THE FINAL DESTINATION

Director: David R. Ellis
Stars: Bobby Campo, Shantel VanSanten, Nick Zano, Haley Webb, Mykelti Williamson
Year: 2009
Rating: R

Not having seen the film in 3D, I can honestly say I don't know how those effects turned out on the big screen ... but almost from the beginning, this incarnation of the Final Destination series was still pretty obvious about taking every opportunity possible to throw or thrust something at the audience. Having no real connection whatsoever to the previous films in the serious, this story of death coming after those who cheated it is set at a racetrack, where college boy Nick (Bobby Campo) has a hideous premonition of him and his friends (and everyone around them) dying horribly in a freak accident.

As in the other films, most around Nick scoff at the vision, and Nick's insistence starts a fight that ends up getting a small group of the attendees thrown out of the proceedings, where they stand outside arguing with and berating Nick - as, seconds later, Nick's vision comes 100% true and the bodies do, indeed, begin to fall (or get crushed, or decapitated, what have you). Now all the survivors are freaked out, none more so than Nick, but this is only (of course) the first ten minutes of the film; from here on, as death comes back to claim those, in turn, who would have died had they stayed for the entire race, the deaths get more bizarre and gruesome - and Nick and his girlfriend Lori (Shantel VanSanten) start a-sweatin', as they were the last to die in Nick's vision.

While the filmmakers try to be inventive in the death scenes (and, indeed, the opening credits - spotlighting some of the more spectacular deaths from previous installments - make for pretty cool viewing, the way it's done), watching the film you can't help but realize you've been down this road before. And before, it was much more interesting. At only 82 minutes in length, the film has a rushed quality about it that make for no story or character development (not that you'd expect that here, anyway), so much as each scene, as the film goes on, being nothing more than a set-up for the death to follow. None of the actors particularly stand out, with one exception - Mykelti Williamson, who brings class and heart to everything he's in - and we're not really given enough time with any of them enough to care. The fact that the film's "plot" (such as it is) also makes zero effort to tie into any of the previous films (as some of the others did) also leaves the impression that the filmmakers didn't care about making this one GOOD as much as they did about making it FAST. And the ending, which doubles back on itself and literally has a "surprise" coming about the last three seconds of the film, seems hackneyed and forced ... and, frankly, a bit of a downer after what those characters had already been through!

Definitely the weakest of the series, with the fifth installment in the works you can only hope more care and TLC is taken with the franchise next time. Watch the first two in the series especially, and you'll realize it deserves it. *1/2 - Get Reel-Reel Mediocre