Customer Reviews

Final Destination 3 [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(58)
4 star:		(54)
3 star:		(44)
2 star:		(18)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

Being a big fan of the previous Final Destination movies I knew I would love this one as long as it stuck to the formula. Not only did this movie accomplish the task, it left me squeezing my boyfriends arm a few times too many, a good sign that the disturbing scary horror parts did their job! I liked al the new characters introduced, a class of McKinnley high school seniors celebrating end of their schooling with a wild night at the amusement park. The whole movie does not take the place in the park, only the beginning, the place of unspeakable horrors and lot's of bloody bodies.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead in head role as Wendy Christensen was a new face to me but a joy to watch on the screen. She had a really disturbing premonition of the roller coaster ride breaking, and while everything happened as she imagined, the remaining people who thought they were lucky had no idea what horrible things would await them. I was shocked at the gruesome death scenes perfectly set up in a cat and mouse style of a game. It reminded me of those old fashioned Dominoes games I would play, arranging the pattern on the floor for hours, then at one push one thing led to another and the whole design pushed forward slumped in a mess. That's how death worked in this movie, one misplaced object would leak onto another, push a cart then a bottle toppled over, wetting a heater which in then increased the temperature in a tanning booth while two saved girls tanned in. A coat hanger tripped by an air fan showed the bookshelf on top of the booth locking them in, that is how this movie happens. There are no bad guys, no monsters , no ghosts, just that evil draft and unfortunate coincidences that somehow brought boys and girls to bloody pulp. All of the death scenes were amazing, as much as disturbing, they were really shown in full detail, as I had no idea this movie was going to be that hair raising. The rollercoaster scene itself was incredible, totally disgusting and something I will love to see again.

The best, well the most disgusting death scene was with the nail gun, you guys who have seen it know what I am talking about, I was shocked yet at the same time I was really impressed at the effects and the poor actors. Overall a great fun movie, a blast to watch and really gory but interesting enough when you care for the characters.

I loved trying to figure out with them how to cheat death and seeing their failed attempts and small successes lead somewhere. I hope more parts will come out, as I can never get bored of this theme!

- Kasia S.

All throughout high school I was a devoted horror movie fan. Over the years I've lost a little of my enthusiasm for the genre as it has steadily progressed away from the edge-of-your-seat thriller that I loved so dearly, and on towards mindless gore and cheap "pop-out" scare tactics. Where's the excitement?

Final Destination 3 is certainly a thrill ride worth taking. I almost didn't watch it, but I was intrigued by a very unique feature on the soon-to-be released DVD version. It is a 2-disc special edition that has all the usual features such as commentary and behind-the-scenes featurettes...BUT the "intriguing" DVD aspect I am speaking of is the "Choose Your Own Adventure" format available on the Special Edition DVD version released Tuesday July 25.

MOVIE PREMISE: As a group of friends are about to get on a rollercoaster, one of them, Wendy, suddenly has a vision of the rollercoaster malfunctioning, and everyone onboard dying. After Wendy begins to panic and tries desperately to warn all those on board, she gets off the coaster, along with a few others. After the coaster crashes just as she predicted, strange things begin to happen to all those who deboarded the doomed coaster. Death will not be avoided for long. After realizing the pictures she had taken with her digital camera that night held clues to the terrifyingly gruesome ways in which each person was going to die...Wendy and her friend/fellow doomed survivor Ryan, try desperately to warn all those who escaped the accident. They realize that each person is being killed in the order that they sat on the rollercoaster...in the order they were meant to die.

On the DVD, once you click on "Play Movie", you will be given the option of watching the theatrical release version of the film, OR....watching the movie in Choose-your-own-adventure style (which they call "Choose Their Fate"). If you choose the latter (which certainly makes things more interesting), then the movie will pause at key points in the film and give you two choices that will directly effect the way the film progresses.

For Example:
...A flip of a coin will decide where your boyfriend will sit on the coaster. Do you A.) Call Heads, or B.) Call Tails?

