Amazon.co.uk Review
Giddily gruesome and perversely entertaining, Final Destination 3 proves, yet again, that horror franchises will thrive as long as teenagers keep finding spectacular ways to die. A stand-alone sequel to the first two Final Destination thrillers, this one begins when a group of seven high-school graduates luckily escape from a deadly roller-coaster disaster, only to discover that their own deaths have been only temporarily avoided. Cute brunette Wendy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) spots clues of impending doom in digital photos of her soon-to-be-expiring classmates, and an ill wind follows her everywhere, suggesting the presence of a supernatural force that makes her a catalyst for gory events, as each of her friends is dispatched in the order they were meant to die. Returning to give their brainchild a suspenseful, low-budget makeover, franchise creators and former X-Files writers James Wong and Glen Morgan cleverly play on our collective fears (the roller coaster sequence is genuinely terrifying) with a knowing nod to violent urban legends, which explains their inclusion of the '70s hit "Love Roller Coaster" on the soundtrack when two stuck-up girlfriends pay an ill-fated visit to a tanning parlor. And that's just for starters: With Wong as director, FD3 serves up its grisly deaths with tight pacing and humor, and the cathartic carnage is discreetly edited yet gory enough to satisfy hardcore horror buffs. When morbid mayhem is this much fun, it's a safe bet that another sequel is just around the corner. --Jeff Shannon
Customer Reviews:
2nd best of the three.......2007-09-22
James Wong (THE ONE), director of the original FINAL DESTINATION film, returns to direct the third instalment in the series, FINAL DESTINATION 3. High-school senior, Wendy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), is enjoying senior night at the amusement park and taking photos for the school yearbook. As a control freak, she's not particularly fond of rides, especially the roller coaster. Despite her fear, Wendy decides to take the plunge, but is soon traumatised by a vision that a fatal accident is about to occur. Heeding caution, she and a group of her classmates, disembark from the ride and watch as the remaining thrill-seekers suffer a horrific fate. Having cheated death once, Wendy is tormented by an ominous feeling that something is very wrong.
Her classmate, Kevin (Ryan Merriman), does some research and learns that something similar has happened before: a high-school
student had a premonition that a plane filled with his classmates was doomed; a group of them refused to board, and the plane exploded in flight. Following that incident, the survivors all died under mysterious circumstances, their
deaths following the same order as in the premonition.
Wendy and Kevin realise that the same
fate is about to befall all those who survived
the rollercoaster. Perhaps more disturbing is that clues to the impending deaths seem to lie in the photos that Wendy took on the evening of the accident. In an instant, innocuous situations and common objects become fatal, causing particularly gruesome deaths. Ultimately, the real question becomes whether or not Wendy and Kevin can save
their classmates and themselves from impending doom, before it is too late.
Amazing sequal as usualy the thirs of most of films turn out
crap, 5 star for a definate!
:):):);)
I FEEL IT'S RUNNING OUT OF STEAM.......2007-08-06
Enjoying their Graduation Day, Wendy Christensen, (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and her classmates are partying inside a packed carnival, and after being talked into the main attraction, a 200 foot-tall roller coaster with friends Kevin Fischer, (Ryan Merriman) Jason Robert Wise, (Jesse Moss) and Carrie Dreyer, (Gina Holden) she has an odd premonition involving the ride crashing, and manages to get several of her friends off as well. After the ride crashes as she predicted, the ones who got off start to die in strange, inexplicable accidents. Hearing a rumor that this happened before, they discover that Death has started stalking them and plans to take them out for thwarting his plan. Banning together with the still-alive survivors, they try to save each other from Death while staying alive themselves.
