Final Destination: 4 - "It's A Trap"
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I seen this today. I thought it was okay, some cool stuff, but one of the main reasons I really went was the 3d and i was a fan of the series.
StarkTheProdigy
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I saw this today, and this makes it on my list of Worst Movies of 2009.
I liked the 1st and 3rd final destination, and the whole series is nothing to be taken seriously about, its a movie where you just watch and don't think. I'll be honest, i was one of the few that were pumped for this movie, plus it was in 3D. I'll also say that this is the first 3D movie that i have seen in a theatre. After walking out of the movie, i couldn't think of one good thing about this movie. Lets start with the acting. It sucked...end of story. The script. It made the movie so cheesey that i felt like i was watching a movie from the late 90s. The cgi. Every thing looked fake,idk if it was because it was in 3D or if it just really sucked. It just felt like the makers of this movie took every easy way out, like the last scene, pure laziness, you'll know what i am talking about if you've seen it. Don't waste your money and time with this movie, and i'll be honest, that's something i rarely say.
1/10
I liked the 1st and 3rd final destination, and the whole series is nothing to be taken seriously about, its a movie where you just watch and don't think. I'll be honest, i was one of the few that were pumped for this movie, plus it was in 3D. I'll also say that this is the first 3D movie that i have seen in a theatre. After walking out of the movie, i couldn't think of one good thing about this movie. Lets start with the acting. It sucked...end of story. The script. It made the movie so cheesey that i felt like i was watching a movie from the late 90s. The cgi. Every thing looked fake,idk if it was because it was in 3D or if it just really sucked. It just felt like the makers of this movie took every easy way out, like the last scene, pure laziness, you'll know what i am talking about if you've seen it. Don't waste your money and time with this movie, and i'll be honest, that's something i rarely say.
1/10
Episode29
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My review:
Despite being depicted as a doggedly pitiless and unstoppable elemental force, capable of dragging even the most wide-eyed and innocent of souls screaming to their horrifying and unavoidable final ends, Death sure does seem to possess a wicked sense of humour in the Final Destination series. While Jason may stab, Jaws may devour and Leatherface may chainsaw, Death seems forever fixated on crafting an endless series of the most creatively Rube Goldberg-ian fatalities possible. I suppose that, being immortal and all, Death must have an infinite amount of time to sit around, surrounded by pencils, calculators and graph paper, to figure out how a routine trip to the carwash can lead, courtesy of a broken antenna, faulty moon-roof and shorted-out electrical box, to a shrieking young girl facing certain decapitation (or at least brutal, flesh-pulverizing scoring.). Boredom will do that to you, it would seem. Now, are these efforts somewhat pointless? Pretty much. A tad too cruel? Certainly. Kind of amusing? Well, yeah.
Unfortunately, though, Death’s cartoonish machinations are the only thing keeping the fourth film in the franchise, stupidly titled The Final Destination (Does the “The” mean that we have finally reached the definitive final destination?), afloat amidst a sea of indifference and lethargy. Whereas the better series’ entries tapped into a certain interesting, if superficial, universal fear regarding the nature of mortality, and man’s anxieties regarding the uncertainty of what lies beyond the Pearly Gates, this latest entry feels more like a contemptuous pre-packaged compilation of kills than an actual film. Blame it on a non-existent script, which even stoops so low as to utilize a lengthy Next-style dream sequence to pad out its 81-minute run-time (Including credits, kids!) and gore-factor, or the obvious boredom of returning director David R. Ellis – who helmed the superior second entry – but even the added 3-D gimmickry can’t make this Destination feel any less mundane or familiar.
As we’ve already seen the splatter-tastic horrors associated with exploding airliners, fender mutilating traffic accidents and, um, broken-down roller-coasters (They were already running out of ideas with that one), The Final Destination introduces us to the grisly joys of a NASCAR rally race gone awry. Crushings: Check. Impalements: Check. Beheadings: Check. Mopey but fresh-faced protagonist (Bobby Campo) preternaturally envisioning the gruesome event before it actually occurs and then dragging his friends, including a few cute girls (Shantel VanSantern, Haley Webb) and one *****ey jock-type (Nick Zano – a poor man’s Travis Van Winkle), plus a few one-note bystanders (Mykelti Williamson, Krista Allen, Andrew Fiscella), away from the impending danger *breath* before all havoc breaks out, thus throwing Death’s fateful plan out of whack and dooming the survivors to even uglier alternative demises: Check. A fresh approach to this timeworn premise: Well, four outta five ain’t bad!
