Hey folks, Harry here... drunk from drinking way too many White Russians with the Dude at a special Alamo Drafthouse sponsored Rolling Roadshow screening of THE BIG LEBOWSKI at Showplace Lanes Bowling Alley, where a few hundred folks went from under the stars watching Tim's brilliant new screen, to inside wearing other people's shoes and bowling and drinking free White Russians. In short - Paradise. So as I'm drunk now, I can't really judge what follows with any sort of cognizent (that's a word right?) abilities, but I dedouche that the following two reviews are quite positive about FINAL DESTINATION 2, the sequel we have all been dying in anticipation for. So without further ado, here ya go...
BEWARE OF SPOILERS - BIG ONES - LITTLE ONES - ALL SORTS OF EM...
Hey Harry, Mori, and the rest of AICN,
Tonight, I had a chance to see an advance screening of “Final Destination 2” at The Bridge here in L.A.. I saw the first film when it came out a couple of years ago and remembered liking it a little more than what I had expected, but also not thinking too much of it. Since it was one of those screenings where you don’t know what the movie will be until five minutes before it starts, I was somewhat disappointed when they announced what it was. All I knew was that it was a thriller, so I was secretly thinking it might be “Red Dragon”…I was wrong. I couldn’t recall much of the first “Final Destination” and was trying to remember it before the film began. But as the lights dimmed, I figured I would just take this sequel for what it’s worth. Here’s what I thought:
FINAL DESTINATION 2
The opening to this film totally sets the tone for the rest of the flick. It begins with our main character Kimberly Corman, played by A.J. Cook, leaving on a Spring Break road trip with a girlfriend and two other male friends. When they enter onto the highway, she immediately starts to recognizing strange “signs” along the way. “Highway to Hell” playing on the radio, a bus full of rowdy high school football players yelling “Pile up! Pile up”, a kid in a passing car who is smashing his two toy trucks together. She doesn’t know what to make out of all of this, and so she keeps driving. During this sequence, we are also introduced to our group of soon-to-be unlucky characters in the movie who are all driving in separate vehicles. The way that this scene builds in tension is very well done. We all know something is going to happen, but just don’t know what. The low-angle shots of speeding Semi-Trucks, a motorcycle, a logging truck, a cop car and some other vehicles somehow reminded me of those great sequences in the Mad Max films. They all speed down this rain slicked highway headed towards one of the most exciting and gory (YES, GORY) pile ups I have seen in recent memory. It’s one of those sequences where you hear the entire audience collectively howl with shocking disbelief . The kind of “oohs” and “ahhs” you hear from a crowd when a baseball player gets beamed by a fastball. One after the other, each crash more violent than the next. When it was all over, revealing to be Kimberly’s premonitions, the audience actually cheered for this delightfully gory pile up. It was quite impressive.
From there the film pretty much follows the same formula as the first. One by one the characters, who cheated death and were spared their horrible highway fate by the premonition, bites the dust. Except there is a slight twist from the first. They are dying in the opposite order than they are supposed to. These survivors also recognize the similarity to the Flight 180 experience from the first movie, and Kimbery seeks out the only survivor from that group to help her.
The film does a great job (if not better that the first) of creating suspenseful scenarios for killing off each character. From what I can remember from the first flick, those death scenes almost felt too random and almost supernatural, as if Death was actually hunting each of his victims down. In the sequel, the death scenes for the most part are less forced if you will, without losing it’s gripping, yet almost humorous “chain of events” style of killing the characters. It builds situations where you think it might go one way only to go another way. And just when you think someone is safe….BAM! They get fire escape ladder through the skull! And like I said, this movie is gory as hell. The kind of death scenes that you might find in the old “Faces of Death” videos. At least that’s the version we saw. I couldn’t help think during some of these scenes that this edit won’t make it pass the MPAA board. I almost feel privileged that I had a chance to see this version before all the cuts are made (not that the film will be cut, but I can only imagine). From the kid who gets crushed by a falling slab of glass, to the poor sap who is sliced to pieces by a flying barbed wire fence, you blood and guts freaks will not be disappointed. And yet, the film still kept it’s sense of humor, most of it from those moments where the audience can’t help but nervously chuckle because they know what’s coming, or at least think they do.
Overall, I’m going to say that I liked the film. From the audience’s reaction, as well as the reaction from the test group I was in, people were pretty pleased with the film. Most of the test group rated it “GOOD”, while the others were split between “VERY GOOD” and “EXCELLENT”. No one in the test group rated the movie “POOR”. What I was most surprised about was that no one was too turned off by all of the gory scenes. In fact, it seemed like some of them, myself included, found the film’s lack of taste in some of the scenes somewhat refreshing! I was glad that the filmmakers didn’t try to spare our sensitive little eyes from all that terrible violence. However, I’m sure the MPAA won’t feel the same way. We shall see.
MacGuffin
Here's a positive look from R-Man....
Harry,
Hey there. I went to a blind test screening in LA. The movie was Final Destination 2. You'll probably get some other reviews for this but I hope you censor them if they place any spoilers. I'll do my best to keep this short and spoiler free.
Ok, overall, I enjoyed it! When they told us what the movie would be I was disappointed, hoping it would be Dreamcatchers, but that soon changed and I found myself having a good time. Now there will be people out there who didn't like it or will point out some of the many silly things, corny things and things that didn't really make sense. It's not directed by Morgan and Wong, and lacks the style of the first one. Now I can talk all about that, however when all is said and done,I have to answer the question: Did you have fun? And the answer is yes. And from the sound of the audience they did too.
This movie gives you a lot of what the first movie offered, great deaths and great suspense leading up to those deaths. It starts off with some chick saving her friends from a massive car accident. And just like with the first one, she and a number of people who survived the car accident find themselves stalked by death and have to figure out a way to see the signs warning them of harm. Along the way they get some help with someone from the first movie and of course give Tony Todd a visit allowing him to ham it up as the creepy/whacky undertaker. He gives them some advice and the group now tries to find someway to stop death's plan.
That's the meat of the story. And a lot of the fun comes from watching the different characters die. I hope they keep this rated R, because they had some great death scenes that really made everyone scream and groan. It's pretty brutal and I thought it worked well. My main problem is with how they decide to beat death. The solution really didn't make sense and was weak. That alone will give some others enough to crap on the movie but I had a good enough time with everything else that I can shrug my shoulders and let it slide. Is that wrong, maybe, but overall, I enjoyed it.
My only other problem with the movie was with it's ending. The crowd loved it and applauded, but I thought it was a bit too much and to grisly. But who am I to go against the mob??
This movie is product - good entertainment. And if you enjoyed the first one I think you'll have a good time with this one too.
R-Man