...A huge sign is about to fall on top of a man and crush him to death...does he A.) dive to the left, or B.) dive to the right?

...Your friend specifically asks you *not* to look at his picture and possibly foresee the way in which he'll soon die. Do you A.) take another look anyway, or B.) do as he asks and don't look.

Each choice you make has a very specific effect. Some choices will either save a character...or condemn them to a gruesome death. Some choices can't save a character...but they alter the way in which that character dies. Some choices will even end the film early!

It's a new and very fun feature that I've never seen done before, and regardless of the fact that some people feel the "Final Destination" movies have become a little formulaic...it's still worth checking out and having a go at deciding each character's fate.

HELPFUL HINT/SPOILER: When watching the film "Choose Their Fate" style...I recommend that when it comes time to make your first choice (which will be a coin toss...Heads or Tails), that you choose Heads. If you choose Tails, the movie will end almost immediately afterwards and you will not have a chance to see the rest of it play out. Choosing Heads will take you forward with the film...the rest is up to you!

Also...when making your choices...choose wisely and FAST. If you wait longer than a few seconds to make your choice, then Fate will choose for you. Good Luck!

It's tough to come up with a premise for a horror movie that hasn't already been done (or done to death), but the creators of the original "Final Destination," Glen Morgan and James Wong, sure had no problem back in 2000. Now, returning to the franchise they created, the respective writer and director return (after being absent for "Final Destination 2") with an all-new, exciting and invigorating sequel. Starring Ryan Merriman ("Halloween: Resurrection"), Mary Elizabeth Winstead ("The Ring 2"), two plastic bimbos who look too old to be high schoolers, and someone named Texas Battle (?), "Final Destination 3" is a lot like it's predecessors; this one isn't shy when it comes to gore and innovative and wild death scenes.

Hate to make the comparison, but "Final Destination 3" is a lot like a rollercoaster ride. It has it's ups and downs, yet totally unpredictable. Although this movie obviously feels like a retread (kinda hard to stretch this premise to far), there are still a few elements to keep this movie feeling fresh. For starters, James Wong's directing here is a bit more stylish than it was in the original, and some of the death scenes are just as, if not, more, clever and creepy as those in the first two. This time, instead of an airplane or a car crash, our main character has hallucinations of a rollercoaster going off it's rails. After successfully getting half the people kicked off the ride, she can only watch in horror as the remaining victims plummet to their grisly deaths, as predicted. Also, as predicted, the characters wise up to "Death's Plan" and quickly try to find ways to avoid it. One angle that this film had that the other two lacked was a stalker that isn't supernatural. Not to ruin anything, but out of all of the events, a main character finds themselves being stalked by another. This was a cool addition to a tried and true storyline, but I just wish they would have taken it farther.

If you enjoyed the first two movies, buckle up and enjoy. "Final Destination 3" definitely lives up to the legacy. Despite the fact that this franchise feels like it's running out of steam (and supposedly, this is the "Final" installment), the third movie delivers enough thrills to keep even the most discriminating horror junky happy. One thing is for sure, I'll definitely think twice next time I'm standing in line for a rollercoaster...

Director James Wong (IV) returns to bring us the next horrifying installment to the FD franchise. The original cast from, the first and second films have been removed entirely, but we are introduced to some interesting new young faces, including Mary Elizabeth Winstead (as the main heroine). I liked the original just as much as I did with FD2, but I absolutely LOVED FD3! Personally, I consider it to be the best one thus far even if the stubborn critics disagree! Mr. Wong knows how to entertain an audience by making his movies scary, imaginative, and fun at the same time! His work is also the most original, when compared to most of the cheap, PG-13 imitations put out today. I got the opportunity to view this with my older brother and friend at the movie theatre yesterday and wasn't in any way disappointed!

Taking place six years since the tragic account of Flight 180 (See the original, "Final Destination"), high school senior, Wendy Christensen (Winstead) has a premonition involving a fatal rollercoaster accident. Before the ride is launched, she succeeds at saving herself and most of her friends from meeting an untimely demise. But death soon comes back to re-claim its victims, as mysterious and bizarre accidents begin to occur! Now, Wendy must solve death's puzzle and save everyone before it's too late! Her only clues lead to the photographs that she took of herself and her friends at the carnival, which also represent the order that they're to die in. Will she succeed, or will death finish them all?