Although sparkling characterizations and transcendent dialogue shouldn’t be expected, nor deemed necessary, to sell this type of material, but it’s often confounding how badly The Final Destination falls on its face every time it calls on its actors to actually, you know, talk and express feelings and stuff. They sit around tables and living rooms spewing creaky exposition and having the exact same quarrels and freak-outs that the protagonists of the previous flicks had. You could literally erase the audio from the film and dub in dialogue from Final Destination 2 or 3 and it wouldn’t make a lick of a difference. Even more damaging is that this entry boasts the blandest cast yet, with star Campo blankly and droning on about premonitions, while the while the supporting players, appearing like deer caught amidst of blinding mass of headlights, weakly sob, squeal and vent. The only actor actually capable of delivering of any level of effective pathos, Mykelti Williamson, seems brought over from another film, staring gloomily out at the world through wounded eyes and tearfully reminiscing over his painful past. He also must endure the film’s ugliest scene, where a redneck creep calls him the N-word and attempts to light a burning cross on his front lawn. Now, look guys, I’m all for edginess in my horror flicks, but this addition felt mean-spirited and cheap. Frankly, screenwriter Eric Bress should be ashamed of himself for tossing it in there when an ounce of subtlety would have sufficed (Yes, I recognize the irony in demanding subtlety from a film that features a man being sliced, Julien style, into squishy pieces by a chain-link fence. Humour me.). And where in the name of Sawa is series regular Tony Todd? You know you’re running a dubious production when even Todd, star of the impending Hatchet 2 and Murder for Dummies, won’t sign on the dotted line.
Now, I’m sure that the past 700 words have mostly read like “blah blah decapitation blah blah cute girls blah” to you Final Destination fanatics (Do you guys have a catchy acronym or moniker yet?) and you just want to know how cool the assorted collection of death scenes are. Well, there are a few corkers, such as a nasty variation on the ol’ pool-filter-sucking-out-your-insides urban myth, a squishy trip through an escalator belt along with a number of icky-drippy moments during the opening NASCAR car-tastrophe. But unlike the first two instalments, there’s no sense of tension or dread attached to the CG ghastliness, as it seems Death has read the script and, like us in the audience, knows exactly how the pecking order works and whose jig is up next. A little unpredictability would go a long way, especially since the Real Doll© cast dilutes any feeling of increasing stakes. They, like the filmmakers, are just running through the motions in order to help the enterprise draw in some easy teen summer-movie-going cash. I should probably also add that this is the second film in as many weeks to feature an exploding movie theatre. However, while Tarantino, in Inglourious Basterds, fashioned a nightmarish inferno of cackling damnation, The Final Destination creates... an exploding movie theatre. Like everything else in the flick, it all just feels too little, and far, far too late.
If this franchise is truly determined to continue (and I’m not crossing my fingers for it to do so), significant reinvention is going to be needed to keep drawing the required bloodthirsty packs of dedicated fans necessary to warrant further entries. As a horror film, The Final Destination is toothless, as a 3-D gore-a-thon it’s underwhelming and as a work of suspense it is just plain laughable. The Grim Reaper deserves better and maybe next time, God willing, instead of being forced to dutifully prop up another tired retread, it’d be better for all involved if Death just takes a damn holiday.
2 out of 5
P.S. The Final Destination has quite possibly the worst recreation of a movie-going audience in the history of cinema. It's akin to the Friends episode where the gang goes to the Hootie And The Blowfish concert. Have any of the people behind these productions ever attended a large-scale entertainment event with the paying public?
