Tag: Final Destination

[31 Days of Horror Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan] Day 22 – Urban Legends: Bloody Mary (2005)

Director: Mary Lambert
Cast: Kate Mara, Robert Vito, Tina Lifford, Ed Marinaro, Lillith Fields
Screenplay: Michael Dougherty, Dan Harris
93 mins. Rated R for strong violence and gore, drug use and some language.

It’s interesting to note that there are a few different fledgling horror franchises that took the supernatural route for their third installment, ultimately sending them direct-to-video in the process. One of them was I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer, and another more well-known one is Urban Legends: Bloody Mary. The latter is much less egregious of a turn for the franchise, choosing a more anthological route for the series. Let’s see if it helped.

Back in 1969, a horrible act on prom night causes the death of Mary Banner (Lillith Fields, Tracker, Treasure State). Thirty-five years later, the story of Mary Banner has been passed around into urban legend as the fabled Bloody Mary. Samantha Owens (Kate Mara, Fantastic 4, TV’s A Teacher) and her friends tell their version of the story at a sleepover, but when the morning comes, the girls have gone missing. When they find their way home, they discover that the bullies they believe responsible for the “prank” are being picked off, one by one. Or is there a larger reason for the deaths?

The first two Urban Legend films are heavily influenced by the slashers of the 90s, but this third installment goes in a completely different direction, aiming toward ripping off the J-horror remakes like The Ring and The Grudge. This is the most obvious and notably lazy element of the film, but it is not the only aspect to be completely stolen from better films. I saw a lot of Prom Night II here along with bits and pieces of Final Destination (the influence of music and Rube Goldberg-style deaths) along with A Nightmare on Elm Street (the back-from-death killer searching out the children of those who wronged her). Add in that, some poor writing, acting, directing and a heavy dose of lazy CGI, and you have Bloody Mary. It’s frustrating to see a film without any new ideas being placed in a once-innovative series of horror films.

I’m actually completely fine with the shift into supernatural horror, but this film just didn’t accomplish the task. I would’ve loved to see them turn the series into standalone anthology-like films covering each of the urban legends that influenced the killers in the first two films. It would’ve been a pretty cool cinematic universe a few years before it became the IT thing to do in Hollywood. If they had done something interesting with the legend of Bloody Mary by taking their favorite elements of the story and setting it within the framework of the first two films, tying it into the locations and characters that we know from the previous films, you maybe could see something fascinating come out of this series, but we never get that, and the film is rather forgettable. I’ve seen it three times since 2005, and I struggle to remember any of it after more than a few days.

Kate Mara underwhelms as Sam. Unfortunately, she isn’t written all that well, and her character is dull and dumb, so I’m not even sure if she could’ve improved the material. I like her in most everything else, but I can’t see anything good in her performance or the character in general.

Director Mary Lambert (Pet Sematary, Presumed Dead in Paradise) was disappointed in the decision to move this release to direct-to-video, but I don’t see anyway this film would’ve ended up in theaters. The CGI is atrocious, and her direction is abysmal. It’s weird to see the director of Pet Sematary make such a lackluster and lazy effort. She wanted to deal with the date-rape elements of the narrative in an interesting way, but she doesn’t do that. She has these strange sequences like three teenage girls having a pillow fight at a sleepover and then telling the legend of Bloody Mary and seeing her in the mirror, and then they don’t actually use a mirror when they conjure her. In fact, does anyone actually utilize the actual legend of Bloody Mary in the finished project? I don’t think so.

Urban Legends: Bloody Mary is a supremely dull movie experience. I had convinced myself that it wasn’t that bad as I was watching it, and I even initially thought about what I would score a film that is bad but not offensively so. The more I think about it, though, the more I realize that there isn’t anything good in this movie, so I will give it the most deserving score of a indefensible movie. I’m just happy that I never have to watch it again.

1/5
-Kyle A. Goethe

  • For my review of Jamie Blanks’s Urban Legend, click here.
  • For my review of John Ottman’s Urban Legends: Final Cut, click here.
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[31 Days of Horror Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan] Day 8 – Resident Evil: Extinction (2007)

Director: Russell Mulcahy
Cast: Milla Jovovich, Oded Fehr, Ali Larter, Iain Glen, Ashanti, Mike Epps, Christopher Egan, Spencer Locke, Jason O’Mara
Screenplay: Paul W.S. Anderson
94 mins. Rated R for strong horror violence throughout and some nudity.