If you've enjoyed FD1 and FD2, then you're sure to enjoy FD3 even more! The acting can drag a little here and there, but the well-written script and amazing special effects do more than make up for it! Furthermore, the death sequences are very creative and executed nicely even more so than that of the first two films (Watch out for the tanning booth and weight room scenes)! However, if you are squeamish and/or the faint of heart, then you may want to look elsewhere! You'll need a very strong stomach if you are to get through the whole movie! But longtime horror fans and gorehounds alike are sure to enjoy this third [and possibly LAST] 'Destination'!

SCRIPT: 10/10
ACTING: 7/10
SPECIAL EFFECTS: 10/10
MAKEUP EFFECTS: 10/10

MY OVERALL RATING: 10/10

...Can't wait for the DVD release!

This movie was tremendously entertaining, so much so that I decided to watch it a second time. But during that second viewing, one of my friends pointed something out to me that I hadn't noticed, and apparently very few people did.

In the premonition sequence, Frankie Cheeks drops his camera and it latches onto the coaster rail, starting the sequence of events that led to the deaths. However, when Wendy gets everybody off the back of the train, Frankie is one of the people that survives, never having dropped his camera.

The roller coaster sequence could not possibly play out in the same fashion as the premonition, and theoretically the deaths might not have happened at all without the camera on the tracks.

I don't understand how this could go overlooked by the hundreds of people that produce and edit a movie. That glitch has the possibility of rendering the entire movie pointless, and nobody seemed to notice it.

I saw this film the day after its release and despite being extremely ill, I really enjoyed it.
This time, the film looks at a group of teenagers enjoying graduation by going to a funfair. One of them is a photographer for the school paper and starts to notice strange things in the photographs she takes. (For instance the ride that said 'high die' instead of 'high dive') Her friends decide that they want to go on the rollercoaster and although the photographer isn't sure about it, she decides to go on it as well. I was so scared when the rollercoaster started to move. That part was really good because it definitely built up some tension and as soon as the rollercoaster went down the drop, things really started to get nasty. (In a good way though!)
The death scenes in this film are incredibly gory. There nastier than the first film. (Again, in a good way!) My favourite death scene had to be the one of those two girls on the sunbeds as that part truly terrified me and had me on the edge of my seat. I also loved the ending too but i won't say anything about that 'cause I don't want to give too much away!
"Final Destination 3" wasn't as good as the first film but its still great and all fans of horror and gore should get it!

***THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SOME MAJOR SPOILERS, DO NOT READ IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE SPOILED***

Being a big fan of the Final Destination movies, I was overly excited to hear that a Final Destination 3 would soon be gracing the theater screens, I wondered what accident they could come up with and put into effect in this one, after hearing that it would be a Rollercoaster disaster that started the film off, I was drooling all over the place, I wasn't sure if they could top the insane highway pile up accident seen in the second FD film.

I had my expectations set high for this film and first i'll say, it met them perfectly, yeah there were some nitpicks I found in the film but overall, the great outdid the bad.

The film basically starts off with a control freak senior, Wendy Christenson (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), enjoying herself at an amusement park celebrating her and her friends upcoming High School graduation. Everythings all fun and games, that is until her and her friends board a Rollercoaster, it crashes, people are thrown from there carts, carts tear off and leap from the tracks, people are impaled, people hang onto there harnesses for dear life when the Coaster goes upside down, great, action packed stuff. Everyone dies in the accident, but wait, it was only a vision seen by our main protagonist, Wendy of course, she freaks and gets herself as well as 9 other kids kicked off the ride, soon after, she witnesses the ride crashing, just like in her premonition, everyone on board dieing, including her best friend and boyfriend who tried to get off but were not allowed by security. Wendy feels guilty about not trying harder to stop the ride and has basically shunned herself from everyone around her, when Kevin, her best friends boyfriend, comes to her with a theory that death might be coming back to reclaim its victims, she basically tells him to F off and thinks hes being his usual, jackass self, but when two of the people who got off the ride die in violent, vicious ways, she begins to believe and realizes that Kevin was right, and that clues of there soon-to-happen deaths are hidden in photographs that she had tooken of the survivors for the High School Yearbook at the amusement park. Her and Kevin team up to try and prevent death from claiming them and the other survivors.

