Final Destination 2

You know that feeling you get when you're watching America's Funniest Home Videos and the oblivious son hits his hapless father in the crotch with an aluminum bat? It gets a quick reaction, like, ooh, I feel your pain man. FINAL DESTINATION 2 is a 90 minute or so string of those painful shots, as each character one by one meets an unfortunate death by household appliance. Bodies are slammed by trucks, heads are impaled, and limbs fly through the air. When one of the characters dies when her car's airbag explodes out of nowhere, I blurted "Yeah! Wow, did they do that??? Yeah, they DID do that. Right on!" Although the film has a very serious atmosphere about it, what with the creepy score and people sincerely freaking out and everything, it still retains a campy humor about it buried beneath its high-budget exterior. Many movies would shy away from smashing up plastic ketchup-filled dummies, opting instead to avoid the gore. Not FINAL DESTINATION 2! This movie is an honest approach to movie-making, hearkening back to the day when you got together with friends and said, "Okay, in this scene we cut to the dummy falling off the building, it's run over by a Mack truck, and it splatters chunks of blood all over that Oldsmobile over there." As for the premise behind FINAL DESTINATION 2, how do I put it into words? A.J. Cook has premonitions that people died in a nasty pileup on the highway. Thing is, this never happened. And ... she continues to have premonitions that those same people will die in due time. Those people eventually die. Did I get that right? The universal law of nature is that, well, Death sometimes misses its mark and has to fix its mistakes (which usually involves electrical equipment getting wet and other freak accidents of home improvement). If this all sounds convoluted, watch the movie. You'll see what I mean. The premise of FINAL DESTINATION 2, as much potential as it might have, doesn't make much sense and is pretty hokey, but if you medicate your inquisitive mind with heavy sedatives, you'll be able to look past the flimsy premise and enjoy the movie. I'm definitely looking forward to a Final Destination 3.

This was almost like a flashback to a few weeks ago when the exact same thing happened for real on Interstate 4. It wasn't a log truck, but fog and a controlled burn that caused an 80-car pileup and much burning of trucks and bodies. I could not help but think of that when I saw the incredible accident scene in this film. It could have been used as news footage.

This is probably only the second film in which I have seen A.J. Cook (JJ from "Criminal Minds") and Ali Larter ("Heroes"), but they did a credible job in a film where the story was far more important than the individual characters, none of whom rose to any significance. In fact. most were probably former WB stars. The only one I remember with any interest was Odessa Munroe.

But the story and the special effects and the gore and, certainly, the suspense, made this film worth watching and peaked my interest in the prequel and the sequel, although not having seen the first one does not take anything away from this one.

Check it out.

This film is probably best in a series...which isn't saying too much...but it's a lot of mindless fun and some truly clever connections to the original. Lots of funny little asides and puns.

Also, I am ALWAYS nervous when I pass a truck carrying logs or poles, or anything like that...just nope...get it as far in the rear view as possible!

Final Destination 2 is creepy, enjoyable and importantly, better than the original. This movie had the iconic wood log truck scene and the way deaths happened, you may get frightened and think what if this happens in reality.

The direction and acting was better than the original. Like original, you will be busy enjoying the thrill and drama and will give you mixed feeling of horror, drama and thrill.

Overall, will recommend everyone to give it a try.

I was apprehensive when I didn't Devon Sawa in the credits or this movie, but then again, this film didn't really need him. This wasn't a sequel in the purest sense, but the film makers created methods to link all of the new characters to the old ones, creating a flow which wasn't too jarring. Unfortunately, the dialogue was the only real stinker in this film. The pretentiousness, the obviousness and the downright hokiness that came out of the mouths of the characters really detracted from the tension, turning their performances into a bunch of acting class rejects. But I digress. The only thing people are looking for is how Death will get the new set of escape artists. The sheer surprise and execution of the executions made me jump and crawl. In such a desensitized world we live in, being able to jump out of my seat means this film is a winner.