FINAL DESTINATION 2

By: Abbie Bernstein
Date: Friday, January 31, 2003

Following its 2000 predecessor in title and format but changing the mood a little, FINAL DESTINATION 2 makes the mythology about Death's grand plan even more convoluted this time around. The good news is that the set of filmmakers at the helm this time director David R. Ellis and writers J. Mackye Gruber & Eric Bress, working from a story by Gruber, Bress and original FINAL DESTINATION scribe Jeffrey Reddick display a healthy sense of the absurd, shying away from the portentous to deliver something that hints at an accident-driven take on Peter Jackson's DEAD ALIVE. True, this movie doesn't get as outrageous as Jackson's mondo-splatter creature feature, but for an R-rated mainstream studio feature, FINAL DESTINATION 2 demonstrates surprisingly strong credentials on the twinned gore and black comedy fronts.

Like FINAL DESTINATION, FINAL DESTINATION 2 introduces us to a protagonist, here Kimberly Corman (A.J. Cook), who has an extraordinarily realistic vision of a horrible accident in this case, a multi-vehicle pileup that has people smashed, burned and impaled as far as the eye can see. Kimberly is unsuccessful in preventing the disaster, though her early warning saves a few potential victims and Kimberly herself is saved by helpful young cop Thomas Burke (Michael Landes) who survives the event even though he died in Kimberly's vision. But then, just as with the previous year's famed Flight 180, the survivors start to die under very bizarre circumstances moreover, when they compare notes, everyone realizes they were in some way connected with the people who avoided the plane crash only to perish later. Kimberly and Thomas come to believe that Death has a plan that does not allow for escapees but is there some way of outwitting the plan?

The new movie

actually does introduce a plot element that addresses this last point, although both the explanation and the set-up are so laden with leaps of logic and hard-to-follow rules that it never really seems to make sense. The main point here seems to be coming up with one physical jaw-dropper after another, with the filmmakers playing evil imps, keeping one step ahead of the audience as we try to figure out exactly how each situation can possibly prove fatal to somebody present there are some notably startling fake-outs. Director Ellis does a satisfyingly good job not only of staging some impressive wreckage but also balancing the tone between Crypt Keeper gallows humor and just enough seriousness to keep the characters on track as they try to cut their way out of Fate's net, and the effects team seems to be having a fine time making an unholy mess.

FINAL DESTINATION 2 has a comic book sprightliness that actually seems more in line with TALES FROM THE CRYPT than with its rather earnest progenitor. For those who enjoy the genre, this is bloody popcorn fun.

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