Lost in the 2000s - Final Destination 3

(2006, Dir. by James Wong.)

Some might say that it's hard to really say that a film which was birthed into a franchise that is up to five entries has really been "lost" in the five years since its release.  Maybe it is.  Then again, maybe it isn't, because the Final Destination series might be the most surprising five film franchise in the horror realm.  None of the films garnered overly positive reviews (though the latest entry is just barely "fresh" at Rotten Tomatoes), and U.S. audiences haven't gone too crazy for them (the fourth entry tops the series, but made a mere $66 million domestically).  So why the heck have they made 5 of these things?  Because they're cheap to make and because that fourth entry - The Final Destination - inexplicably made nearly $120 million overseas.  (I've been telling you guys for years - a THE matters!)

To me (read as: a dude who hasn't seen the newest movie in the series), the third FD has always been the high point in the series.  That's not to say I'm a big fan - I've never considered the series too deeply - but Final Destination 3 seems to be more at peace with its schlocky nature than the films that came before it were.  The film's set up lends itself to this, as there's a little more cheese to be found in a freak roller coaster accident than a plane explosion or a freeway disaster.

Final Destination director James Wong returned to the series for this film, and the resulting film shows less of an emphasis on understanding Death as an entity.   The film still lets our lead spend a bit of time trying to figure out the reason behind what's happening (including a couple of ill-conceived references to the Lincoln assassination and the events of 9/11), but Wong is content to let death's actions speak louder than words.  Mary Elizabeth Winstead - who would go on to gain fame in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and will headline this fall's The Thing prequel - is a welcome heroine in this role (she might be the best actress to ever step foot in this series), but I think it's safe to say that most of us aren't watching this series for the acting.

I mean...haven't you always wanted to see what happens when a roller coaster goes haywire?  The decapitating smashes and the flying cars and the hanging from those padded bars that you never trusted in the first place?  I know I have, and THAT is why I'm watching Final Destination 3 again.  I know Wong's vision of the demon coaster accident is heavily enhanced by CGI, but it still pumps up the morbid horror fan in me.  The rest of the film's kills - highlighted by a ridiculous hardware store segment and a tanning bed barbecue - match the inventiveness - if not the gore - of the first two films. 

With a little less gore in the film, and the playful tone that comes from the film's carnival opening, Final Destination 3 plays a little more like a drive-in spectacle than the other films in the series.  There's a very tongue in cheek nature to the proceedings, which I've always felt made the film easier to swallow than the other entries in the series.  It's a stretch, but the viewer could make a connection between this film and the work of schlock masters like William Castle.  There's something playful about FD3 - which is illustrated by the Choose Your Own Adventure inspired version on the DVD - and I can't help but smile about it.

In a decade that seemed devoid of truly campy mainstream horror, Final Destination 3 is a welcome diversion.  It's stupid as can be, features worthless characters played by worthless actors, and doesn't really make sense - but it's charming in a twisted way.  There's a place for cheap horror sequel comfort food, and that's the place where I'm gonna keep Final Destination 3.

Lost in the 2000s - November

(Note from The Mike: One of my recent goals has been to revisit some of the literally hundreds of movies I watched for free back in my movie theater days of the early-mid 2000s.  There are a lot of movies I saw and occasionally bought on DVD and then shelved away and haven't really thought about since.  Hence, The Mike decided it's time for FMWL to get Lost in the 2000s.)

(2005, Dir. by Greg Harrison.)

I wrote something really fantastic about this movie once.  It's lost now, but I distinctly remember it being one of those rare moments where someone on a message board (Gosh, remember those?) asked about what the movie meant and I suddenly blacked out like Will Ferrell in Old School and rattled off everything I thought the movie meant.  And they were like whoa.

But that smart commentary on the film is lost now, just like November was on my DVD shelf.  The abstract film features Gale Weathers/Courtney Cox from Friends teaching photography and witnessing her boyfriend (the always cool James Le Gros) die in a corner shop burglary gone bad, before she's forced to deal with her post-traumatic stresses and the exceedingly strange events that are occurring around her.  The film doesn't fit into what is traditionally recognized as the horror genre, but is full of haunting sounds and images that should remind the viewer of surreal filmmakers like David Lynch.

Cox is on screen for nearly every minute of the surprisingly short (78 minutes, including credits) psychological thriller, and she's about as good as I'd expect her to be.  I've never been a big fan of her as an actress - Gale is still my least favorite cog in the Scream films - but I suppose if I had to pick an actress from Friends to lead headline the film, she's the best I could do. She never dives too far into her mental anguish, which is a good thing to an extent, but I didn't quite think the actress was unsettled enough to really make me entirely care about the character's plight.

Luckily, the movie's not really about her.  It's about what's happening to her, and what's happening to her is really freakin' interesting.  The complaints of annoyed neighbors start to become violent quakes, phantom photos of the night of the shooting appear in her classroom, and things like using a cotton swab - or a Q-Tip, if you're one of those fancy rich people - become dangerous.  Editor and director Greg Harrison keeps the film visually interesting  by switching the color palette throughout his three part narrative, and the sound effects throughout the film provide a lot of welcome tension. The end result of the film might be a little obvious - I'm guessing my description of the film could have already given it away - but it's the film's sensory appeal that really makes it memorable to me.

There are many layers to November's mystery, and I still can't say I get all of its psychological twists and turns, even if the film does its best to spell things out for the viewer through title cards and a drawn out epilogue.  But November still gets me on a visceral level, and I think Cox and Le Gros do enough to keep us involved in Harrison's surreal tale.  If you're looking for something off the beaten path that's a bit abstract, I highly recommend it.