Despite being depicted as a doggedly pitiless and unstoppable elemental force, capable of dragging even the most wide-eyed and innocent of souls screaming to their horrifying and unavoidable final ends, Death sure does seem to possess a wicked sense of humour in the Final Destination series. While Jason may stab, Jaws may devour and Leatherface may chainsaw, Death seems forever fixated on crafting an endless series of the most creatively Rube Goldberg-ian fatalities possible. I suppose that, being immortal and all, Death must have an infinite amount of time to sit around, surrounded by pencils, calculators and graph paper, to figure out how a routine trip to the carwash can lead, courtesy of a broken antenna, faulty moon-roof and shorted-out electrical box, to a shrieking young girl facing certain decapitation (or at least brutal, flesh-pulverizing scoring.). Boredom will do that to you, it would seem. Now, are these efforts somewhat pointless? Pretty much. A tad too cruel? Certainly. Kind of amusing? Well, yeah.
Unfortunately, though, Death’s cartoonish machinations are the only thing keeping the fourth film in the franchise, stupidly titled The Final Destination (Does the “The” mean that we have finally reached the definitive final destination?), afloat amidst a sea of indifference and lethargy. Whereas the better series’ entries tapped into a certain interesting, if superficial, universal fear regarding the nature of mortality, and man’s anxieties regarding the uncertainty of what lies beyond the Pearly Gates, this latest entry feels more like a contemptuous pre-packaged compilation of kills than an actual film. Blame it on a non-existent script, which even stoops so low as to utilize a lengthy Next-style dream sequence to pad out its 81-minute run-time (Including credits, kids!) and gore-factor, or the obvious boredom of returning director David R. Ellis – who helmed the superior second entry – but even the added 3-D gimmickry can’t make this Destination feel any less mundane or familiar.
As we’ve already seen the splatter-tastic horrors associated with exploding airliners, fender mutilating traffic accidents and, um, broken-down roller-coasters (They were already running out of ideas with that one), The Final Destination introduces us to the grisly joys of a NASCAR rally race gone awry. Crushings: Check. Impalements: Check. Beheadings: Check. Mopey but fresh-faced protagonist (Bobby Campo) preternaturally envisioning the gruesome event before it actually occurs and then dragging his friends, including a few cute girls (Shantel VanSantern, Haley Webb) and one *****ey jock-type (Nick Zano – a poor man’s Travis Van Winkle), plus a few one-note bystanders (Mykelti Williamson, Krista Allen, Andrew Fiscella), away from the impending danger *breath* before all havoc breaks out, thus throwing Death’s fateful plan out of whack and dooming the survivors to even uglier alternative demises: Check. A fresh approach to this timeworn premise: Well, four outta five ain’t bad!
Although sparkling characterizations and transcendent dialogue shouldn’t be expected, nor deemed necessary, to sell this type of material, but it’s often confounding how badly The Final Destination falls on its face every time it calls on its actors to actually, you know, talk and express feelings and stuff. They sit around tables and living rooms spewing creaky exposition and having the exact same quarrels and freak-outs that the protagonists of the previous flicks had. You could literally erase the audio from the film and dub in dialogue from Final Destination 2 or 3 and it wouldn’t make a lick of a difference. Even more damaging is that this entry boasts the blandest cast yet, with star Campo blankly and droning on about premonitions, while the while the supporting players, appearing like deer caught amidst of blinding mass of headlights, weakly sob, squeal and vent. The only actor actually capable of delivering of any level of effective pathos, Mykelti Williamson, seems brought over from another film, staring gloomily out at the world through wounded eyes and tearfully reminiscing over his painful past. He also must endure the film’s ugliest scene, where a redneck creep calls him the N-word and attempts to light a burning cross on his front lawn. Now, look guys, I’m all for edginess in my horror flicks, but this addition felt mean-spirited and cheap. Frankly, screenwriter Eric Bress should be ashamed of himself for tossing it in there when an ounce of subtlety would have sufficed (Yes, I recognize the irony in demanding subtlety from a film that features a man being sliced, Julien style, into squishy pieces by a chain-link fence. Humour me.). And where in the name of Sawa is series regular Tony Todd? You know you’re running a dubious production when even Todd, star of the impending Hatchet 2 and Murder for Dummies, won’t sign on the dotted line.
