everything you have heard about this movie is true.

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

A romantic comedy blended with satire and riffing on the afterlife, movies like "Defending Your Life" just don't come along everyday. At least not one that's packaged this well. The material herein isn't a lot different from the rest of Albert Brooks' filmography, but the edges are softer, and it makes for a very likable romance (seriously, Brooks is staging Meryl Streep at maximum radiance here). It's hard to believe something so inoffensive actually has a message, but it's a substantial one. Hell, even a universal one.This doesn't mean that it's all about saying something; not at all. It's just that the tone and the seize-the-day message are working in harmony. You're not being taught anything here, but the whole thing goes down like a shot of whimsy.It's a great movie.8/10

Defending Your Life has a somewhat promising concept: when you die, you have to defend your life in order to see if you "move onward" or have to return to Earth for a do-over. Unfortunately, it misses too many notes in the execution of this concept, and suffers from major problems of tone and balance between the comedy and the serious.The workings of Judgement City, the trial process, and the afterlife as presented here don't make much sense from a logical standpoint (there are so many issues I had with it that I won't even go into them). Maybe we're meant to forgive the problems for comedy's sake, but the humour feels too sparse to do that. Some of it is effective, but many of the sight gags fall flat or just feel cheap. Or maybe the viewer is supposed to dwell on the inconsistencies and what profound meaning they might conceal from us "little-brains" (yet another perpetuation of that silly '10% of our brain' myth). Perhaps that works for others, but I find contemplating the meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything to be dissonant with watching a guy in a white muumuu shuffle around in generic hotels and office complexes while making mildly clever quips and undergoing a sham of a 'trial'.Brooks and Streep have pretty good chemistry, but their romance does feel superficial and a little rushed, and the ending where he overcomes his fears to come chasing after her is too pat.Final summary: Uneven life-after-death film that fails both as a comedy and as an inspirational thought-provoker. 3/10 | D

The basic concept looks like it incorporates various belief systems here and there; Buddhist view of reincarnation, Abrahamaic religions' views of afterlife personal judgment, and the American Dream of a liberal heaven. The movie builds up the main character's funny attitude very well. It's too bad that it doesn't really support the story. It's because the story gets to be so serious and it leaves no room for any practical jokes. I personally think that this movie should also be billed as a romance story, because it can present the afterlife acquaintance and ensuing relationship nicely. The acting is decently okay. Albert Brooks give out enough character to his role and was funny in it. Meryl Streep gives the nice balancing act on the romantic side of the story.

While driving his brandy new BMW, the yuppie Daniel Miller (Albert Brooks) distracts with his CD player and crash a bus. He awakes in the Judgment City, a place in the afterlife where his accomplishment in life will be judge to decide whether he shall move on or return to another life on Earth. With support of the defender Bob Diamond (Rip Torn), Daniel must prove that he has overcame the fears of his previous life but the tough prosecutor Lena Foster (Lee Grant) has evidences showing that Daniel was a coward. Meanwhile Daniel meets the enlightened Julia (Meryl Streep) that has had a perfect life and will certainly move on to the next step of her journey; however they fall in love for each other and Daniel does not want to lose his true love."Defending Your Life" is a delightfully cute and pleasant romance with an original story about the afterlife. This is maybe the best movie of the annoying Albert Brook, and Meryl Streep is adorable as I have never seen before in the role of a woman that had a perfect life on Earth. I saw this film in 1991 and only today I have decided to see it again, and surprisingly the timeless tale has not aged. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Um Visto para o Céu" ("A Visa to the Heaven")