in the outback - and the cinematography by Christopher Doyle is breath-taking. I've only been to Australia once, and the only aborigine I saw was rocking slowly on a bench in an underground railway - in some kind of trance, and suddenly it occurred to me that he was in another world, unlike what I was seeing. This film brought that moment back to me, as I rooted for, was on the edge of my seat for, and ultimately wiped out by this story of three girls wrenched from their homes and families, and despite all odds, and an unbelievably difficult journey, made their way back to their home. Just an amazing achievement. Also, the first film that I saw about Australia was back in the 70's, called Newsfront, another film by the same director - it seems like this story brings him full circle back into the Aussie milieu. I'll be surprised if it doesn't win many film festival awards.

Story is about a rich woman (Dina Merrill) who finds a new husband (Rod Taylor) which terrifies his son-in-law (Rick Johnson) who's afraid he's going to lose his billion dollar inheritance. Son hires a nefarious nurse (Rebecca Broussard) to harass the mother until she signs over power of attorney to him. Their daughter (Ann Cusack) joins the group to try to sort things out. Set in a strange home built under a lighthouse, Rod Taylor is great as the interloper trying to stay in control while the son-in-law tortures everyone. Cusack is great as the do-good sister, while Broussard does her scenes with a combination of sex and snarkiness. Flick reminds me of those horror stories in Vanity Fair about families who'll do anything to get their parent's money.

I've been to Cannes, and this is EXACTLY what it's like to be there. Not to mention that Johnny Depp and Jim Jarmusch do one of the most hilarious cameos I've ever seen. Seymour Cassel has never been funnier, and this film captures the indie icon like he's never been captured before. I saw this film at a screening in LA not long ago, and wonder why it didn't make it to the theaters. Look for Ann Cusack as a buyer who gets ripped off by Sy Lerner (Cassell) and Robert Evans telling a story about his glory days.

Film is a sweet retelling of a stale tale: selling your soul to the devil.. in this case, it's Nancy Allen selling her soul so she can be a successful soybean trader at the Chicago Board of Trade. Cameo by Ray Charles as God is great, and Danitra Vance (from Broadway, since passed away) is terrific as his assistant Nike. Look for great perfs from Dean Stockwell as the nasty boss, and Brad Hall as the quirky boyfriend. Also gives an insiders view of commodity trading. Sort of Wall Street meets Bedazzled.

This was running on TNT for it's '80's night.' Great cameos in this flick from Tony Geary as a homeless guy living in a box on Venice beach, to Harry Perry, the skating Sufi from Venice - David Leisure as an unctuous boss, Christy Mcnichol as a performance artist.. not to mention Charles Grodin as a condom pushing father. This flick still runs on Comedy Central and it always makes me laugh out loud. Especially Bridget Fonda's boss who runs the dating service. UPDATED JULY 2009. Just watched it again courtesy of TV Guide's channel with all the nonsense running underneath. Still makes me laugh. Lu Leonard is hilarious as the owner of the dating service (she passed away a couple of years back.) This film was 20 years ahead of its time.