The Accident: I'll admit, the accident wasn't as great as I was hoping for, it just didn't give that all out crazy, in your face feeling that the accident in the second movie had, but all that said, the accident was still visually amazing and directed with some quick sly and action paced movements, I had my hand gripping the armrest next to me in the theater, you could sense the fear that the charectors had while it was happening, especially when the harnesses first give way and flew up, the fear in the charectors expressions and actions were so convincing, especially from Wendy. The CGI was surprisingly not as bad as I expected it to be, it was only noticeable in a couple segments of the scene, including one where a guy is barely hanging onto his harness as the Coaster spins around on a loop, sending him in a messy circle of hanging on for his life, and even the CGI wasn't that bad during that scene. The climax of that scene was also great and effective, seeing Wendy screaming as she hurtled down to the track below and then coming out of her vision just before she meets with the track face on.

The Acting and Charector Development: This is where the film was weak, the acting was sort of stale at many times, fortunetly, it was from the actors whose charectors bite the dust early on in the film, there were three actors that I just could not stand to watch anymore and was just hoping that death would kill them off all at once, even if it did disobey the order of the design. Fortunetly we don't have to deal with them that long. I will give big props to Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Sky High, the upcoming Bobby) who was excellent as the lead, I didn't find any faults with her, Ryan Merriman (The upcoming Home Of The Giants) was also very convincing. Though not as great as those two, Alexz Johnson (TV's Instant Star) and Kris Lemche (Ginger Snaps) were great in there roles of Erin and Ian, the gothic/punk rokish emo couple, last but not least, Amanda Crew (TV's Life As We Know It) was fine in the part of Wendys younger sister, Julie. Jesse Moss (Ginger Snaps) and Gina Holden were also great as Jason Wise and Carrie Dreyer, the boyfriend and best friend of Wendy, even if they were only in it from the beginning up until after the Rollercoaster accident. The rest of the cast were pretty bad in my honest opinion, though Texas Battle (Coach Carter) wasn't nearly as bad as Crystal Lowe, Chelan Simmons and Sam Easton.

Now onto the Charector Development, well, basically there wasn't really any, that was my main problem with the film, it seemed like the creators thought that the film would be better if it focused on just the two main charectors and the gory, bloody deaths, well while that works, it would have been nice to care about the charectors at least a little, but the only charectors I found myself even remotely caring for were Wendy (Winstead), Kevin (Merriman), Julie (Crew) and perhaps Erin (Johnson), all the others I felt were just there to get picked off and nothing more, as a matter of fact, all the actors besides Winstead, Merriman, Crew and Lemche were only featured in the film for about ten minutes as a whole and were then picked off in there scenes rather quickly. I would have liked to have seen more of Alexz Johnsons charector, Erin Ulmer, and was sad to see her featured in the movie for less than twenty minutes all together, though Johnson had the advantage of having one of the best scenes in the movie being her last. So heres to hoping that there is more added charector development in the possible fourth movie, which I expect considering the high box office numbers this movie got.

The Deaths: My god, this movie was put out to shock us with insane, grusome gory deaths, and let me tell you it did its job. There was only one death in this movie that didn't have me covering my mouth and whispering or shouting "Damn!" too, only one, the other ones were just so crazy, this movie was def. the bloodiest of the three, i'll never go to a Tanning Salon for any reason after seeing this movie, and i'll def. be a lot more weary of my surroundings while walking into a Warehouse/Home Depot type store, or when taking a future trip to the Gym. The best death had to be the Nail Gun death at the Home Improvement Store, bloody goodness and man did the charector suffer! All in all, I went into the movie expecting some insane, gory deaths and I got what I wanted. This movie also had the highest body count i'd say.

