Final Destination (15) ***

Aug 28 2011 by Roz Laws, Sunday Mercury

FINAL DESTINATION 5 (15)

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CAST: Nicholas D’Agosto, Emma Bell, Miles Fisher, PJ Byrne

PLOT: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, so the fifth film in the franchise follows exactly the same path as before. Someone has a premonition of a catastrophe and manages to save their friends. Death feels cheated and starts picking them off, in the order they would have died.

This time the group are all colleagues going on a team-building sales retreat by coach. Sam (D’Agosto) has a vision of the suspension bridge they are stuck on suddenly collapsing and manages to get eight of them to safety. But then gymnast Candace ends up in a squishy mess on the floor, and lecherous, obnoxious Isaac (Byrne) finally understands karma when he expires while having a massage – having stolen the spa voucher from a dead colleague.

GOOD POINTS: The bridge disaster is effective and some of the deaths are quite inventive – and are even more gruesome in 3D. It’ll put you off laser eye surgery for life.

The deaths are so outrageous that they made me laugh, although there are some amusing lines too. In fact, this film seems more comical and less frightening than previous ones, thanks partly to witty cast members like David Kochner from The Office and Paul.

A final twist will appeal to Final Destinaton fans who have followed the whole series.

BAD POINTS: It does sometimes feel like an extended episode of Casualty, trying to spot what freak accidents will befall the characters.

It gets repetitive and there are some trite lines, like “Why did it happen? It doesn’t make any sense!”. Quite.

We don’t really care about any of the characters. Will Sam split up from girlfriend Molly (Bell)? Will he live to fulfil his dream of becoming a chef in Paris? Who cares!

SHOULD I SEE IT? Yes if you liked the other Final Destination films, as you won’t be disappointed. But give it a miss if you’re squeamish about eyeballs.