The Good News: This here was a fairly nice surprise. It opens quite promisingly with an extended runaway roller coaster sequence that is extremely creative in design, execution and intention. re back in the saddle (after getting spanked with their flop remake, "Willard"); promising that they're ready to dish out the lurid, intricately arranged genre pleasures that the series has become known for. It's a bravura and dazzling set-piece, playing into primal theme park fears every amusement park goer might have, as a roller coaster goes dramatically wrong. The hydraulics are on the fritz, the tracks are broken, the restraints come unlocked and people fly out of their seats, and the car gets stuck upside down in the middle of a loop. This is the film's most genuine terror and tension sequence, as the events are depicted so quickly that it is mind-blowing to see it pulled off in such a manner. The event may have been scaled back a notch, but has somehow managing to make a much smaller disaster far, far more exhilarating. The main reason for the film, though, is the death scenes, and this makes no mistake of offering up incredibly brutal and bloody kills that are bloody and exciting. Of special mention is the one in the tanning booth, which starts off thinking that the accident will be a malfunctioning bed, but quickly goes up a notch and goes off into a really gruesome series that is quite exciting and really out-of-control and over-the-top. It's the single most brutal one there is, and remains the high-point of the film. The accident in the hardware store comes in a close second, if only for the long and really drawn-out set-up before the actual kill, and the twist to it works wonderfully. To reveal anymore about the deaths would spoil them to an unnecessary degree, and being as it's the reason to watch these, won't. The method for sighting the clues necessary to stop the design is also a nice twist, meaning that the two leads are on sight for the deaths of their classmates, acting like investigators for a death that has yet to occur. It's a somewhat intriguing spin, making our heroes more active and mirroring our own sense of morbid fascination in trying to figure out how the seemingly random events leading up to a character's death will play out to the payoff. While not the best one there is, it's still a fun ride.
The Bad News: There some problems associated with the movie. This sticks to the usual slasher and horror conventions that idiots will die in the most moronic way ever, and it's a little tiring to see it. For as much as it praises to be about twisting the genre conventions around, to pull a hackneyed one is pretty hard to believe. Don't go looking for logic in the elaborate set-ups before a character's death. It's like every implausible element that will impact or contribute towards someone's death will be looked into, and the coincidence might make you shake your head at the sheer audacity of it all. Even if Death's looking for you and all angles must be covered, the fact that these are so off-the-wall and implausible is a little hard to take in. Idiocy also contributes here, since most of them openly go into places once the secret's out where anything could happen, such as the aforementioned hardware store, and there's seemingly endless ways to kill a person through an accident in there, leaving most of the suspense at the door. The biggest one, though, is the sense of discovery being completely gone, having experienced this scenario two times before, and as the central characters here are not the quick learners of the previous installment, that it takes so long to point out the signs and clues is really tiring. It's not that bad, but it's still not as great as the other ones where.
The Final Verdict: While not a classic like the first two, this is still a reasonably entertaining film that has some bright spots and some really low ones included. Fans of the series will definitely like this one, while those who have seen the first two should decide if trading suspense and logic for extra gore and nudity is a worthwhile one, as it's all been-there-done-that feel to it.
Great Film! Even better DVD features!!.......2007-08-04
I picked up this film by chance, it was in one of the so many for £20 deals and I wasn't sure what to get but thought I'd give it a go. I'd not seen the previous films, but having watched this I can safely say that it doens't matter.
Wendy and her friends are having a fun night out a the fair, when she has a vision about what will happen to them if they ride the rollercoaster. Some of her friends manage to get off, and escape there fate ( for now ) the others die in the exact way that Wendy had forseen.
When the rest of her friends start dropping like flies, in the order they would have if they'd stayed on the ride, its up to her and friend Kevin to try and break this curse.
Having watched alot of horror espically this " teen " area, I'd say this film comes up with alot of new ideas. I don't know if I'd be saying that if I'd seen the other 2 - but anyway!
The DVD features are where this film really excells itself. You can either watch the theatrical version or watch it your way in " Choose there fate " I've never seen this before, it allows the viewer to pick between 2 different options at different points in the film. Of course both will have different outcomes. This alone made me want to watch it again and I'm sure I will many more times.
It's fast paced, the deaths are inventive - just about the right amount of gore! You can't go wrong!
First film was good, second was ok, third was brilliant!.......2007-07-05
'Final Destination 3' begins as Wendy and her school friends visit an theme park, with Wendy taking photos of everyone having fun. Before going onto a giant rollercoaster with her friends, Wendy has a premonition that the ride is going to derail and that they will all die. As she wakes up to see herself seated on the rollercoaster before it has started and so she expresses her troubled thoughts resulting in herself and some of her friends getting off the ride; only to see what happens to those on it who all get killed.
Like with the first Final Destination film where Alex and his friends of flight 180 cheat death, the unseen Grim Reaper hunts down the survivors of the rollercoaster incident and they begin to become victims of a chain of grisly "accidents" with the only clues to how they die being the photos taken at the theme park.