The Climax to the film: I must say, I didn't know how they'd end this film and I was happy with the result I got, it just let you know that sometimes you can't escape death and you have to basically deal with it. I liked the fact that the ending provided a second disaster, a Subway accident, really nifty and it was a real big bonus.

When the DVD comes out, i'll be going out of my way to pick a copy up, can't wait.

Ah, "Final Destination" movies.....a guilty pleasure if ever there was one. The third film in the franchise follows closely in the footsteps of its predecessors, creating a predictable thrill ride of ominous signs, paranoia, desperation, and gruesomely inventive deaths. The deaths are really what it's all about. The FD films are standard Dead Teenager Movies that try to pretend they're more high-class via an inspired gimmick: instead of being eaten by some monster or hacked up by a psychopath, the young stars are killed by....(drumroll)....Fate Itself. Basically, Fate (or Death, or God, or whatever you want to call it) has a grand scheme, everyone dies at a set moment in time, and if you screw up the design by cheating Fate/Death/God, it will do its very best to correct the mistake by causing you to die, using whatever materials it finds handy, such as a speeding truck. Or a weight machine. Or a nail gun. The motto of these movies should be "Proudly Searching for New Ways to Get Deep-Sixed."

In the first "Final Destination," seven people were saved from an airplane crash when one kid had a "vision" of the tragedy...and then the survivors died anyway. That film had a fresh idea, a solid cast, and good dialogue that included some nice discussions about the nature of God and fate. "Final Destination 2," which used a highway pileup as its main tragedy, had some great deaths but overdid it with the ridiculous plot twists and gimmickry. ("Hey, each one of us is somehow connected to one of the victims in the first film!") Now comes the third film, which has a roller coaster crash, a prophetic digital camera, and one more twist: really, really annoying characters. While the teens in the first two films were likable enough, FD3's slew of survivors/victims seems drawn from a list of negative teenage stereotypes. Do we have a leering, perverted sleazebag? Yup, and he's played by Sam Easton. How 'bout a pair of airhead clickie girls (Chelan Simmons and Crystal Lowe)? An arrogant super-jock (Texas Battle)? A sarcastic Goth couple (Kris Lemche and Alexz Johnson)? All there. So the twist is that instead of feeling for these people, we eagerly await their deaths. And since the deaths are the heart of the franchise, this is mostly a good thing.

Good thing the film's heroine is smart, nice, and sympathetic. Her name is Wendy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), and he first see her at an amusement park with her boyfriend and the rest of their senior class, enjoying an end-of-school bash. She's taking photos for the yearbook, and takes so many in the film's first five minutes that we know this must be important somehow. She reluctantly allows the others to drag her onto the towering roller coaster, but right before the ride starts, she has a vivid, real-time vision of the coaster breaking and everyone on board -- herself included -- dying violent deaths. She panics and gets ejected from the ride, along with her best friend's boyfriend, Kevin (Ryan Merriman) and the aforementioned gang of bratzillas. Her best friend and boyfriend stay on the ride, and are killed when her vision comes true.

And then, of course, the survivors start to die in accidents that make the roller coaster crash look humane. The first death scene, involving a tanning salon, is truly horrific, and also features enough bare breast footage to satisfy the male contingent of the audience. After that, it's the filmmakers trying to outdo themselves with blood, flesh fragments, and mayhem. Kevin reads about FD1's plane crash on the web, and Wendy checks the photos she took at the amusement park and realizes that they contain clues about how everyone will die. She and Kevin start trying to warn the others, but their classmates are too full of themselves. In FD2, all the characters joined forces to try and survive. Not here. The deaths become poetic justice for scoffing at the two lead characters. As for "serious" dialogue, the Kris Lemche character is the only one who really gets to wax philosophical about the whole death/fate concept, though his solution for cheating death is just plain cold. Adding to the fun is Julie (Amanda Crew), Wendy's little sister, who wasn't on the roller coaster but has enough screen time to let us know she'll be crucial later on. And there's always the chance that Fate/Death/God will suddenly change the rules on you. It rarely plays fair.