There are a lot of elements in the third Resident Evil film that convinced 17-year-old me this one was going to absolutely rule. It was directed by Russell Mulcahy (Highlander, In Like Flynn), its trailer appeared to have similarities with my favorite Romero Living Dead film, Day of the Dead, and with the new character introductions, it seemed like it might be honing in on more of what the fans of the games wanted. Sure, what we got wasn’t really like what I had gleaned from the trailers, but let’s be clear: this movie is entertaining as hell through all of its many faults.

It’s been five years since the events at Raccoon City left most of the world devastated by the T-Virus. Alice (Milla Jovovich, The Fifth Element, Monster Hunter), on her own for some time, finds herself taken in by a convoy including some old friends: Carlos Olivera (Oded Fehr, The Mummy Returns, Lair) and L.J. (Mike Epps, Friday After Next, The House Next Door: Meet the Blacks 2). The convoy is in search of shelter, and Alice shows them a book she discovered, claiming to have safe haven in Alaska, but they lack the gasoline to get them there. The convoy heads to Las Vegas to get supplies and gas, all the while Umbrella Corporation and the sinister Dr. Isaacs (Iain Glen, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, TV’s Reyka) plot to retrieve Project Alice and continue their research.

First of all, I have to be the one that says it: screen your movie. Resident Evil: Extinction was not screened for critics, but here’s the thing, we all were pretty confident critics would hate the movie anyway, and most of the time, critical reviews can really only influence about 10% of the box office take. When Malignant came out recently, and we were all discussing the lack of reviews, no Thursday night opening, and the assumption was that the studio didn’t believe in their product. The same is true here. Screen your movie.

As far as Resident Evil: Extinction goes, the entertainment value is a definite win. Sure, the movie itself has flaws in and out, but I was thoroughly entertained. I think that Resident Evil: Apocalypse and Extinction are the absolute best that this franchise will have to give, so if you aren’t won over at this point, this just may not be the movie series for you. Where it wins most is in the action. This is probably the best action of the series, and that is due to Russell Mulcahy’s handling of the set pieces. It’s obvious that he’s the most capable of the directors in this franchise because he has the best looking action, and it’s the most tense that the series gets. His choice to film in sunlight more often as opposed the coldness of the first film and the darkness of the second really give a more stunning visual flair that’s in line with the film’s comparisons to Day of the Dead and Mad Max. In particular, the crow scene is a new element taken from the mythology of the games that feels quite fresh and is handled well.

The returning actors, Jovovich, Fehr, and Epps are all putting forth some solid work, even if it feels odd that Jill Valentine and Angela Ashford are just gone from the narrative (with Sienna Guillory primed to return in the next installment). Their absense gives the film an Alien 3 vibe (something the franchise would probably want to avoid). All the same, I like their general chemistry and performances, but Paul W.S. Anderson’s script just doesn’t give them much to do. The big Alice moments of the film are either “She’s too powerful” or “She does nothing.” She can firebend at some points, and also, Umbrella can completely control her movements, but they’ve elected not to for the past five years. Carlos is mostly reactionary in the film, and L.J. goes from street-smart in Apocalypse to completely foolish in this installment, ultimately becoming a fairly stereotypical stock zombie movie character that we all hate now.

As far as new additions, I feel like Ali Larter (Final Destination, The Last Victim) was miscast as Claire Redfield and Ashanti (Coach Carter, A Christmas Winter Song) is just kind of bland as medic Betty. Spencer Locke (Insidious: The Last Key, Walk. Ride. Rodeo.) is given a nickname as character development, and Jason O’Mara (Batman: Hush, TV’s The Man in the High Castle) is just given very little to do as the first appearance of franchise villain Albert Wesker is concerned.

