Final Destination 2 (January 30/03)
Like the original, Final Destination 2 delights in tormenting its characters. The film's premise - a bunch of folks cheat death, and find themselves being stalked (and knocked off) by an unseen force - is simple enough that very little setup is required. After an astoundingly exciting opening sequence, the movie essentially gets right to the killin' - bypassing usual stretches of exposition and character development.
The film opens with Kimberly (A.J. Cook) and her three friends heading off to Daytona Beach in her dad's SUV. But midway through their journey, and after we meet an assorted bunch on the same highway, a massive accident occurs - killing Kimberly, her friends, and an assorted amount of others. Like the first movie, though, the disaster turns out to have been a premonition of some kind on the part of Kimberly. She becomes so freaked out by her vision, that she holds up a line of cars waiting to get on the freeway - and in turn, preventing the deaths of several folks who were to die in the pile-up. The remainder of the film follows Kimberly's efforts to find out what's going on, while the survivors begin to drop like flies.
Final Destination 2 is certainly a worthy followup to its predecessor, the rare case of a sequel that takes what made the original so enjoyable and expands on it. But this one's upped the ante in terms of the sheer amount of deaths - the first film had around five or six survivors to knock off, while this one has a number closer to ten. And though the deaths aren't quite as ingenious as they were in the original (especially that one woman who was essentially tortured by a number of household objects, before finally exploding), there's still a lot of fun to be had as the various players find themselves killed in increasingly bizarre ways. The level of gore has been stepped up here as well, which makes the film a must-see with as large an audience as possible (their reactions will no doubt elevate the incredibly disgusting manner in which some of these characters die).
Having said that, the film does falter a bit towards the end by introducing a needlessly complicated subplot involving Kimberly's recurring visions and how they might be the key in preventing death from finishing the job. It's far too convoluted and requires more exposition than a movie like this requires; in the time it took to explain the reasoning behind the visions (which has something to do with changing Death's plan by creating life), several more people could've been offed. And though the film does contain a good amount of carnage, the manner in which characters are dispatched isn't quite as clever as it was in the first film.
Still, there's no denying that Final Destination 2 is one of the most purely enjoyable films out there right now. It's not trying to do anything except entertain, which is reason enough to check it out. And if that's not enough, keep in mind that it's proudly rated R - a refreshing change of pace from all the watered-down PG-13 suckfests that are diluting the market.
