When I was a teenager "Seven Minutes in Heaven" was a game played at parties like Spin the Bottle where a boy and a girl, chosen randomly, would go into a closet and makeout for seven minutes. My interest now in the game is the fact that it was invented in Cincinnati, Ohio where I currently reside. The best example of the game "Seven Minutes In Heaven" in an 80's movie was when Scott and Boof were put in the closet at the party in "Teen Wolf".
Surprisingly, the movie "Seven Minutes In Heaven" had little to do with the game, but it is instead a rather sweet coming of age story for three 15 year old best friends.
Jennifer Connelly, in just her second starring role, plays Natalie Becker.. a mature teenager that is actually quite responsible throughout the movie. She definitely has plans for her future and is already politically active and civic minded.
Natalie's two best friends are Jeff and Polly. Jeff has issues with his step-father and when the movie opens, he runs away from home to stays with Natalie whose single-father is away for a week. Although this causes their whole high-school to talk about them, Jeff and Natalie are just friends. Polly, while boy crazy for everybody else, just sees Jeff as a friend, and is instead always lusting after older boys with typically unsuccessful results. Natalie ends up falling for a popular boy from whom she learns that book smarts don't always help with affairs of the heart. Polly meets and makes out with the infamous Zoo Knudsen a baseball player in his twenties. Jeff eventually confronts his family situation and the fact he has feelings for Polly.
By the end of the movie all three of the main characters have learned something.. I won't give away the ending, but it reminded me of being a teenager.
Everyone that has seen "SKOW" will recognize Maddie Corman who played Polly, but Bryon Thomas who played Jeff might be more of a mystery. And someone mentioned that they thought Alan Boyce should have had more roles in his career might enjoy seeing this movie. But the best little gems in smaller roles are "The Lost Boys" Billy Wirth and a very young looking Lauren Holly.
One of my fav scenes is where Jeff and Polly are in the car in front of Natalie's house and he keeps drive it forward and then reverse in the same little spot.
Oh and I thought it was interesting that even though the movie had little to do with the game "Seven Minutes In Heaven", Natalie was introduced to the vice president as being from Ohio.
Here's the deal.. if you watched this movie as a teenager or are still a teenager at heart.. you will probably enjoy it. But as an adult watching it for the first time, I just don't know..
Finally, on an unrelated note.. has anyone heard about the new movie that J.J. Abrams is developing titled "Seven Minutes In Heaven"? The premise is that these teenagers play the game and put a guy and girl in the closet to makeout. Wait for it.. when the seven minutes are up, they leave the closet and find all of their friends are dead! Actually sounds creepy cool.
[ 31. August 2010, 20:08: Message edited by: Valley ]
Posted by Nick (Member # 404) on :
SOLD! Never seen it, but I Wanna see it now...
PS: Can you expand a little on what you've found out about the original "seven minutes in heaven" game and I'll put it as the featured trivia on the page for the movie..?
[ 01. September 2010, 04:29: Message edited by: Nick ]
Posted by Veronica Sawyer (Member # 2221) on :
I love this because....
-The opening credits look like they were made for an 80's TV sitcom.
-Polly and Natalie aren't interested in Jeff romantically, yet all of the guys they like look just like him.
-Cool retro MTV commercial shown
-Polly's hilarious conversation with Bill the photographer. "Torture???"
-Zoo Knudson. What's not to love about a character named Zoo Knudson???
-Natalie and the school counselor analyzing pictures. This type of scene seems to be in movies a lot.
-Polly...Such an un-likable character but you end up loving her anyway. I have a friend who was a lot like her in H.S., and her name is Holly, hehe.
I love this movie! Would love to see it get a decent DVD/blu-ray release, but I won't hold my breath.
Posted by Valley (Member # 1322) on :
Nick..
Seven Minutes In Heaven is a party game created by teenagers from Cincinnati, Ohio back in the 50's. The way it is played: Names of guests are written on pieces of paper.. the names are separated into two bowls.. one for guys and one for girls.. the party host draws a name from each bowl.. the two guests are then put in a closet together for seven minutes with the hope that they will use that time to makeout.. when the seven minutes end, the host says "Time's up" and opens the closet.. then the two guests from the closet have to truthfully answer questions about what happened in their Seven Minutes In Heaven. The game is repeated until everyone gets a chance to play.
Posted by mamamiasweetpeaches (Member # 1715) on :
The thing that struck me as odd about this movie was that I liked the Maddie Corman charactor and her storyline MUCH more than the Jennifer Connely charactor and storyline, and Maddie was SUPPOSED to be "the second banana'. If this had been a two hour movie about her that woulda kicked ***!
Posted by Veronica Sawyer (Member # 2221) on :
I agree with you mamamia. Whenever I think about this movie, I always remember Polly and her craziness. It's a shame Maddie Corman wasn't in more movies.
Posted by Secret Admirer (Member # 3574) on :
Pretty much agree with everyone here. However, I watched it recently and it is starting to lose a little (just a smidge) of it's charm. I must be getting old and cranky.
quote:Originally posted by Valley: One of my fav scenes is where Jeff and Polly are in the car in front of Natalie's house and he keeps drive it forward and then reverse in the same little spot.
Totally. Posted by aTomiK (Member # 6575) on :
So many of you have seen this one. I don´t think that this was even released here. Gotta keep on searching...
Posted by Ronnie (Member # 465) on :
secret admirer put it best, it's one of those that lost it's charm overtime. i don't have the same feeling about it. i agree about polly, she was whiny and awkward. i always liked the song at the end...when "Dear You" is being played.
aTomik, i just checked youtube and it looks like you can watch it there.
