Final Destination 5 Film Review

Review by Nick Iacobucci on

http://reelscreenreviews.com/2011/07/final-destination-5-movie-review/



No matter where you go, no matter where you hide…you can’t cheat death. Hello there to everybody in cyberspace I am movie critic Nick Iacobucci here as always for ReelScreenReviews.com, and our film review this time around is the next chapter of the successful horror franchise “Final Destination 5”. This movie will open on Friday August 12th, 2011, and it features Emma Bell, Miles Fisher, Nicholas D’Agosto, and Courtney B. Vance. This “Final Destination” adventure comes to us from director Steve Quale, the co-director of “Aliens of the Deep” with James Cameron, and the TV movie “Superfire” from 2002. This time around Mr. Quale attempts to bring something to a franchise that I believe seems to supply absolutely nothing.



Now the first Final Destination movie was actually a pretty good horror movie with a decent plot line. The main character in each movie has a premonition of a catastrophic event moments before it happens. He or she then convinces a small group of people to follow and because of this, these characters wind up escaping death. As the film progresses you find out that they will all be killed in the order that they were supposed to in the opening tragedy. Why, because you can’t cheat death.



Well people this time around the only thing that has changed is the catastrophe that occurs at the beginning of this film. At the start of this 3-D adventure our disaster takes down a suspension bridge in the normal gruesome and bloody fashion. People fall to their demise and meet death in the most interesting of ways, but once again this is just the same old tale.



One big question would be how did we ever get to part 5 in this series? Well to answer that question you would have to understand that Hollywood and studio films are part of a business first and artistically important second. The previous “Final Destination” film was one of the most lucrative and successful in the series, and just like the comparable “Saw” franchise, it seems to have incorporated the 3-D effects for no other reason than to sugarcoat a franchise gone stale. I believe that the filmmakers knew that these stories ran out of gas a couple of movies ago, but lucky for us they continue to churn these babies out one after the next.



Now gymnastics, fire & explosions, acupuncture, falling from a window, machine shop accidents, and LASIK surgery stand in for the creative bereavements that we encounter in this feature. Once again the same old stuff, however this new Final Destination adds 1 new plot twist. If you are the target of death, and you can deliver another to death’s door, well then you will be spared. Now if you think about it, our characters must now become murderers in order to survive, and just how are we supposed to sympathize with that?



Then Tony Todd shows up as almost a visual narrator. He appears out of nowhere and shows up for no other purpose than to explain everything that is going on to anyone that hasn’t seen the last 4 films. And then I just can’t believe that Courtney B. Vance is even in this project. Not the actor, but the man himself is just so smart, and radiates such intelligence; he is completely out of place in this movie.



The “Final Destination” movies are anything but quality projects anymore, and even for the horror genre this is just substandard. The only way that this wouldn’t be a complete waste of time for somebody is if you were 16 years old and sneaking into your first “R” rated movie. If you have seen the previous “Final Destination” films then you have already seen this one, and if you haven’t seen the previous “Final Destination” films then I envy you immensely.



When I see a movie like “Piranha 3-D” the filmmakers out and out go right for the movie cheese, Limburger actually in that case. However this like the previous installments there are moments when the director actually tries to incorporate drama into the project, and to that I answer…are you kidding me or what?



At just under 90 minutes “Final Destination 5” is everything you can expect, with absolutely no surprises, fun, or even talent along the way. If you have enjoyed the films in this franchise then God help you, but you will most likely be entertained by this one as well. My view is that if you are going to bring almost nothing to the big screen in the first place…then why even make the movie at all?



1 star out of 4