STARRING
Bobby Campo, Krista Allen, Mykelti Williamson, Shantel VanSanten, Haley Webb, Nick Zano DIRECTED BY
David R. Ellis SCREENPLAY
Eric Bress MPAA RATING
Rated R RUNNING TIME
82 Mins. DISTRIBUTED BY
New Line
"The Final Destination" Review
It should not surprise you that I don't care for "The Final Destination," the fourth in the "Final Destination" films but not all that different from the first three other than the novelty of being presented in 3-D, where available.
While the film's 3-D aspect will be enough to garner it decent box-office on opening weekend, it's doubtful that "The Final Destination" will have much going for it beyond a decent opening that will ensure it's profitability and, sadly, likely ensure yet another in one of horrordom's lamest cinematic series'.
In case you're unaware, the idea behind "The Final Destination' is that a young man (Bobby Campo) has a premonition about a pending tragedy but manages to get himself, his friends and a few others to safety and out of harm's way. Of course, the Grim Reaper isn't so easily waylaid and before long the friends are being offed one-by-one in rather gruesome ways.
Directed by David R. Ellis, who managed to the guaranteed hit "Snakes on a Plan" into a non-hit, "The Final Destination" is a predictable and bland flick with unimaginative CGI effects and one-note characters penned by Eric Bress in a paint-by-numbers fashion that grows laughably old rather quickly.
While there are certainly folks who considered the first "Final Destination" film fresh and original, this is a series that has never felt like more than a gimmick to me and it has never been more obvious than in "The Final Destination," where the only novelty is in the special effects and the special effects contribute almost nothing to the overall impact of the film.
The simple fact is that there's nothing special about "The Final Destination," a film that features run-of-the-mill performances, a dreadful script, average CGI, weak direction and not nearly enough horror for a horror film. While the 3-D aspect is certainly a novelty and infinitely better than the 2-D version of the film, it's not nearly enough to justify needing to see this film on the big screen.
If only it were true and this really were the FINAL destination.