As mentioned above, you get some pretty iconic characters from the game series here, like Claire Redfield and Albert Wesker, and there’s also a newly-named scientist seemingly modeled after William Birkin with Dr. Isaacs. I guess, at this point, I wonder why they’re even introducing iconic characters if they aren’t going to use them. I’m all for creative license in adapting, especially where the video game to film adaptation is concerned, but Claire Redfield has nothing in common with her video game persona at all, and Albert Wesker ends up being very underutilized in the franchise starting here. As far as Dr. Isaacs is concerned, Iain Glen chews up the scenery quite well and has fun with the role, and because he isn’t named after William Birkin, it feels like game fans were willing to give him a pass as a character. Why didn’t they do that with everyone? It’s become obvious that we’ve strayed heavily from the video game franchise at this point, so why continue to under-deliver on legacy characters? I guess it’s worth noting that Anderson (who scripted every installment of this franchise) did care about fan reaction, but he didn’t do a great job of taking that criticism.

Alongside that, it needs to be stated that this film is the one you can look back on and realize that there was no plan for this movie series. Why is the Red Queen replaced in this film with the White Queen, and then why do we never see the White Queen again? Why does the finale of this film have a trilogy-ending set piece meant to take us “back to the beginning” of the series? I remember the idea going in was that this movie was likely to be the ending of the movies, and this film gives us that sense that we are going back to where it started to finish it, but then it ends on another cliffhanger (something that becomes more frustrating from this point on) and, looking back, this feels like an ending that was retconned into not ending, and even the final installment of the series, titled The Last Chapter, hits the same kind of story beats as this one, going back to the very beginning all over again.

Resident Evil: Extinction looks great, and the action is tense and exciting, but this is a hodgepodge of Resident Evil mythology, a Greatest Hits in some ways, hobbled together and retrofitted to kind of showcase a general knowledge of the video games. It’s full of ideas, but it’s also full of frustrating characters doing stupid things and being punished for it, and while the movie still has a solid amount of entertainment, it’s unlikely that this film will win over video game fans, and the franchise should be moving forward with its own thing and stop trying to be the games.

3/5
-Kyle A. Goethe

  • For my review of Paul W.S. Anderson’s Resident Evil, click here.
  • For my review of Alexander Witt’s Resident Evil: Apocalypse, click here.
  • For my review of Russell Mulcahy’s Highlander, click here.
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[31 Days of Horror Part VI: Jason Lives] Day 20 – Final Destination 5 (2011)

Director: Steven Quale

Cast: Nicholas D’Agosto, Emma Bell, Miles Fisher, Arlen Escarpeta, David Koechner, Tony Todd

Screenplay: Eric Heisserer

92 mins. Rated R for strong violent/gruesome accidents, and some language.

 

After The Final Destination (intended to be the last film), I wasn’t quite sure how the Final Destination franchise could keep things interesting and exciting going into a fifth film. Personally, I was so disappointed in how the fourth film went, I didn’t even really know if I wanted it to continue. So when Final Destination 5 popped up, I was skeptical as to what, if anything, it could bring to the table. This one swung for the fences, though.

Sam (Nicholas D’Agosto, From Prada to Nada, TV’s Masters of Sex) is embarking on a company retreat with several other employees when he has a vision of the suspension bridge the bus is on collapsing, killing hundreds. Concerned, he gets off the bus and runs to safety, followed by a handful of his employees, and the suspension bridge indeed collapses. Blessed but also shaken, Sam and the others notice that the survivors are dying in the exact they would have died on the bridge, and they learn that in order to save their own lives, they may have to take another’s.

Final Destination 5 does not reinvent the wheel, but it’s probably the best entry in the series. It has interesting characters with real motivations, strong set pieces, an overall sense of dread, and it teams with mythology. I’m not entirely on board with the “take another life to save yours” notion that is legitimately brought into this film (something that’s been toyed with before), but it does add another layer to the film.

Nicholas D’Agosto and Emma Bell (Plus One, Different Flowers) are both strong leads, and the film has some fun performances like David Koechner (Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, TV’s American Dad!) as Dennis, Sam’s boss. Koechner is always fun and he’s restrained enough here to fit in nicely within the horror while still getting to do his own thing. The absolute win of the film, though, is the return of Tony Todd (Candyman, Reign of the Supermen) as the coroner Bludworth, who is given little screen time and just does so much with it. I’ve been saying for some time that Todd’s Bludworth needs to be expanded upon, especially how he seemingly knows so much about Death’s design and plan, and while we don’t get that in this film, his reintroduction is a step in the right direction.