Now, I’m sure that the past 700 words have mostly read like “blah blah decapitation blah blah cute girls blah” to you Final Destination fanatics (Do you guys have a catchy acronym or moniker yet?) and you just want to know how cool the assorted collection of death scenes are. Well, there are a few corkers, such as a nasty variation on the ol’ pool-filter-sucking-out-your-insides urban myth, a squishy trip through an escalator belt along with a number of icky-drippy moments during the opening NASCAR car-tastrophe. But unlike the first two instalments, there’s no sense of tension or dread attached to the CG ghastliness, as it seems Death has read the script and, like us in the audience, knows exactly how the pecking order works and whose jig is up next. A little unpredictability would go a long way, especially since the Real Doll© cast dilutes any feeling of increasing stakes. They, like the filmmakers, are just running through the motions in order to help the enterprise draw in some easy teen summer-movie-going cash. I should probably also add that this is the second film in as many weeks to feature an exploding movie theatre. However, while Tarantino, in Inglourious Basterds, fashioned a nightmarish inferno of cackling damnation, The Final Destination creates... an exploding movie theatre. Like everything else in the flick, it all just feels too little, and far, far too late.
If this franchise is truly determined to continue (and I’m not crossing my fingers for it to do so), significant reinvention is going to be needed to keep drawing the required bloodthirsty packs of dedicated fans necessary to warrant further entries. As a horror film, The Final Destination is toothless, as a 3-D gore-a-thon it’s underwhelming and as a work of suspense it is just plain laughable. The Grim Reaper deserves better and maybe next time, God willing, instead of being forced to dutifully prop up another tired retread, it’d be better for all involved if Death just takes a damn holiday.
2 out of 5
P.S. The Final Destination has quite possibly the worst recreation of a movie-going audience in the history of cinema. It's akin to the Friends episode where the gang goes to the Hootie And The Blowfish concert. Have any of the people behind these productions ever attended a large-scale entertainment event with the paying public?
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TwilightPro101
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The short review: Copy and paste formula of cliche characters in extremely cartoony based deaths. The film basically goes through the motions of the typical Final Destination formula and adds nothing special to the mix. The 3D is great, but there's nothing all that stand out or worthy of the price of admission beyond it.
2/5
2/5
bullets
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What did you guys expect after seeing the second final destination. I'm amazed it's gotten this far. The only reason to see this is because it's 3-d horror which is a smart marketing strategy. I'd just look at these as guilty pleasures . It's a shame they could never match the first.
TwilightPro101
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With regards to the franchise in general, I thought the first film stood out well enough as a stand alone film, that didn't need any particular sequel. It worked, defined the terms of the world and explored the slasher genre in a fresh fashion.
The second film only brought me thanks to the return of Ali Larter's character. Overall, I thought it was fairly decently handled. The script itself had a few issues, but it explored the concept in a different light and that worked in my books.
Three, I have to admit at least tried to explore the material in a more different fashion than the previous two. I liked the idea of the photographs hinting at the possible deaths of the characters and how that was played out. In particular, the deaths in this film were where my faith in the franchise started to decline. All the same I thought it tied everything together nicely and wrapped what could pass as some sort of FD trilogy of sorts. Even if not all of the characters made it through to that point.
With the fourth, I had no expectations going in and was expecting the formula. Was it fun? Fairly. Does it live up the previous entries? Depends on your preference. Personally, I wasn't impressed, but it was fun to escape for an hour and not to have any real weight of concern for any of the characters. Could the producers/writer/director explored the franchise more creatively? Definitely. Could there be another sequel? As long as it's making bank, I don't see New Line Cinema stopping this franchise any time soon and they've got novels and comic books to pull from if they ever want to go that route as well.
The second film only brought me thanks to the return of Ali Larter's character. Overall, I thought it was fairly decently handled. The script itself had a few issues, but it explored the concept in a different light and that worked in my books.
Three, I have to admit at least tried to explore the material in a more different fashion than the previous two. I liked the idea of the photographs hinting at the possible deaths of the characters and how that was played out. In particular, the deaths in this film were where my faith in the franchise started to decline. All the same I thought it tied everything together nicely and wrapped what could pass as some sort of FD trilogy of sorts. Even if not all of the characters made it through to that point.
