clark-39

Final Destination didn't need a sequel in the first place, but I guess all those gore-hungry teens and their wallets were too much to pass by. If you've seen Final Destination then you've seen part two already, they are exactly the same. Kimberly is on a road trip with her friends, foresees their deaths and many others' in a huge traffic accident, wakes from the premonition, saves several people from getting on the freeway, the survivors start to die...wow, how original, add in a plane and you've got the first movie again! Magic! The script is Final Destination with new characters and new deaths. The dialogue is very corny, I felt embarrassed to be watching a movie where every character goes "What are you talking about?" or "What's going on?" every other minute, as if that line hasn't been used in horror movies over and over to the point it's a cliche in itself. Plus, it just adds to the bad acting. The girl playing Kimberly is serviceable and of course Ali Larter is fine, but the other "actors" must have done this between their commercial shoots. It's bad. The body count is the only thing the movie is concerned with, and that's no surprise. Everything just leads up to another deathtrap in which someone dies in a horribly gory way. If you don't like blood, stay away. Really there's nothing much to look forward to except to see who's going to bite it and how. There's some bogus subplot about how only new life can defeat death, but it's very cheesy and uninteresting, just like the movie. The opening car pileup is neatly choreographed but brought down by the bad acting and amateur music, which should have been more impactful. Ali Larter should have stayed away just like Devon Sawa and made a real movie where she gets better lines and a chance to show she has talent. Her lines are bad, just like everyone elses'. The movie takes itself way too seriously at parts that it's embarrassing how corny it all is.

The first film was no masterpiece, but it was a serviceable thriller with a fine cast. There is no one in this sequel with a bit of acting talent observed from the first cast. I'm sure this movie will be an embarrassment to Kerr Smith, Devon Sawa, and surely Ali Larter since all it does is give the first one a bad name. Yep, they've turned Final Destination into a franchise. This one is not even half as good as the first and the direction, music, and acting minus Larter is rock bottom. If you like gore and no more, treat yourself. Otherwise, the creepiness and deft craft of the first film is absent and cheesiness takes over. Stay away if you can help it, death should have taken this film.

In Final Destination the characters are all out to keep Death itself from finishing them off since they are supposed to have died anyways in a plane crash. Eerie premonitions, a plot that holds much potential, and a great atmosphere...all gone down the drain with the teen horror garbage. Instead of highly executed characters and a little more fleshing out, the film wastes everything to feed this thing to the gore-hungry teen audience. The issues of death and all its aftershocks could have been buttered up into a better movie overall if the studio had not cast a teen audience and set it among a high school crowd. For the benefit of the doubt there is one cardboard adult character who doesn't make it very long. The opening is flavored with enough eerie fingerfood to make you think you're in for a treat. But as soon as the plane goes kaboom, so does the film. After that, we look forward to whiny teens running around while Death hunts them down in more and more ridiculous ways. Take away the dressy plot and it boils down to nothing more than another slasher. We wait on end while the cast drops one by one. Actually, the death scenes are not the problem, it's the way they are set up and what's in between all the messiness. The characters who don't make it all die fascinating deaths. I use fascinating in the sense that a simple turn of events, the smallest detail, sets off a chain reaction that leads to a very bizarre ending for the unlucky survivors. Death never looked so stylish. Hell, these deaths are downright classy and sleek. Death in this film is like the shiny silver on the blade of a knife. But for all the eye-candy, the holes need to be covered up better. For one thing, why does the main character Alex have a premonition in the first place? Just so Death can play cat-and-mouse? And what's with the stock characters? It's really sad because beneath it's teen horror goofiness are the blueprints for a fine film. All they had to do was scrape off all the bubble gum. The film reaches heights when it deals with the survivors reactions to all the stuff happening to them, and their view on Death. The film touches on loneliness, fear, and rejection. A character study begun and not finished. In the end, it is all swept away for the Clearasil crowd.

HOW is this on the top 250 films list??? Sitting through this thing was just awful, it was worse than physical pain! The...most...boring...movie...ever...made! Trust me, I have seen my share of hokey, boring films, but if this film went any slower I swear you'd see the frames. The fact that this is liked by so many people is a travesty. I only rented it (thanks a lot, guys) and I feel like I blew my money, and it was only $3.00. WHAT was this film trying to do!? How could this even have been made?! I'm surprised anyone was left in the theater when the credits began to roll. I'm serious, anyone who has not seen this, avoid it like a serial killer. A guy is hired to follow his friend's wife around because she is possessed and possibly suicidal. They manage to fall in love in an unbelieveable and cheesy way. Then she goes and dies and he meets a woman who reminds him so much of her that he even begins to dress her like his lost love. Oh yeah, and this is spread out over like 2 hours. It feels like 5. I was bored to death while the cheesy soap opera music soared when he kissed her in their stupid love affair. The ending is very dumb, I was hoping for some gratification after having sat through the most God awful dull film ever, but no. It ends badly and that's it. Blah. How anyone could enjoy such an uninteresting film is beyond me. We see movies to be entertained. This is not anything near entertainment. It provides nothing to the viewer except a slow, deathly drag scene after scene. Entertainment at it's worst. The most unenjoyable film ever. In the end, just another seriously overrated film that anyone normal would fall asleep watching and laugh at later.