FINAL DESTINATION 2
A New Line Cinema release

review by Joseph B. Mauceri

SYNOPSIS: Heading to spring break with her friends, Kimberly Corman (A.J. Cook) watches helplessly as a logging truck loses its deadly payload and sets off a horrifying chain reaction that leaves twisted metal and dead bodies in its wake -- including her own.

A moment later, Kimberly finds snaps back to reality, still stuck on the on-ramp with a line of commuters she saw die moments before trailing behind her. Scared out of her wits, Kimberly blocks the cars from merging on to Route 23 as a young police trooper (Michael Landes) arrives. The commuters begin to honk and complain when suddenly Kimberly's premonition comes to life before their horrified eyes.  

Kimberly knows it's not over. Death won't be cheated so easily. Kimberly search for and finds Clear Rivers (Ali Larter) the only survivor of the crash of Flight 180 left alive. Locked away by her own choice in the perceived safety of a psychiatric hospital, Clear now lives in constant terror that Death is coming to claim her, as it did all her friends.

Now this random group of strangers must join her in a race against time to do what Clear Rivers has managed to do -- stay alive.

REVIEW: What do people fear the most? It is the fear of the unknown. So unlike most critics who like to waste the majority of their review rehashing the plot -- some because they haven't seen the movie and are churning their review out by just using the notes -- I'll leave it at the synopsis. After all, what allows this sequel to the 2000 supernatural thriller to work are the few clues to a simple mystery. When it comes to terror, FINAL DESTINATION 2 is a ãkillerä sequel with eye-popping special effects.

FINAL DESTINATION 2 goes beyond the original; with fast paced action and breathtaking special effects that look so real it hurts. The filmmakers utilize the age-old magicians trick of misdirection before delivering the final crescendo to the gag. The suspense and tension meters are off the scale, and every setup has a nice dash of gore. The scenes are a terrifying choreography of acting, editing, physical & digital effects. And while these come across as the real stars of the film; my only complaint is that the plot feels like a thin excuse to bring these sequences together.

There is also a problem with the film's logic when it comes to the ground rules. The plot suggests that the survivors cannot act to bring about their own death, cheating death and upsetting its pattern. There are two situations where in one instance death intervenes, yet another where he allows the character to act freely. I might be obsessing here, and could be a bit overly analytical, but you can't setup the rules and than break them when you need to. It seems that a bit more thought could have helped work that out a bit more smoothly.  

FINAL DESTINATION 2 is shocking, in-your-face fright-flick with hard-hitting horror. The opening highway accident is state-of-the art. I loved the end sequence as much as the traffic pile up, but the end sequences has more in common with a Monty Python bit than a horror flick. It puts the breaks on the ride and I sat there watching the credits feel like the magical spell was broken. I thought that the only missing was for the cast to come from behind the screen to take a bow. For all its horror and gore, in the end FINAL DESTINATION 2 reminds the audience that they made this hefty emotional investment in nothing more than smoke-and-mirrors -- a movie.
 

OFFICIAL WEB SITE:
http://www.deathiscoming.com

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