For a sequel, Final Destination 3 is a fantastic teen horror flick with some pretty jumpy scares and some truly over the top, but very clever, "accidents" that result with an extremely gory outcome. The film is very similar to the original but still manages to pull of the shocks that made the first one so good. You can see the accidents coming with the long build-ups but it is still a big surprise when the deaths actually happen.
Also on the special edition DVD is an option to watch the original theatrical release or the new "Choose Their Fate" version, where you watch the film as normal but an option will cut in allowing you to choose a character's action with the outcome deciding whether the character will die or not (or in a few cases - die differently). This is a great unique feature that was obviously filmed especially for the DVD but also allows you to see the film differently the second time you watch it - a feature that maybe should be included on other DVD releases in the future.
This is a great no-brainer horror sequel that should be enjoyed for what it is and is also a fine finish to the "Thrill-ogy".
Entertaining But Very Flawed.......2007-04-29
Ultimately "Final Destination 3" is little more than everyday horror filler. That being said, its immediately easy to question whether its even fair that this third movie in the series warrants being labelled a horror. After all, it isn't all that scary and the gore doesn't appear to fit in with a movie that otherwise should have been produced as a teen movie. As is, "Final Destination 3" is too dumb, not scary enough, lacking sensical characterisation and lacking much of a script. Its not all bad with "Final Destination 3" though, some of the acting performances on hand aqre pretty good even if the characters they're portraying aren't particularly inspired.
Similar to both of the previous efforts, the difference with "Final Destination 3" is the method by which the circumstances by which several characters avoid their deaths is via a dodgy rollercoaster ride. The person in particular to have a vision of their demise is Wendy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), whose celebrating her high school graduation with the rest of the graduates at an amusement park, has a premonition of a horrible accident taking place when they're on the rollercoaster in question. Panicked, she refuses to board. Also unnerved enough to avoid getting onto the rollercoaster are Kevin (Ryan Merriman), cheerleaders Ashley (Chelan Simmons) and Ashlynn (Crystal Lowe), Lewis (Texas Battle) the token black guy and finally goths Ian (Kris Lemche) and Erin (Alexz Johnson). With both Wendy and Kevin losing their respective boyfriend and girlfriend in the crash the two band together to try and stop the survivors of the crash dying, once said survivors begin dying in freak accidents.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead is by far and away the best actress or actor involved with "Final Destination 3". The movie itself is below Winstead, but said movie at least benefits from her obvious talents. Also of note as co-main character is Ryan Merriman, not as excellent as Winstead but still a decent enough counterpart. The only other actor that stands out a little from the bunck is Kris Lemche. Not out of any acting brilliance, he just stands out.
"Final Destination 3" doesn't attempt to develop the foreboding death lingering over everyone in the movie with all that much substance. Nonchalantly referencing the events of past movies, the people responsible for bringing this motion picture to the screen don't appear to be all that bothered with their motion picture being anything above the routine fodder that dominates the horror genre these days. Sure, the movie is entertaining enough to watch but is without depth and development and thus is rendered a very much average affair that, had it not been for the great acting of the two leads, could have been even worse for all the detriments it has.
The deaths of the characters are expectedly bizarre and deliver the blood factor some might be expecting. However, save for the innovativeness of it all the deaths are more-or-less irrelevant. They aren't done successfully in a way that manages to be scary or shocking and thus surprisingly become one of the motion picture's many problems. Sure, on or two may take you by surprise. But probably not.
Overall, "Final Destination" is routine and disconnected. It fails in making the viewer care about the characters on screen and would have probably been awful were it not for Winstead and Merriman constantly being front and centre. For the sheer excitement factor, it is definitely worth the watch. However, its not so great on the intelligence scale.
UK DVD:
- Flight Of The Living Dead [2006]
- Friday The 13th [1980]
- Ghost Ship [2003]
- Graham Chapman's Personal Best (REGION 1) (NTSC)
- Gremlins / Gremlins 2 - The New Batch [1984]
- Guillermo Del Toro Collection (Pan's Labyrinth, Cronos, The Devil's Backbone) [2006]
- Halloween [1978]
- Hammer House Of Horror - Complete Collection [1980]
- Hatchet [2007]
- Hostel 1 & 2 Box Set[2005] [2006]
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