David R. Ellis, who directed Final Destination 2 before skipping out on the series for Snakes On A Plane, returns to the series for this fourth entry, simply titled The Final Destination. This one differentiated itself from the first three by playing out theatrically in 3-D, a fun novelty that New Line has wisely decided to carry over to the film's Blu-ray release. But how does it hold up? Fans of the first three entries will enjoy this one as it really is more of the same, while those not previously sold on the franchise will probably find little to convince them.

The film follows a group of four friends lead by Nick (Bobby Campo), and comprised of his curvaceous cutie of a girlfriend Lori (Shantel VanSanten), his wise ass right hand man Hunt (Nick Zano), and the oddly out of place and unusually suspicious Janet (Haley Webb). They head out to the race track to take in some Nascar action when Nick has a strange vision of the future which causes him to get he and his friends out of there before a car careens off the track in a ball of fire killing all sorts of people (including one poor sap who gets a wooden spike through his head... in gorious 3-D!). Of course, this being a Final Destination movie, death comes looking for those who have escaped its icy grasp - mainly Nick and his pals.

As the story plays out, all manner of cannon fodder characters show up only to die in creatively gory ways, as our four key characters realize that their very lives are in danger. They do their best to figure out how to stop the inevitable, but if you could stop it, it wouldn't be the inevitable, would it? You can pretty much figure out where its' all going...

This fourth film in the series shares the same pros and cons as the three that came before it. The pros? The gore and the wacky death scenes. Those who remember the game Mouse Trap will get a kick out of seeing a gory big screen version of that game play out. One small thing will set of a remarkable turn of events that'll almost always wind up with someone getting beheaded or dismembered or at the very least shot a limb or two. As base as it may sound, there's a catharsis to be had in watching violence as gratuitous as it is in this series. It's all so completely removed from reality that you can't help feel it's supposed to play out as much as a black comedy than as a straight up horror film. The bar has been set pretty high with the death scenes from the previous entries and this fourth chapter had its work cut out for it in that regard, and thankfully it rises to the occasion admirably. But yeah, there's still those aforementioned cons. Fans of the series may be more willing to accept that so much of what happens in the Final Destination films really has no particularly reasoning behind it, and that trend continues. While it's all well and good to mix mystery with horror, they're like cinematic peanut butter and chocolate after all, you can't help but wonder if the film would have been better had a bit more explanation been given for the events that we watch. Are the writers working the mysterious 'death is inevitable and that's all there is to it' angle or is this just lazy writing? By this point in the game, it feels a bit more like the latter.

As far as the acting goes, there isn't anyone in the cast who really stands out in a good way, but on the flip side, no one stands out as terrible either. The cast, all in their early twenties, very definitely look the part of disposable second tier horror film characters and you know pretty early on that there isn't much hope for anyone we meet in this picture. They simply look like horror movie victims and play the parts well enough. You can't blame the producers for not worrying too much about casting in a picture like this, as the best actors and actresses in the world would still stand in the shadow of the ridiculously awesome death scenes that pepper the movie.

When the dust settles and the arterial spray dissipates, The Final Destination is, unsurprisingly, very similar to the first three movies in the series. It's light on plot and light on characterization but it's got some rad gore and neat effects work. It gives its built in audience just what it wants and makes no qualms about any of it. There's no shame in that, it makes for a fun time at the movies so long as you keep your expectations in check.

Video:

New Line presents The Final Destination in a strong VC-1 encoded 1080p anamorphic widescreen presentation that looks sharp and colorful throughout. This is a glossy looking film and at times maybe it looks a little over-sharpened but color reproduction is spot on while black levels stay strong and deep throughout. The ruby red of the bloodshed and the various colors of goopy helpings of gore that splatter across the screen all look, um, nice and sticky while detail stays strong throughout the presentation. There are no problems with mpeg compression artifacts or ringing to note and skin tones look quite natural whenever they appear on screen. The 3-D version obviously doesn't look as colorful or quite as sharp as the 2-D version of the movie will, but the effects work quite well once you done the red and blue glasses. Sitting directly in front of the set with the lights off will maximize the effect and while it's not as strong as it would be in the theaters, the 3-D experience here is a lot of fun.