Final Destination 2

FINAL DESTINATION 2

Rating: C

In the opening sequence, a fresh new pack of sacrificial teenagers aboard a bright red SUV bounds for Spring Break in Fort Lauderdale. As "Highway to Hell" blares from the radio, we're quickly introduced to the occupants of several other vehicles sharing the same highway. With a feeling of impending doom hanging in the air, one thing after another threatens to go dangerously wrong, until finally a chain securing the logs on a flatbed truck shakes loose and the logs come bounding down into oncoming traffic. What follows is one of the most memorable crash sequences in the history of film. Not only do we get to witness SUVs being torn to metallic shreds in collisions with semis (always a thing of beauty, no matter what else is happening) and batted about like ping pong balls, but the unrelenting mayhem over the next few minutes accomplishes that cinematic feat so often discussed but rarely achieved: an orgy of disaster which is actually beautiful to watch. This movie is worth renting when it comes to DVD just to see the car crash.

Of course, if all the kids died in the opening scene, there wouldn't be much left to do in the rest of the film. So it turns out the spectacular pileup was just a premonition experienced by lead actress A.J. Cook. Coincidentally, or not so coincidentally, she and her friends happen to be heading to Fort Lauderdale in a bright red SUV at that very moment, which understandably causes her no small concern. Then "Highway to Hell" comes on the radio. Aw, shiiit. So she stops the SUV on the highway onramp and blocks all the traffic behind her, which causes a lot of furious drivers until the symphony of explosions and crunching metal begins downroad without them. Then suddenly they're not so furious. But if you saw the first Final Destination, you know that escaping Death isn't quite so easy. If you don't answer the bell when your number's called, the bastard starts paying personal visits.

What follows, unfortunately, is a series of sequences where those who avoided the opening crash they were "meant" to die in are brutally killed off one by one. Although director David R. Ellis includes some light touches, such as an homage to the clown and tree of Poltergeist, and a general Rube Goldberg feel to many of Death's machinations, the most distinguishing feature of the death scenes is that they're all extremely violent. And the camera revels in all the blood and gore. In my review of the original, I noted that some of the death scenes appeared to be played for laughs, but the brusque brutality of some of the others conflicted with this interpretation. In this sequel, Ellis leaves no doubt about it - we're supposed to view all the slice-and-dice decapitations, impalements, and immolations with unrestrained merriment. To be fair, the audience was laughing during these bits, and I doubt most were the type of people who'd laugh at a real-life tragedy. They were simply able to shut off their higher inhibitions and take the movie in the spirit it was intended, which was a bridge I was unable to cross. But then, as you can probably tell from my picture, I'm the sensitive type.

For a movie of this genre, some of the acting is quite good, particularly that of A.J. Cook and Ali Larter, who reprises her role as "Clear Rivers" (wince). By good, I mean at least they actually appear to be making an effort to be believable. The story itself is another matter entirely. Writer J. Mackye Gruber never seems sure whether this Death character who's so anal about keeping his books balanced is some sort of natural physical force like gravity, or some form of diabolical intelligence akin to the grim reaper. This matters only if you happen to be following the "plot" (probably not a good idea to begin with). The characters and the final resolution treat Death as a force of nature which can be thwarted or balanced artificially, but the nature of the deaths and their conceptions make Death seem to be one vindictive mo' fo' (after all, why doesn't Death just kill all the characters simultaneously in their sleep?). The point, if there is one, is that the final resolution (at least until Final Destination 3 comes out) isn't believable in the context of everything which has gone before. Serves me right for following the plot.

Mostly as a service to my readers, and a little bit because I enjoy being a pain in the ass (or is it the other way around?), I can't resist pointing out the similarities between the crash scene in this film and one in last year's Trapped, starring Kevin Bacon and Charlize Theron. The latter film also featured a multi-car pileup with massive explosions, on a stretch of highway which looked eerily similar to that in Final Destination 2 (both were filmed in Canada). But what really makes the two so alike is that a flatbed truck laden with logs plays a major part in the chaos in Trapped also. I'll leave you with the following picture from Trapped, and let you be the judge.