Final Destination 3: Stop me if you've...

[Remo D]

You already KNOW what you're walking into--you just hope they've got the flair to pull it off a third time.

We've had the plane crash and the freeway accident, and now it's the rollercoaster (in real life, rollercoasters don't scare me, but they make me physically ill. Now the Drop Zone? No problem). Appallingly graphic accident sequence turns out to be a premonition, a number of people leave the ride early as a result. And...

Did they keep any of the characters from the first two? No, but the events are referred to.

What about Tony Todd? Well... he doesn't make an appearance in this one. If you take my meaning.

Are the characters named after horror movie directors again? According to the credits, a lot of them were, but the movie doesn't call attention to it. You DO get plenty of references to murdered Presidents and their assassins, though... and another string of clever/tasteless musical signatures. (Double points for "Love Rollercoaster"--it may seem TOO obvious, but never mind the rollercoaster in the movie... remember the urban legend that suggested that you could hear someone being murdered in the background of that song?)

Is it shocking and startling like the first one, or gleefully, graphically sick like the second one? A little bit of both, actually--and you're sure to whoop it up. With no Jason, Michael, Freddy "boogeyman" to waste time with, the filmmakers are free to dream up wonderfully intricate Rube Goldberg set pieces--not to mention one hell of a lot of distractions and false alarms (how long do you have to wonder how believable it is that the workout room of "The Sultans" would have a couple of REAL scimitars crossed and hanging on the wall, just waiting to...) Okay, I promise not to give any more details. But it's a riot. Skin, gore, imagination, sick humor...

...everything EXCEPT a satisfying ending. Third time's not the charm, and it's quite obvious that they just couldn't think of one (the story falls apart well before the finale, incidentally).

So the "clunk" of an ending says to me that as much as I've enjoyed this series, it may be time to just... let... it... go... now. That is NOT a non-recommendation--you'll want to see this, and it's the perfect antidote for a weak teabag like WHEN A STRANGER CALLS (hope it knocks that smug sucker right off the top of the charts). Go have fun.

P.S. My favorite rollercoaster scene is still the one in the HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL remake.

[steven_millan]

Soembody at Fred Olen Ray's Retromedia board pointed out that this series is the obvious American attempt at Japanese horror,mainly in its depicted theme of a ghostly force stalking and causing its victims to meet ultra-splattery deaths.

What this series really needs is to deeply explore Tony Todd's character,for just who is he actually other than just a ghostly morgue guy,and how does he play into this series,which is what the third film would have really needed.

BTW:horror writer/fetish model Christa Faust wrote the novelization to this film(if anyone cares to knows).

[MetalGoddess]

Cool. I love the Final Destination movies and own the first two. Thanks for the review.

[Darth Tanner]

Caught this today (first theatrical viewing of 2006) and I'm with Remo on this one pretty much. A good two hours of entertainment, but nothing really special if you've already seen the first two. Skin, gore and cheese galore....what more can one ask for in a movie like this? I have to admit that the "nailgun scene" really took me by surprise. Yeah but they should definitely stop now with this entry while they are ahead. IMO a FINAL DESTINATION 4 would probably be just as useless as a BASIC INSTINCT 2 (but we all know I'll probably be one of the first in line for that one:dsmoke:.