Hot Picks

- Ready for My Close Up 2019

- Talk of the Dead 2016

- Tower Rats 2020

- Script of the Dead 2024

- The Bell Affair 2023

- Easter Bloody Easter 2024

- Velma 2022

- Everwinter Night 2023

- Main Character Energy 2023

- Stupid Games 2024

- Bittertooth 2023

- 4 Minutes of Terror: Night Slasher 2024

- Apart 2024

- The Abandoned 2006

- Becky 2024

- The Evil Fairy Queen 2024

- The Black Guelph 2022

- Followers 2024

- Silence of the Prey 2024

- Battle for the Western Front 2024

- Beware the Boogeyman 2024

- Subject 101 2022

- Driftwood 2023

- The Legend of Lake Hollow 2024

- Black Mass 2023

- Skinwalkers: American Werewolves 2 2023

- The Manifestation 2024

- Spirit Riser 2024

- Garden of Souls 2019

- It's a Wonderful Slice 2024

- Caleb & Sarah 2024

- The Thousand Steps 2020

- The Desiring 2021

- When a Stranger Knocks 2024

- Quint-essentially Irish 2024

- Son of Gacy 2024

- Saltville 2024

- The True Story of the Christ's Return 2024

- Whenever I'm Alone with You 2023

- Jurassic Triangle 2024

- Midnight Peepshow 2022

- Offworld: Alien Planet 2024

- The Swiss Conspiracy 1976

- Sex-Positive 2024

- Here for Blood 2022

- All Over Again 2024

- The Color Yellow 2023

- Des Töchterleins Leid 2024

- I Am a Channel 2024

- The Hermits 2023

- Murdaritaville 2024

- Inheritance 2024

- The Devil's Partner 1960

- First Impressions Can Kill 2017

- A Killer Conversation 2014

- Star Crash 1979

- Strangler of the Swamp 1946

The Discovery of Heaven
De Ontdekking van de Hemel

Netherlands/UK 2001
produced by
Ate de Jong for Meespierson Film, Mulholland Pictures
directed by Jeroen Krabbé
starring Stephen Fry, Greg Wise, Flora Montgomery, Neil Nowbon, Dimitris Philippou, Jeroen Krabbé, Viv Weatherall, Maureen Lipman, Emma Fielding, Diana Quick, Victoria Carling, Lois de Jong, Geraldine Alexander, Nicholas Palliser, Gillian Barge, John Franklyn-Robbins, Rob van de Meeberg, Nettie Blanken, Sean Harris, Molly Hallam, Inday Ba, Javier Lago, Timothy Bateson, Sheila Sahnd Gibbs, Marjolein Sligte, Clive Merrison, Monique van de Ven, Lars Oostveen (as Lawrence Ray), Philip Bowen, Terence Harvey, Daniel Boissevain, Sarah Winman, Simon Greiff, Ellen Vogel, Harry Landis
screenplay by Edwin de Vries, based on the novel by Harry Mulisch, music by Henny Vrienten

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Quick Links

Abbott & Costello

The Addams Family

Alice in Wonderland

Arsène Lupin

Batman

Bigfoot

Black Emanuelle

Bomba the Jungle Boy

Bowery Boys

Bulldog Drummond

Captain America

Charlie Chan

Cinderella

Deerslayer

Dick Tracy

Dr. Mabuse

Dr. Orloff

Doctor Who

Dracula

Edgar Wallace made in Germany

Elizabeth Bathory

Emmanuelle

Fantomas

Flash Gordon

Frankenstein

Frankie & Annette Beach Party movies

Freddy Krueger

Fu Manchu

Fuzzy

Gamera

Godzilla

Hercules

El Hombre Lobo

Incredible Hulk

Jack the Ripper

James Bond

Jekyll and Hyde

Jerry Cotton

Jungle Jim

Justine

Kekko Kamen

King Kong

Laurel and Hardy

Lemmy Caution

Lobo

Lone Wolf and Cub

Lupin III

Maciste

Marx Brothers

Miss Marple

Mr. Moto

Mister Wong

Mothra

The Munsters

Nick Carter

OSS 117

Phantom of the Opera

Philip Marlowe

Philo Vance

Quatermass

Robin Hood

The Saint

Santa Claus

El Santo

Schoolgirl Report

The Shadow

Sherlock Holmes

Spider-Man

Star Trek

Sukeban Deka

Superman

Tarzan

Three Mesquiteers

Three Musketeers

Three Stooges

Three Supermen

Winnetou

Wizard of Oz

Wolf Man

Wonder Woman

Yojimbo

Zatoichi

Zorro

Available on DVD!

To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned)

Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!


God decides to deny mankind any further support, but in order to achieve that he needs back the original stone tablets containing the 10 Commandments. Thing is though that he can't just send an angel down to earth to fetch them because angels aren't allowed to visit earth, so he has them create a mortal man to do his bidding ...

Onno (Stephen Fry) and Max (Greg Wise) meet rather by chance (controlled by the angels of course) in the late 1960's and become the best of friends right away, living their lives somewhere between the jet set and socialist agitators. They both meet and fall in love with cellist Ada (Flora Montgomery), and while she first prefers Max, she ultimately marries Onno and gets pregnant (though it's not clear from whom). Before giving birth though, she has a car accident and falls into a (permanent) coma. The boy, Quinten, God's chosen one to return the tablets, is saved though, and while he regards Onno as his father, he grows up with Max and Ada's mother (Diana Quick), in a castle where all kinds of weirdos teach Quinten all sorts of different things.

All grown up, Quinten meets his dad (?) Onno again after years of seperation, and the two try to solve some kind of cosmic riddle that eventually leads them to a church in Rome to steal the stone tablets, and to Jerusalem, to the spot from where to deliver the tablets to heaven ... but wouldn't you know it, almost at the end of his journey, Quinten is unwilling to fulfill his mission/destiny, and it's only when the angels threaten to kill Onno that he gives in and sacrifices himself and the tablets for his father. With the tablets back with God ... nothing happens actually.

 

Not at all uninteresting but ultimately overlong dark religious fantasy that at times tries too hard to make its plot work like a clockwork, is a little slow in buildup, and a bit too heterogenous in style: While the first half resembles Francois Truffaut's Jules et Jim too closely to be a coincidence, the second half wanders around rather aimlessly for a while before transforming in a suspense-free wild goose chase that culminates rather abruptly in an unsatisfactory ending. Now you might argue that the film was based on a 900-page novel (which I haven't read I must confess) that was considered unfilmable, and compared to that, director Jeroen Krabbé has done a fine job bringing the book to screen anyways - to which I can only answer, maybe it wasn't such a fine idea to adapt the book as a feature film in the first place. And Krabbé's direction might be competent and even atmospheric at times, but it can hardly be considered inventive or risk-taking.

That all said, despite its narrative shortcomings, Discovery of Heaven is not a bad film as such - and that's mainly due to another great performance by the always dependable Stephen Fry, who beautifully carries the film through all of its highs and lows and makes it enjoyable enough to watch after all.

 

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
(commissions earned)

The links below
will take you
just there!!!

Find The Discovery of Heaven
at the amazons ...

USA  amazon.com

Great Britain (a.k.a. the United Kingdom)  amazon.co.uk

Germany (East AND West)  amazon.de

Looking for imports?
Find The Discovery of Heaven here ...

Thailand  eThaiCD.com
Your shop for all things Thai

Something naughty?
(Must be over 18 to go there!)

x-rated  find The Discovery of Heaven at adultvideouniverse.com


Thanks for watching !!!

 

 

In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!