Outside of the main story, I am happy to say that Final Destination 5 gets back to the horror roots of the series after the almost-silly fourth installment. It’s also the film that feels the most like it’s connecting a saga, with little references to other films in the series and an overarching mythology that’s been cleaned up and streamlined. This is one that you kind of want to watch again after unlocking the big reveals of the film and how it all comes together.

Final Destination 5 wins it with the ending though, a doozy of a revelation that makes it the most fun installment of the entire series. How this franchise seemingly stalled out after the fifth film is beyond me, but this is definitely one worth seeing. It’s gruesome and bloody and filled with atmospheric flavor. Go check it out.

 

4/5

-Kyle A. Goethe

 

 

For more 31 Days of Horror, click here.

For my review of James Wong’s Final Destination, click here.

For my review of David R. Ellis’s Final Destination 2, click here.

For my review of James Wong’s Final Destination 3, click here.

For my review of David R. Ellis’s The Final Destination, click here.

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[31 Days of Horror Part V: A New Beginning] Day 4 – The Final Destination (2009)

Director: David R. Ellis

Cast: Bobby Campo, Shantel VanSanten, Mykelti Williamson, Nick Zano, Krista Allen, Andrew Fiscella

Screenplay: Eric Bress

82 mins. Rated R for strong violent/gruesome accidents, language and a scene of sexuality.

 

Four films in and the Final Destination franchise appears to be going strong into their first 3D entry. I was excited, even though the fourth film welcomed back director David R. Ellis (Snakes on a Plane, Cellular), who I felt gave less than stellar work with the second film. I would have much rather had James Wong continue as director, but I still gave it a shot.

The Final Destination is the last in the final destination franchise (until this installment made enough money to trigger Final Destination 5 a few years later), and it features Bobby Campo (Sharing Christmas, My Christmas Love) as Nick, a nice youth who is sharing a day at the races with his friends when he has a premonition of a horrible accident about to take place that will kill all his friends and dozens of others at the track. Nick is able to save himself a several others from the tragedy, but now, the survivors are dying in really strange accidents. Nick’s premonitions are giving him clues to stop them, but only if he can solve the mystery in time.

The Final Destination follows the very same plot design that the previous installments worked well with, but this film’s tone is its biggest enemy. It’s sloppily put together with a notion that these unlikable characters are being picked off with a real fun attitude about it. We get it, the message is clear that these films are watched for the crazy Rube Goldberg-esque manner in which its characters are picked off, but there should be some level of care for them as human beings so that we actually hope for their survival. I didn’t like anyone in the film except for security guard George (Mykelti Williamson, Forrest Gump, Fences), and he’s still a little one-note.

Nick Zano (10 Years, TV’s Legends of Tomorrow) might be one of my most-hated characters in existence. It isn’t even a level of respectful hatred, like the one I have for Trent in the Friday the 13th remake. I didn’t want him getting out of the track at the beginning purely because he annoyed the hell out of me. Zano was given creativity with improvisation from director Ellis, one of the many issues that plagues this movie.

On the plus side, I do love the titles and how they pay homage to the franchise so far, especially considering that this was the last film originally. It was nice to see where we’d gone with the franchise, and it was one of the better elements of the 3D presentation.

Overall, I moderately enjoy parts of this film but as a whole, it’s a lengthy 82 minutes of piss poor filmmaking. This is the worst film of this franchise thus far and was thankfully saved by the fifth installment which would drop just a few years later.

 

1.5/5

-Kyle A. Goethe

 

 

For my review of James Wong’s Final Destination, click here.

For my review of David R. Ellis’s Final Destination 2, click here.

For my review of James Wong’s Final Destination 3, click here.

 

For more Almighty Goatman,

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[31 Days of Horror: The Final Chapter] Day 12 – Final Destination 3 (2006)

Director: James Wong

Cast: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ryan Merriman, Kris Lemche

Screenplay: Glen Morgan, James Wong

93 mins. Rated R for strong horror violence/gore, language and some nudity.

