The Penultimate Destination (Maybe)

The last chapter in The Final Destination series... No wait... There's still a 5nal one coming. See I found that joke really funny but all you won't. I'm not sure why I bother.

So anyway; Final Destination, otherwise known as The Final Destination. When it was released it was 3D which I assume made the horrid special effects bearable. But I was not watching it in 3D.. My television doesn't do that. Every explosion looked wrong, every flying object looked fake.

An example of one of the less gory deaths.. Just so you know what to expect.

Despite this, my biggest problem was the way in which characters died. If you have not encountered any Final Destination film before, allow me to explain the plot.. Of every film. One teenager has a vision of their friends and themselves dying in a horrible accident and so they stop it happening. Afterwards the teenagers die in extremely odd ways, one by one, in the order they would've died in had they have died in the original accident. Just to give you an idea of how the franchise has spiralled down for this movie, here's a list of the original accidents: FD1: Plane crash, FD2: Car crash, FD3: Roller coaster crash, TFD (FD4): Nascar racers explode as they crash forcing the whole of the stadium to fall to pieces and crush the spectators. Yes.. That is how the movie starts.

The teens were practically lining up for their deaths

So we knew before the film started that there would be a lot of death. But in the previous films the death scenes have (kind of) made sense. Thinking back to all of the death scenes of this movie there's maybe two or 3 that make sense. out of 11. Even in the visions.. One girl gets a foot crushed in an escalator motor and then coughs up blood. Someone explain that biology to me. And have you ever seen a single ember set a whole pile of wood on fire in seconds? Or a doctor just leave an elderly patient in a harness while the bath is running and almost overflowing? Or a pile of sand, yes sand, catch fire.. in the sun? No. It doesn't happen. Admittedly it's unlikely that any of the deaths in previous films will happen... But the science makes more sense (even if it is ridiculous.) Plus there was no cool cliffhanger on this film. Sad stuff.

There is nothing special here in any of the technical departments either. If you like gore and you don't care whether the reason for it makes sense then this film will be a welcome treat. Otherwise you will end up yelling at the stupidity of the characters and the lack of science.

Best bit? The bit where someone dies.. I like that bit. But seriously the best bit is... is... hmmm...

Korean Cowboys?

I'm beginning to really love foreign language films. Here is a film that took a famous western and put it in South Korea.

The Good The Bad The Weird pays tribute to the classic, The Good The Bad And The Ugly. Plenty of little in jokes for fans of the western to pick up on as well as little character traits. (The weird/The ugly both brush their teeth with their fingers.) The plot is far simpler than the original. Set in the 1940's, two outlaws and a bounty hunter go on the search of treasure due to a map. Following them are Chinese gangs and the Japanese army. Far less side plots. Not that side plots are a bad thing... But if you have a short attention span like a lot of young people nowadays, this film is easier to watch. Unless you dislike subtitles.

"Check out this backwards shooting!"

Firstly, I noticed straight away how awesome the camera work was. I mean.. It's really incredible at some points. The chase at the end... WOW. So there's not that much of a score (Though during the chase listen for the background tribute to The Good The Bad & The Ugly's score.) but the other technical aspects make up for that. The action sequences are suburb and wonderful to watch. Not only are they full of action but they're also cool and fun. The cast are wonderful. Some may think Byung-hun Lee was the wrong choice for Park Chang-yi / The Bad, but they're wrong. His 'pretty boy' exterior may seem odd for a crazy killer type person but it just makes it all the more effective when he whips out his knife and starts madly slashing people up. Kang-ho Song (Yoon Tae-goo / The Weird) fits his role perfectly. He is weird. There is very few other ways of describing it. But he was brilliant. Woo-sung Jung (Park Do-won / The Good) is just plain cool. From the moment we first see him shooting at The Bad and The Weird plus henchmen, till the very last second. Especially his part in the chase scene.... Wow.

 

Guess Who is Who

Some fun facts about the film... Woo-sung Jung, The Good, broke his arm during filming... This was the most expensive South Korean Film to be made (as of 2009)... And something that made me chuckle: Director Woo-sung Jung claimed he would like this to be called a 'kimchee western' after the Korean food made with fermented cabbages. He says he thinks the plot and film are spicy and vibrant, like the Korean culture and people. Of course, The Good The Bad And The Ugly was a 'Spaghetti western' due to it being a western made by Italians. Really worth a watch if you can be bothered to read subtitles. I dislike it when films aren't given a fair chance because people won't read a little.

 

Best Bit? The Chase Scene. It's awesome. Armies, gangs, outlaws, weirdos, cars, horses, moterbikes... It has everything.

Could I Review A More Appropriate Film?

No.. No I couldn't but! Before I start I want to take this opportunity to say that, despite two complaints, my St Trinians review is right.

I watched Election today. No not the General Election, thats tomorrow. No I watched Election; a delightful satirical comedy staring Reese Witherspoon and Ferris Bueller... I mean Matthew Broderick. My hopes were high as this film is in Empire's 500 greatest of all time, number 389. Not a bad start really and the film doesn't fail its expectations.

"Your Heroic Pose Is Excellent Tracy"

Reese Witherspoon was awesome and she is rapidly moving up my favourite actresses list. Her turn as the nerdy, controlling, power hungry, high school girl, Tracy Flick, is a joy to watch. We see her go from smart and annoying to a desperate school girl who feels success is the only thing that awaits her. Ripping down posters and making sure nothing stands in her way she seems unstoppable until Mr McAllister (Broderick) steps in and convinces others to run against Tracy.

He convinces that guy from American Pie... You know.. Oz... he's in the first two...(Chris Klien) to run against Tracy. This encourages his lesbian sister to also run to get revenge on her ex and her brothers current girlfriend.

All the cast are wonderful and the film is great fun. If you want a light film to fill a couple of hours, give this a shot. I really dont feel like this film needs much more reviewing.. But it wins a reconmendation from me.

Best Bit? The very beggining when we're introduced to the characters. Very funny.