THE FINAL DESTINATION 3-D (D: David R. Ellis, 82 min) Opens Friday (August 28). For venues, times, and trailers, see Movies. Rating: NNN
Elaborate deaths, planned out Rube Goldberg-style, have been the hallmark of the funny-scary Final Destination franchise from the start, and this fourth film doesn’t disappoint.[rssbreak]
At a race car track, a premonition about a disaster lets Nick Bobby (Nick O’Bannon), his friends and a bunch of other bystanders flee seconds before the stadium erupts in flames. Soon after, however, each of them gets picked off in a gruesome way, in the same order they would have been offed had they stayed in their seats to begin with.
Two especially suspenseful scenes will make you avoid the hair salon and the car wash, and you’ll think twice about riding up an escalator with untied shoelaces.
The 3-D means far too many people get impaled on sharp objects that jut out into your face, but director David R. Ellis also uses the technology for moments of eerie beauty, as when a bit of ash floats slowly in front of you until it lands on some nearby sawdust.
The characters are shallower than ever, but Eric Bress’s script includes a couple of clever postmodern twists, including a finale that’s set in a 3-D horror movie.
