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</script></div>{/googleAds}When the first movie in this series hit cinemas in the year 2000, the effect it had on the audience was chilling to say the least. After the movie, people would look both ways before crossing the street and actually looked down on what they were steeping onto. After the second and third movies, Final Destination started to become a parody of slasher flicks running alongside the Scream series. Essentially, it was becoming death porn with dark humor. Returning to direct this fourth installment, David R. Ellis knew this had to be a do or die last ditch attempt in keeping the sinking series afloat. In a way, he succeeds buy not letting it sink, rather what he manages in the end is to keep it float, but floating dead in the water. Injecting a fresh 3D look into this last installment may have been a good thing if he had not so blindly over looked some of the obvious blunders any fan of the series would be all to eager to point out.

The Final DestinationAs the film relies on brutally killing off characters in explicit fashion, Ellis' made his first mistake in leaking out all the gory details in pre-release trailers. Additionally, the opening credits kill all the characters right at the start, but in X-ray vision. What good is it if you know how the main characters die and then watch it again with a little more detail? If that weren't enough, a preview of each imminent death comes to the lead character as an additional premonition. This is what Nick O'Bannon (Bobby Campo) experiences each time one of his â"saved" friends meet their gruesome demise, thinking they have all cheated Mr. Grim Reaper. And just when Nick thinks he has outsmarted death, Mr. Reaper lays all cards face down in a show down as old as time itself: you can run, but you cant hide, and you most certainly can never hustle death itself. That pretty much sums up the 80 minute plot and doesn't really offer anything knew to the franchise. The plot is also the mother of all clichés with some of the most predictable moments ever seen in a slasher flick. Watching a character die in exactly the same way you expect doesn't say much about a director's skill in surprising the audience or twisting the plot. But perhaps his biggest failure is directing a bunch of what's-his-face actors loosely portraying college kids too stuck-up to be given a second chance at life. Maybe because these are rich college kids with SUVs, stylish apartments and lifestyles enviable only by the rich and famous. Sadly, even Ellis' 3D gimmick doesn't work given the 1D performance put in by relatively inexperienced actors. And since there is absolutely no character build up, the wait to watch them die is in a way, duly rewarded. The only actor to display any acting skills is Mykelti Williamson as one of the doomed characters. Even without his prosthetic lip as seen in Forrest Gump (â"Bubba"), Williamson manages to provide some humor intentionally written for the film. All the rest are laughable, albeit unintentionally. Speaking of 3D, hasn't this lame excuse of a visual effect been around since the 80's? Does it work? For a few nuts, bolts and screwdrivers in the beginning maybe, the rest becomes too cumbersome, even if you fancy guts and gore dangling right within arms reach.

Given the many flaws here like terrible acting, lousy plot line and has-been visual effects, THE in the title could well mean THE END of a franchise that should never have had any sequels in the first place, allowing for a possible Razzie Award for one of this year's worst films. Even so, in competing with Saw and Scream, if ever there should be a fifth part to this madness, the only way to revive it would be to have original direct James Wong deal the deadly blow. Until that time, if you really want to see how and why death is around the corner, mark your calendars for November this year. Precisely, Friday the 13th. No, not the movie, but the day 2012 is scheduled for world-wide release.


Component Grades
Movie
DVD
2 stars
2 stars
DVD Experience
2 stars

Blu-rayBlu-ray Details:

Screen Formats: 2.40:1

Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish

Language and Sound: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Spanish, Dolby Digital 5.1

Supplements:

Commentary - No commentary track available.

Featurettes:

  • Body Count: The Deaths of The Final Destination (HD, 22 minutes)
  • Racecar Crash and Mall Explosion (HD, 11 minutes)
  • A Nightmare on Elm Street First Look (HD, 2 minutes):

Deleted Scenes - 9 scenes that didn't make the final cut totalling 7 minutes in aggregate length.

Alternate Endings - (HD, 4 minutes)

Number of Discs
: 50GB Blu-ray Disc; Two-disc set; Digital copy; 3-D.

{pgomakase}