 

When I was young, I would watch scary movies with my mother. At a certain point in the film, when she could take the scares no longer, she would announce, “I’d just give up and let ‘em kill me!” In the Final Destination franchise, I’d actually be inclined to say the same.

Final Destination 3 picks up five years after the original with an entirely new cast being hunted by Death/Fate. Wendy Christensen (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, 10 Cloverfield Lane, TV’s Fargo) is at an amusement park with boyfriend Jason, best friend Carrie, and Carrie’s boyfriend Kevin (Ryan Merriman, 42, A Sunday Horse). But when Wendy has a premonition that the rollercoaster she boards will have a horrific malfunction killing everyone on board, she and several others get off the ride. When her premonition rings true, everyone rejoices, until they begin dying one by one in the same order they would have died on the coaster. Wendy has one tool: a camera that has clues to each death. Now if she can just stop Death from killing her friends…

Final Destination 3 is more of the same, and in that way, fans should enjoy themselves. It retains the mythology of the original film after the first sequel skewered the rules for its own amusement. My only major problem with being same old in this franchise is that, after two films, you kind of just stop caring if the characters will live because you know, there’s no chance of that. It’s only, who will die next? This is the installment where that becomes extremely apparent and it takes all the emotion out of it, even if that emotion is replaced with a macabre humor.

The other big disappointment in this installment is the loss of Tony Todd’s Bludworth from the first two films. Todd does not appear in this film save for a cameo voice role as the devil at the amusement park, but I felt that his character really means something and to lose him is a big waste.

Overall, though, the film was fun enough to keep my enjoyment level high enough for the runtime. Leads Winstead and Merriman are very nice to watch and have good chemistry. The film is nicely shot and the pace is quick enough. In fact, some versions of the DVD even feature a Choose Your Fate feature that plays like a Choose Your Own Adventure where you get to interact with the movie as it plays out. It’s a fun little feature that should make watching with friends enjoyable.

Final Destination 3 is more of the same, but that isn’t necessarily the worst thing. The film could have been much worse, but as expected horror, it plays well enough thanks to some nice lead performances, a smart screenplay, and capable enough cinematography. Fans of the franchise should be sated here.

 

3/5

-Kyle A. Goethe

 

 

For my review of James Wong’s Final Destination, click here.

For my review of David R. Ellis’s Final Destination 2, click here.

 

 

For more Almighty Goatman,

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[31 Days of Horror 3] Day 30 – Final Destination 2 (2003)

finaldestination22003a

Director: David R. Ellis

Cast: A.J. Cook, Ali Larter, Tony Todd, Michael Landes

Screenplay: J. Mackye Gruber, Eric Bress

90 mins. Rated R for strong violent/gruesome accidents, language, drug content and some nudity.

 

Sequels are tough. Sometimes tougher than the original. Especially when it’s the first sequel of a big franchise, which Final Destination ended up becoming.

finaldestination22003b

Final Destination 2 begins on the first anniversary of the explosion of Flight 180. Kimberley Corman (A.J. Cook, TV’s Criminal Minds, Mother’s Day) and her friends are heading to Florida for Spring Break, but when she has a premonition of a major traffic collision, she inadvertently saves multiple lives. Now, though, she and the survivors are dying one by one, and the only person who can help her is the lone survivor of Flight 180: Clear Rivers (Ali Larter, TV’s Heroes, Resident Evil: Afterlife), who resides in a psychiatric ward where she can be safe.

Final Destination 2 makes the fatal error of breaking the rules of the first film multiple times and insinuating that there are ways to cheat death when it regularly breaks its own rules. Death’s motives and methods change drastically in the film. The decision to bring back Larter and series regular Tony Todd (The Man From Earth, Hatchet II) were good choices, but to play with a pre-established set of rules really messes with the series.

I personally didn’t like many of these characters who came off as caricatures of normal humans. Kimberley is a nice lead and Thomas Burke (Michael Landes, Burlesque, 11-11-11), the Deputy Marshal, is a nice male lead, but most everybody else is rude, unlikable, or generally cartoonish.