With the fourth, I had no expectations going in and was expecting the formula. Was it fun? Fairly. Does it live up the previous entries? Depends on your preference. Personally, I wasn't impressed, but it was fun to escape for an hour and not to have any real weight of concern for any of the characters. Could the producers/writer/director explored the franchise more creatively? Definitely. Could there be another sequel? As long as it's making bank, I don't see New Line Cinema stopping this franchise any time soon and they've got novels and comic books to pull from if they ever want to go that route as well.
CelticPredator
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I agree with Episode's review. But I wont lie, it was quite entertaining. Except the pool scene. That was gross. And furthers my fear of that damn drain. 
The Chris
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Well, this wasn't good. Bad acting all almost entirely around (the others didn't have great acting, but nothing particularly bad like this film) The death scenes are for the first time pretty weak and not too imaginative. The movie is repetitive and has about three different endings, and it's just not fun at all. The most important factor is probably the complete mess of an opening scene. I thought the first 3 films all have great opening scenes. The one here is dumb and boring. And there was too much CGI. Couldn't "feel" any of the deaths. I just blankly stared while they happened. No more please.
How I rate the series individually
Final Destination- 3/5
Final Destination 2- 2.5/5
Final Destination 3- 3/5
The Final Destination- 2/5
How I rate the series individually
Final Destination- 3/5
Final Destination 2- 2.5/5
Final Destination 3- 3/5
The Final Destination- 2/5
xwolverine2
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how was FD3 better than 2???
The Chris
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There's something about that whole save the pregnant chick to cheat death bit that I never liked. Plus There were certain scenes from the first film where they (or really Sawa) were constantly avoiding death that the third one had that I missed in the second one (the scene where the two kids jump off the car and and truck rams into it and the engine flies in the dude's head. That was tense) Plus there was something about the premonition being a roller coaster. The train scene rocked too.
The second one does have the best opening though, no doubt.
xwolverine2
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the pregnant chick thing at least added something to the story...
and it had moments of real fear like the dentist scene.
3 brought nothing new to the table... just the photograph thing which felt like something from shutter or w/e. and terrible vfx too.
and it had moments of real fear like the dentist scene.
3 brought nothing new to the table... just the photograph thing which felt like something from shutter or w/e. and terrible vfx too.
The Chris
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I'll have to check out part 2 again. I guess we'll agree to disagree for now.
CelticPredator
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I look at them as dark comdies. They are quite hilarious.
Even the first.
Even the first.
Sam Fisher
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Both 2 and 3 sucked I thought.
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I liked FD3 better then this one actually.
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The Chris
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There was nothing much to laugh about with this one. At least not laughing with it. It just wasn't interesting. Since this did well, I wouldn't be surprised if there's another one, and if there is I hope they scale back, because the death scenes and the effects weren't good.
The Dark Defender
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The characters in FD3 are some of the most over the top annoying cliches I've ever seen bunched together in one horror film.
The dumb arrogant jock, the dark goth couple, the annoying as all hell horny jackass with the camera, the ridiculously stupid bimbo cheerleaders...
I don't think they really could've tried harder to make the characters more annoyingly cliche'd.
The characters in this one are hardly stellar, but FD3's ensemble is just pathetic. They literally copied and pastied every teeny bopper walking stereotype that they could think of into the movie...and that roller-coaster sequence is easily the worst special effects of the series.
The dumb arrogant jock, the dark goth couple, the annoying as all hell horny jackass with the camera, the ridiculously stupid bimbo cheerleaders...
I don't think they really could've tried harder to make the characters more annoyingly cliche'd.
The characters in this one are hardly stellar, but FD3's ensemble is just pathetic. They literally copied and pastied every teeny bopper walking stereotype that they could think of into the movie...and that roller-coaster sequence is easily the worst special effects of the series.
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Its budget is 40 million according to Box Office mojo. so I guess it depends on the final total.
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Why God? Why must films like these make money and continue?
The Apatow Crew
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Because their made for Teenagers and Teenagers like these films.
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I remember on the dvd there was a mini-doc saying it was a "dead teenager movie" , lol. I never heard soembody say that before but you had 15 minutes of cast/crew saying it repeatedly.
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