FINAL DESTINATION 2 -------------------
In "Final Destination," a high school teenager had a premonition that caused him to panic and disembark a plane full of fellow students with a few he managed to spook. Flight 180 exploded shortly after takeoff, but a vengeful, cheated death called upon all but one survivor. One year later to the day, Kimberly Corman (A.J. Cook, "The Virgin Suicides") has a vision of a horrific pileup while driving to Daytona with three friends in "Final Destination 2."
"Final Destination" was a cut above the standard teen horror flick, leading the pack of current films which examine luck and fate's relationships with death ("Unbreakable," "Intacto"), its premise obscuring its slasher film agenda of innovative death scenes. "Final Destination 2" follows the horror film sequel standard of going the tongue in cheek route and does so with aplomb - this film is a hoot.
Director David R. Ellis ("Homeward Bound II") quickly fills in his audience on the first film by opening with his heroine watching a talk show noting the anniversary of Flight 180 and its weird aftermath. Then he cuts to the chase.
Kim's dad is anxious about his daughter's trip and he notes a foreboding red puddle in the driveway as she pulls away. Ellis builds tension piling one bad sign on top of another, all noted by Kim, until the inevitable occurs setting off a disastrous chain reaction on a busy highway. But wait! This was a premonition! Kim blocks traffic on an entrance ramp and the angry drivers behind her form the sequel's surviving meat.
The filmmaking team behind this surprisingly entertaining sequel fire on all cylinders until losing steam for the movie's drab finale. While humor is abundant, it doesn't detract from the genuine sense of foreboding that intros every set piece. The Rube Goldbergesque death scenes are inventive, each beginning with a magician's sleight of hand that draws our attention to an obvious danger before delivering another that's been there all along. Kudos to cinematographer Gary Capo and editor Eric A. Sears ("On the Line") for their contributions.
The screenplay uses the stodgy device of consulting a survivor from the original who is now ensconced in the looney bin (see "The Rage: Carrie 2," etc.) with winking self awareness. Clear Rivers (Ali Larter, "American Outlaws") is in a self-admitted padded cell to protect herself from harm, but is shamed into helping the highway hysterics by Kim. After some mumbo-jumbo about death working backwards, the 'ripple effect,' and a totally gratuitous visit to mortician William 'Bill' Bludworth (Tony Todd, "Final Destination") the group concludes that the birth of a survivor's baby will stop the reaper's reign.
The cast is unexceptional, all stereotypes well utilized by the story's demands. Officer Thomas Burke (Michael Landes, "Hart's War") is the first to believe in Kim and provide a potential love interest. Eugene Dix (Terrence 'T.C.' Carson, "U-571") is the naysayer, Kat (Keegan Connor Tracy, "40 Days and 40 Nights") the career chick who chain smokes, Rory (Jonathan Cherry, "They") the endearingly klutzy stoner. Nora (Lynda Boyd, "I Spy") and Tim Carpenter (James N. Kirk, TV's "Taken") are fretful mother and son. Evan (David Paetkau, "Snow Day") is the unluckiest of lottery winners.
"Final Destination 2" may not be best of genre, but in one five-minute dentist visit it offers more outrageous thrills than the Tooth Fairy did in all of "Darkness Falls." Where else have you seen a death scene that involved a leaking aquarium, a crane, pigeons, a mobile, a sheet of glass and nitrous oxide?
B-
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