Final Destination 5


3/4

Starring: Nicholas D’Agosto, Emma Bell, Miles Fisher, Courtney B. Vance, David Koechner, Tony Todd

Rated R for Strong Violent/Gruesome Accidents, and Some Language

It’s the fifth entry in the horror franchise that won’t die…although considering the ending, that may be a bit premature.  The plot is still the same: a group of people survive an accident due to the premonition of the hero, and Death comes after them one by one to take back what’s his.  There is a new wrinkle in the formula, although I have to admit that not having seen installments 3 and 4, I can’t say for sure how “new” it is.  What is new, at least for myself, is the film’s “tounge-in-cheek” approach.  Although not as clever as the “Scream” movies, there is a fair amount of humor in the movie, about 75% of which is intentional (I hope…).

In “Final Destination 5,” the film starts out just like all the others.  A group of people are on a charter bus going to a company retreat, when one of them, Sam Lawton (D’Agosto) gets a premonition in which the bridge collapses, leading to massive casualties.  He flips out, and saves seven of his co-workers while the rest perish.  Of course, Death doesn’t like getting screwed, so he starts killing the survivors who were supposed to die on the bridge one by one.

The acting is effective for a horror movie, although no one really stands out.  Nicholas D’Agosto makes for a solid “hero,” and Emma Bell is his cute girlfriend.  Miles Fisher is the wannabe Tom Cruise of the bunch.  Ellen Wroe is the young intern, and Arlen Escarpeta is the token black character.  Rounding out the cast are Jacqueline MacInnes Wood as the sexpot of the group and P.J. Byrne as the ugly lothario, respectively.  Finally, there’s David Koechner, who adds some much needed humor to the proceedings, and Tony Todd returns as the creepy Bludworth, who knows all about what’s going on.

The film is made with more precision than you might think.  Every part fits into one cohesive whole, which we begin to realize as the film goes on.  This is especially important once the film reveals the new twist: if a survivor kills an innocent person, he gets their life time.  It adds a little moral ambiguity to the proceedings that, while not particularly revolutionary, keeps things a little bit more interesting.

For those that are worried that they’ve turned the movie into a philosophical treatise worthy of the arthouses, never fear.  The filmmakers remember that the main purpose of the film is to dispatch the characters in the most creative ways possible.  Unlike the deaths in the first movie, they aren’t so contrived that they cause us to roll our eyes.  While none are particularly realistic (that sort of comes with the territory), director Steven Quale gets us to believe that in some sort of one-in-a-billion chance way, they could possibly happen.

The best part is the ending.  It wraps up both the film and the franchise up in one neat little package laced with some delicious irony.  While it certainly completes the saga, that doesn’t mean that there won’t be future installments (Hollywood always figures out how to get more movies in a franchise if there’s money in it).

I’m not recommending this to the average viewer.  But if you know what you’re getting in for, it’s worth seeing.  And for once, the 3D is an asset and done well.

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