FD3 tries to have the same slick, intellectual vibe as FD1, but it's a little too formulaic, a little too careless with its story. Wendy and Kevin's exploits seem more like a convenient way to get the characters to various cool-to-die-in locations. (A weight room! A home appliance warehouse! A tricentennial celebration!) The photography gimmick is nicely done, but it leads to an awkward moment when Wendy whips out a "similar" photo of the World Trade Center with the shadow of a plane projected onto one tower. The filmmakers obviously intended this to be a solemn statement about how our innocence has been lost in a post-9/11 world, but it comes across as cheap and tasteless. There's also a pointless subplot (copied from FD1) about a pair of cops who become mighty suspicious that these two teens are present at so many death scenes, but that little story dead-ends. And, like the first two films, FD3 has a mean-spirited downer of an ending. Apparently, the reward for triumphing over death is more of the same.

The bottom line is that "Final Destination 3" is the right kind of film for watching on DVD, with a bunch of friends who can join you in groaning and cheering at the appropriate moments. Maybe you can make bets on how the next obnoxious teen will die. You can't make bets on WHO will die next, because any eight-year-old could figure that out during the opening credits. The first "Final Destination," like the first "Halloween" and the first "Friday the 13th" and the first "Nightmare On Elm Street," was a fresh horror concept that has spawned sequels that are pretty trashy, but still a lot of fun on a base level. And for those of you who angry that violent death is now considered entertaining, I should point out that there are many, many high-quality films that treat death with solemn dignity, and those films have my deepest respect. It's just that after the award-winning tragedy of the Brokeback Mountains and the Million Dollar Babies, I kind of need a film like "Final Destination 3" to unwind. Don't you?

PS: The "demon" voice coming from the roller coaster is the voice of Tony Todd, who played the creepy mortician in the first two films. Psych!

Final Destination 3 still delivers even with the same plot as the first two. In this one, a class is at a carnival for a Graduation Party. The main characters all decide to go on the rollercoaster "Devil's Flight." They all board the rollercoaster when suddenly one of the students, Wendy, has a terrifying and graphic premonition of the rollercoaster derailing and everyone on board dying. When she wakes up, she freaks out and gets half of the people off of the rollercoaster. Now death is after the survivors. Most of the actors in this movie are relatively unknown, similar to the first two, but there are a few stand out characters. Wendy is played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Sky High), Kevin is played by Ryan Merriman (The Ring 2), The role of Erin is played by Alexz Johnson (Instant Star), and Ian is played by Kris Lemche (Ginger Snaps). Final Destination 3, in my opinion, has the best death scenes out of the three, but the worst character development. Still, the deaths are why people see the Final Destination series anyway, right? The DVD brings in some pretty cool features. There is the Dead Teenager Movie documentary, commentaries by the people who worked on the movie, etc... am I forgetting something? Oh yeah! The Choose Their Fate feature!! In this feature, you can either watch the movie as it was shown in theaters, or you can watch it according to your own decisions. In Choose Their Fate every ten minutes or so, a screen will come up asking you a question that has two choices. You choose one of them and it happens. It's just like those books you read as a kid that asked you a question and you would turn to a certain page to see what happens. I think this will be very interesting to see. I am very excited about this dvd and I am counting down the days until it is released!! A little over a month to go!

The first few times I watched FD3 I was pretty skeptical. After the release of FD2 which was pretty subpar compared to the first one, I wasn't expecting a whole lot from the third installment. To my surprise, the producers of the first movie came back to do FD3, plus they brought in some good actors to which added a lot more depth to the characters.

While FD3 doesn't veer from the typical storyline of the FD franchise, it does dispatch the characters in new and oftentimes in a "graphic novel" way. Moreover, the end of this one tops the other two movies as well.

Overall FD3 is a movie to have a lot of fun with (if you're a thriller/horror fan).