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Reviews

Final Destination 3

2.5 stars

By BRETT MICHEL | February 9, 2006

2.5 Stars

MAYBE THE THIRD TIME should really be final.

If your moviegoing destination lies in the vicinity of guilty pleasures, then you’ve probably visited David R. Ellis’s Final Destination 2, the 2003 horror sequel that eclipsed the 2000 original’s conceit that death can’t be cheated and has a nasty sense of humor. Rube Goldberg fans could appreciate the use of household items as inspired instruments of extermination. More to the point, the misdirection of audience expectations elevated the thrill quotient. But series creators Glen Morgan and James Wong (of X-Files fame) don’t live up to expectations in this third run through of giddy teens trying to escape visions of diabolical doom. The opening roller-coaster disaster lacks the visceral thrill of the earlier films’ plane and car wrecks, and though things improve (if not for the doomed characters, headlined by Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Ryan Merriman), giving fans the grisly carnage they crave, perhaps this third trip should be final.

Related: Review: The Final Destination, Wing walking, Snakes on a Plane, More

Review: The Final Destination
David R. Ellis, who helmed Final Destination 2 , pretty much reworks the exact same shebang here.
Wing walking
David Ellis, Chuck Webster, and Yuri Shimojo sat down with the Phoenix to discuss their new installation at SPACE Gallery.
Snakes on a Plane
I don’t know who had more fun at this Frankenfilm’s first showing: a fellow critic (who was frequently stomping his feet), the audience (who were frequently on their feet), or myself (my feet planted firmly in my mouth for ever doubting this film would fly). Watch the trailer for Snakes on a Plane (QuickTime)
Retroperspective
Rare are the instances of true interdisciplinarity in exhibitions of contemporary art-moments where disciplines meet, mix, and couple to produce offspring that belong to neither field and set off on their own in search of even wilder mates.
Apocalypse now and then
With Snakes on a Plane and World Trade Center opening on the same day, this summer won’t be offering the usual escapist fare.
Foo!apalooza
What began life as the comparatively modest Fool’s Ball has mutated into an unruly (but lovable) behemoth.
Treasured trash
“Lost and Found,” now showing at the June Fitzpatrick Gallery at the Maine College of Art in Portland, is worth stumbling upon.
Perspectives
It happens only every three or four years rather than annually, so “Faculty Exhibition 2007” at Brown University’s David Winton Bell Gallery is bound to catch our attention.
Cap and trade explained
The general idea behind cap and trade is pretty simple: put a tax on pollution, and the market will crank out less of it. But if a pollution tax is a lever, cap and trade is a vast, rickety Rube Goldberg contraption. Ingenious? Yes. Complicated? Fiendishly.
Review: Dragonball Evolution
Only traces of the original plot remain: evil alien Piccolo (James Marsters) still fights to collect all seven dragonballs to summon a dragon that will grant one wish.
Pat Metheny | Orchestrion
The “orchestrion” is a Rube Goldberg-like contraption that empowers Metheny in one-man-band format to trigger a variety of percussion and other instruments as he plays guitar.
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Topics: Reviews , Rube Goldberg, Glen Morgan, David Ellis, More

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Watch the trailer for Final Destination 3 (QuickTime)

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