Final Destination 2 definitely ratchets up the body count and style of the first film in spectacular fashion, now if only we liked the characters enough. The screenplay from J. Mackye Gruber and Eric Bress (TV’s Kyle XY, The Butterfly Effect) gives us little in terms of character development other than interesting but fizzly Rube Goldberg-esque deaths.

FINAL DESTINATION 2, Keegan Connor Tracy, 2003, © New Line
FINAL DESTINATION 2, Keegan Connor Tracy, 2003, © New Line

Final Destination 2 is a fun movie, but one that is picked apart quite easily. This movie has straight-up flaws, and most of them could be fixed by just understanding and respecting the mythology. Director David R. Ellis (Shark Night, Snakes on a Plane) would return to helm the fourth entry of this franchise to similarly misunderstood results.

 

2.5/5

-Kyle A. Goethe

 

 

For my review of James Wong’s Final Destination, click here.

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31 Days of Horror: Day 29 – Final Destination (2000)

finaldestination2000a

Director: James Wong

Cast: Devon Sawa, Ali Larter, Kerr Smith, Tony Todd

Screenplay: Glen Morgan, James Wong, Jeffrey Reddick

98 mins. Rated R for violence and terror, and for language.

 

Death comes to all of us. When it is your turn to die, it is your turn, and there is little that can be done about it. That’s the message we get from Final Destination, from director James Wong (The One, Dragonball: Evolution). The original idea for this film came from James Wong’s time as a writer on The X-Files. He envisioned the story as an episode from the wildly popular sci-fi television series. Unfortunately, the idea was scrapped several times and eventually was reformed into a feature film screenplay.

It tells the story of Flight 180 and its passenger Alex Browning (Devon Sawa, TV’s Nikita, Idle Hands). Alex has a premonition of the plane exploding upon takeoff, and forces himself and several other students from his field trip from the plane. The plane explodes and the seven survivors feel as though they just cheated death. They soon discover that you can’t cheat death for long, as the survivors are being picked off in the order they were supposed to die on the plane, but Alex starts seeing clues, and along with fellow student (Ali Larter, TV’s Legends, Resident Evil: Afterlife).

finaldestination2000c

The original film in this series is the best one, though it is still riddled with multiple technical and artistic issues. These characters are just not very smart. Alex keeps searching out clues and getting himself deeper and deeper with law enforcement as he tries to stop these crimes. He grabs murder weapons and tracks DNA all over crime scenes. He sees signs that clues him into the next death, yet at one point, he sees a man burning leaves and then assumes that a house will blow up. I like the idea of a magazine getting shredded and his friend’s name comes up, but the fire is a bit much. Then there’s the cops who believe that Alex is somehow capable of committing these crimes, like somehow orchestrating a bus hitting someone when they are surrounded by witnesses that could attest to his innocence. We have a character who believes that if it is his time, he should kill everyone else with him. I get it, these are students and teenagers, so they still have some learning to do, but these are dumb teens.

I like the performance given by Tony Todd (The Man from Earth, Hatchet II) as coroner Bludworth. It doesn’t amount to much more of a cameo appearance, but it is a classic horror film trope of the warning of death and dark times to come, much like Crazy Ralph from Friday the 13th. He practically yells “Doomed! You’re all doomed!”

Wong’s directing is really nothing special. His cinematography is disappointing. The film has nice pacing though and moves along with ease, not stopping long enough for most of these issues to take away from the enjoyment of the film.

I do really enjoy the clues that Alex and Clear do not see. I like that there are numerous noticeable clues in the film that foreshadow events soon to come, many of them are ones that aren’t even pointed out by our main characters. There is even the inclusion of John Denver songs at many of the Rube Goldberg style deaths. If you didn’t know, Denver died in a plane crash and his music works as a calling card in many ways, a warning like Bludworth’s. I know I didn’t listen to his music for a while after seeing this film.

I also like the score of the film. It stays with you long after the film ends. It won’t win any major awards, but as far as horror scores go, not bad.

finaldestination2000b

So there you have it. Final Destination is far from perfect, but it is a lot of fun. I find that it still holds up now, 14 years later.

 

3/5

-Kyle A. Goethe

 

For more 31 Days of Horror, click here.

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