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| A batch of fresh young faces are back for abrupt tragedies on this dark poster for David R. Ellis' Final Destination 2 |
Due to a premonition, a girl on her way to spring break vacation is able to save several lives in a freakish freeway accident, as 21 wood logs fall off a semi. But Death has his ways of catching up...
The opening scene to the first Final Destination sequel maybe isn't as scary as the plane accident that opens the original film from 2000, but it is an absurdly well-done and spectacular scene nonetheless. An epic car crash.
The plot is a rackety construction, and it gets dopier from the fact that Final Destination 2 takes itself embarrassingly serious. It is written by J. Mackye Gruber (Kyle XY (2006-08)) and Eric Bress (The Butterfly Effect (2004)), with Jeffrey Reddick (Final Destination (2000)) contributing story elements, and directed by David R. Ellis (Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco (1996)), who is primarily a second unit director and stunt specialist.
Final Destination 2 is really all about the deaths, which are bigger, wilder and bloodier than those from the first film. They make the film a regular mix of action and gore, and Ellis has a firm handle on staging these scenes, which, for a genre fan, are good fun.
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Perhaps Final Destination 2 is just a 'repulsive spectacle' as Claudia Puig of USA Today opined, but it succeeds in instilling a strikingly physical effect in some audiences, as can be seen in this audience reaction video for the film
Cost: 26 mil. $
Box office: 90.4 mil. $
= Box office success
[Final Destination 2 premiered 30 January (USA) and runs 90 minutes. Shooting took place from February - May 2002 in British Columbia, Canada, including in Vancouver. For the opening pileup scene, no CGI cars were added in post, just logs, smoke, debris and blood. The film opened #2, just slightly behind fellow new release The Recruit, to a 16 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another week in the top 5 (#5) and grossed 46.9 mil. $ (51.9 % of the total gross). Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 9.3 mil. $ (10.3 %) and France with 4.7 mil. $ (5.2 %). The film is the lowest-grossing in the franchise, which continued with Final Destination 3 (2006), The Final Destination (2009) and Final Destination 5 (2011). Ellis returned with Cellular (2004). Final Destination 2 is rotten at 48 % with a 5/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Final Destination 2?
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