Entertaining is the word! (Final Destination 2 (DVD))

Member Name: GR-Design

Product:	Final Destination 2 (DVD)
Date:	25/02/03 (123 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: very entertaining, great death scenes, includes comedic moments

Disadvantages: none

Final Destination 2 is a film you should go see.

Review summed up in no less than 9 words (2 aint a word right!?). But I can't just leave you with that can I, it would against the rules!

Firstly, this is not a film that's going to win any awards for the best acting, best performance, best romantic novel (eh!?) etc etc, this is a film that does what it does, and does it well. I'm talking about entertainment, you don't go to see this film expecting an epic, you'll be sorely disappointed if you do, but if you go to see this film ready to sit there for a couple of hours and be entertained, then your half way there to enjoying this movie for all it's worth.

The Director, David R Ellis has always been into making entertaining films, rather than intellectual masterpieces, with examples of The Addams Family, Days of Thunder, Patriot Games, Lethal Weapon etc in his quite comprehensive list of films that he has directed in the past. I know that the film is a pretty low budget one, but can't actually find anything anywhere mentioning the budget. Final Destination had a budget of $23m, and Final Destination 2 is said to have a little more than that, so base your ideas on that!

For those of you who haven't seen the first film, the basic premise is that if someone cheats death, be it being in the wrong place at the wrong (I'd say right!) time, or that person choosing to do something different than follow their 'life path' to death, then they have cheated death. Death will come after them, and it will kill them, and everyone who was involved in that one persons decision that may have also died at the same time if it wasn't for that person choosing to do something different. Death will not only come after you, but it will get you in a better way, a more gruesome violent way, just to get it's own back. Sounds nice doesn't it! This is what the Final Destination films work on.

The
plot in Final Destination 2 is basically the same as the first, though different if you get my meaning. In Final Destination 2, the characters are not a group of friends, this time they are a small group of friends and the general public, which does bring a different atmosphere to the film and gives it another direction.

When Kimberley Corman (A.J Cook, very nice looking girl!!) has a premonition of a very nasty truck crash that kills her and her friends in the car that they are in, she decides to stop everyone on the slip road to the carriageway so that no one can get onto the carriageway. Everyone thinks she has gone skitso, especially the officer who pulls up besides them to ask what the problem is. The premonition that Kimberley had was so vivid that she is sure that something is going to happen, and is even more sure and hysterical when a school bus goes past, the one that she saw in her premonition. Then, a truck comes hurtling past, the exact truck that she saw in her premonition. In her hysterical condition she keeps trying to tell the officer of the crash that's about to happen that's going to kill a lot of innocent people, no more than 5 seconds later and theres a huge crash...only problem being, the truck has taken the car with her friends in it with them, she cheated death and the cop had pulled her out the way...

From here were given the story of death chasing after the unknowing victims. Kimberely tries to tell them, she tries to make sense of it all and relates to the 180 airplane crash, which the survivors (Final Destination 1) were one by one killed in horrific accidents and mysterious deaths. All of those that were held up in Kimberley's road block are bought to the station, but no one believes her theory and they all go their own way, that is until the first of those in the roadblock get's killed in an horrific accident, then people start taking notice...and now it's time to run from death!

Final Des
tination 2 has a clever idea behind the film and it's made to thrill the audience with it's special effects and horrific deaths, of which is does amazingly well. As for the actual film, well I can only give it 4 stars, basically because of the obvious opening for Final Destination 3 at the end of the film!

The special effects really are stunning. From the incredible truck crash at the beginning of the film, which puts the latest bond movie to shame to the horrific (great) death of a boy crushed by a huge falling piece of glass, the special effects last throughout the film, and for those who like these kind of effects, they won't be disappointed from the start of the film right through to the end. The special effects are just made for the cinematic experience, the kind of experience you can only get in the cinema, no matter what kind of setup you have in your living room. And for those who are going to be watching this film on their 14" TV's, it will let the film down quite a bit, making it a lot less enjoyable in my opinion.

The way the film was made, i.e. the use of the general public and people who don't know each other gave the film that extra mile it needed. They haven't made Final Destination 1 all over again, instead, they have gave the film a whole new outlook, a new plot, which revolves around these people who just happened to be caught up in Kimberley's road block. The makers have also bought in an intriguing new plotline, being the reasoning behind the death catching up with you and way's to overcome it, as stupid as it may be and this fills up the second half of the film, providing for a lull about an hour into the film, but it still manages to hold your attention.

The deaths are as stunning as they can be being deaths, and this is one thing that was true in the first film. You can always expect a spectacular depart for that actor in the film. There were a few 'oooo's' and '
owwww's' in the audience in the packed cinema whenever the death took place, and you know if you have watched the first that you are
going to be entertained which more spectacular and gruesome ways for the characters to depart the world. I always thought air bags were supposed to save your life's strange!

There are no holes in the story telling, everything is laid right before you and acted out for you to make it just that tiny bit easier to get to know what's going on. Half the time you know what's coming anyway because of Kimberley's premonitions, something which the first film didn't have. You don't need to have a brain to watch this film at all, and it's not that kind of film. I've always put films into 2 main categories. Those that are meant to entertain you (Bond films, Charlie's Angels, Spiderman etc ect) and those that make you use your mind and confuse you until your just about ready to fall off your chair (Matrix, Mullholland Dr., Fight Club etc). This film falls right into the entertainment category and sticks that way right the way through, which is a good thing. Everyone needs a film they can sit back and relax too and this is certainly one of those true 'popcorn' movies and you'll undoubtedly get the group of giggly 14 year olds talking right throughout, it's just one of those movies which gives you the good 'cinema fun' feeling.

All in all, it's a film that's going to make you feel good, might even make you look out for certain things when your on your way home, but all in all, it's going to entertain you from start to finish. Don't expect miracles from the film, just expect a good time. 4 stars out of five from me, oh, and it's almost a certainty on the ending that theres going to be a 3rd instalment of the Final Destination series, and it's only welcomed from me!

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