Posted by Valley (Member # 1322) on :
I consider this an issue with not only this movie but several movies that fall in the what I like to call the 80's tween stage. For me these are movies with main characters in that 12 to 15 year old range. Most are all movies that I originally watched when I was closer to that age myself, but over time have lost the charm they once held in my mind. Some other examples would be "Monster Squad", "The Gate", and "Explorers" (well at least the first half of the movie)..
But with that said.. it is almost bizarre how a couple of years can make such a difference in perception.. I can still watch movies like "Valley Girl", "Sixteen Candles", "Can't Buy Me Love" etc .. where the main characters are between 16 to 18 and I still identify with these movies like it was yesterday for me.
Posted by Devolution (Member # 1731) on :
Devolution here,
Nick... it's the closet scene in Teen Wolf.
We are DEVO
Posted by logan5 (Member # 1467) on :
quote:-Zoo Knudson. What's not to love about a character named Zoo Knudson???
^ This ^
quote:The thing that struck me as odd about this movie was that I liked the Maddie Corman charactor and her storyline MUCH more than the Jennifer Connely charactor and storyline, and Maddie was SUPPOSED to be "the second banana'. If this had been a two hour movie about her that woulda kicked ***!
^ This ^
Wait... she was supposed to be a banana? I missed that bit.
quote:Pretty much agree with everyone here. However, I watched it recently and it is starting to lose a little (just a smidge) of it's charm. I must be getting old and cranky.
It was always weak. It was carried by Maddie. Even Jennifer seems to be lackluster in this (not in terms of looks, obviously).
quote:and "Explorers" (well at least the first half of the movie)..
No! NOOOOOOOOO!!! You mean the second half!!!!!!!
Posted by aTomiK (Member # 6575) on :
Just watched Seven Minutes in Heaven and it was a good, sweet movie. Loved the cast!
Billy Wirth was cool as Zoo Knudsen and i´m going to make next week a Billy Wirth week. War Party and Parker Kane first and of course The Lost Boys next weekend.
One scene was weird though: When Natalie was in Washington and Jeff goes back to her house, sure he must´ve had recognized her father´s car in front. Or at least that her father is already sleeping in the bed when he goes in the same bed?! That scene was a bit odd.
Anyway, i´m glad that i finally found this movie. All Jen Connelly fans should own this one.
Here´s the finnish VHS cover art:
Posted by Muffy Tepperman (Member # 1551) on :
I'm in the middle of watching this again........i'd owned it on vhs and remembered not loving it........it's on ondemand right now so i'm giving it another chance.....must have been in one of those moods. Cause it's cute and watchable I really love Maddie Corman in it.......I wonder if Nick ever got to see it??
on another note.....those of you that have Comcast ondemand they added a section called "perferred movies" in the free movies and there are tons of 80s flicks and classic movies....where I found this one.......really cool!!
Posted by Muffy Tepperman (Member # 1551) on :
I watched the end of it.....it was an okay movie......i'd probaly never watch it again.....i've been cleaning and doing laundry and it couldn't keep my attention.
but honestly not bad.......it was cool how it very 80s and about teens.
Posted by The Pyromantic (Member # 7658) on :
never seen this...but giving it a go now since it was brought to attention it's on demand.
Posted by Ronnie (Member # 465) on :
quote:Originally posted by Valley: Finally, on an unrelated note.. has anyone heard about the new movie that J.J. Abrams is developing titled "Seven Minutes In Heaven"? The premise is that these teenagers play the game and put a guy and girl in the closet to makeout. Wait for it.. when the seven minutes are up, they leave the closet and find all of their friends are dead! Actually sounds creepy cool.
valley, is this a scene from the new movie, Super 8? or am i wrong? haha i am excited to see that one, ya know.
Posted by Valley (Member # 1322) on :
Ronnie.. "Super 8" looks fantastic.. kind of like The Goonies but way more serious.
Posted by Veronica Sawyer (Member # 2221) on :
I watched this last weekend on OnDemand. Hadn't seen it in a loooong time...Was pretty much how I remembered it, but noticed this time that it has a really melancholy feel to it? The stuff with Jeff and his parents was pretty sad and wow, Maddie Corman was really not a good friend to Natalie at all (I think she even called her a sow at one point)...It's no Last American Virgin or anything, but it's definitely not the most feel good teen movie of the 80's....
Posted by The Pyromantic (Member # 7658) on :
ok...this movie didn't impress me too much. It had it's moments, but overall nothing really memorable that would make me want to watch again.
Posted by the young warrior (Member # 9554) on :
Just finished watching seven minutes in heaven for the first time and overall I thought it was a pretty enjoyable little teen movie especially considering how obscure this title was when originally released here in the u.k,it was released to home video by warner's and in my lifetime of going in out of numerous video shops and to boot fairs and what not I don't think I've ever come across a copy.
I had to watch it on YouTube but I know it's available on DVD from the warner archive collection http://www.amazon.co.uk/Seven-Minutes-Heaven-Region-Import/dp/B003JNIB74 on one of those made to order dvd-r's,I have the legend of Billie jean on one and even though many of these titles haven't been remastered by there studio they are still normally of excellent quality and in there correct wide screen ratio.
Seven minutes in heaven though nothing amazing was still an enjoyable enough watch and the fact it stars the beautiful Jennifer connelly must at least earn it a 7/10.
[ 29. March 2013, 07:44: Message edited by: the young warrior ]
Posted by aTomiK (Member # 6575) on :
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