DVD Review HTF REVIEW: Final Destination 3 - Thrill Ride Edition (Recommended) (1 Viewer)

[Matt Stone]

 

[RogerH]

I really liked the first 2 but missed this one so I'll be watching this soon.

 

[Beast]

I actually liked the second one more than the third one. But it was still a good film, if you enjoy films of this type. And I don't agree with you about Tony Todd. I think had he been shoe-horned into yet another one of the films, it would have felt even more like he actually was the one directing fate.

Though the questions about his character certainly could make an interesting tale for a prequel or another sequel. Especially if they spin it that he knows all these things because he himself is a survivor of 'Death'. I just don't want to see them go down the path of him actually being the personification of Death.

That said, it sounds like a great fully loaded 2-disc set and I can't wait to get my copy. There's some really nice features on the set. I'm really quite pleased by the length of the primary documentary for the film. The 'Dead Teenager Movie' documentary sounds like a winner also.

 

[TravisR]

I've loved Morgan and Wong since their X-Files days and while this isn't exactly cinematic gold, I thought it was fun. There's a few of the usual Morgan and Wong in-jokes (The Ramones, using happy music to goof on the horror onscreen) in the movie too.

 

[BrettGallman]

Good review. I'll definately be picking this up. Good to see that the audio packs a punch. I really enjoyed the DTS track on Final Destination 2, especially during the opening crash scene.

 

[ChrisBEA]

I may check this out for those extras, I thought the film itself was on the poor side, but then again, I really liked the 2nd.

 

[Matthew Chmiel]

I thought Final Destination loses all it's steam after the first fifteen minutes. After that, it didn't know if it wanted to be a teen slasher or a z-grade episode of The X-Files.

I thought Final Destination 2 was at the top of it's game. While still maintaining it's roots to the original by creating a direct line of continuity, it didn't take itself too seriously and actually acts as a satire of the first film (which is near brilliant in itself). The death scenes and are over-the-top and it's the most and efficient fun a horror film can provide in a steady 85 minutes.

Final Destination 3, while being better than the original, didn't match up to the first sequel. If Morgan and Wong trimmed around 10-15 minutes worth of material from the final cut to bring the running time down to around 80 minutes in length, the film might've been a blast and been right on par with the first sequel. However, the film squanders every now and then not knowing what to do or where to go during the break in between death sequences. There are also some moments where Morgan and Wong forget they're not apart of The X-Files anymore and we get some awfully bad moments of the film that link the silly carnage to 9/11. When the film is not fumbling with Morgan and Wong's terrible screenwriting, the film surpasses the first sequel in how much fun and mean-spirited the deaths can get. That's where the film hits it's stride and provides it's entertainment. I still enjoyed the flick and believe that the Final Destination franchise is the best horror genre based franchise in the past decade, but this outing could've been better with some tweaking here and there.

Will I be picking this DVD up on street date? Hell yes. I can think of 3 good reasons.

1. $13.99 at Circuit City.
2. The "Choose Their Fate" mode.
3. The 90 minute documentary.

 

[TonyD]

i liked it.


the death scenes caused me to chuckle.

the choose the fate


The DVD version contains a special feature called "Choose their Fate" that at certain moments in the film allows the viewer to make a decision that could affect the fate of the characters.

Using this feature, alternate sequences are edited into the film, affecting a number of death scenes:

Jason and Carrie: When Kevin flips the coin to determine who sits with Wendy, viewers can choose either Heads or Tails. The Change: After choosing tails, the movie plays out as it did theatrically, only Wendy’s vision ends with her still in line instead of when she is already sitting on the coaster. She convinces her friends to leave, saving Jason and Carrie. The four of them witness the coaster crash, but then the film ends after about 20 minutes with text information about what would have happened to the characters. Surprisingly, even though they escaped death’s design, death apparently doesn’t target them in the alternate version.

Ashley and Ashlyn: At the tanning salon, viewers can choose whether the room temperature is set to 73 or 76 degrees. The Change: A setting of 76 degrees apparently gives Ashlyn enough time later to escape her booth before the board could trap both girls. Ashlyn is able to open Ashley’s booth, but in reaching to pull her friend to safety they are both electrocuted by the malfunctioning booth.

Frankie Cheeks: At the drive-thru window, viewers who make Wendy honk again will unlock a scene in which Frankie turns around, allowing Kevin and Wendy to see him before the truck hits. When they escape, they pull Frankie to safety as well. The Change: This causes a few alterations to the remaining film. Upon seeing the picture of Frankie next to the fan, Kevin and Wendy refer to what could have happened to Frankie had they not saved him. Later, when leaving the police station, Kevin walks by a police car that pulls up, and Frankie is dragged out of the car under arrest. Viewers are then asked if saving Frankie was worth it, unlocking hidden footage of police evidence that consists of Frankie’s home movies, including what he filmed at the amusement park.

Lewis: Before visiting Lewis in the weight room, viewers can give Wendy another chance to look at the pictures. The Change: Instead of the next scene beginning in the weight room with Wendy and Kevin trying to convince Lewis of his impending doom, it features Wendy and Kevin walking across the track stadium to the weight room talking about how they will convince Lewis of the danger. As soon as they walk into the weight room, Lewis sees them, asks why they are there, and his head is immediately crushed by the weights. This is actually the alternate scene of Lewis’
death, as was originally scripted.

Erin: Before Ian shoots the birds, viewers are given the option of a kill shot or warning shot. A kill shot returns to the theatrical version of the movie, while a warning shot changes things up. The Change: Having failed to kill the birds, Ian mutters menacingly that they cannot escape. The film progresses as it does in the theatrical version up until after Ian is rescued from the falling debris. Instead of a steak popping the sawdust bag, Erin is startled by the pigeons, which are still alive, and falls back into the nail gun.

Ian: After Ian stalks Wendy to the fair and the cherry picker is about to crush him, viewers can make him jump to the left or to the right. Jumping to the left leads to the theatrical version. The Change: Jumping to the right makes Ian completely crushed by the cherry picker, and half his body is not thrown to the side as it is in the theatrical version. This unlocks the alternate ending in which Wendy crushes the camera.
this ends the movie and the credits roll.
now hit the previous chapter button then rewind to the beginning of the subway scene
and the rest of the movie will play out.

Kimberley Corman and Officer Burke (From FD2): The fates of these two characters from Final Destination 2 are revealed when the camera pans a newspaper in the subway station. In “Choose Their Fate” mode, viewers are given the option of reading the full article about what happened to them.

Wendy: In the final subway scene, Wendy examines a route map. Viewers are asked if she should continue to examine the map. The Change: After examining the map further, Wendy sees how it says “End of the line,” then gets the strange feeling and sees Kevin and Julie, as she does in the theatrical version. The train crashes, and Wendy finds herself on the tracks about to be run over by another train. Instead of this being a vision, Wendy is hit by the train, and the credits roll.



the first one ends the movie after about 22 minutes
the text is pretty funny.

then the credits roll.
during the credits you get a new choice of "wish you chose heads"?

watching it again with the choose a fate option. this time choosing heads and continuing the rest of the movie.

 

[Yumbo]

felt 2nd was better.
audio was bit on the flat side.

thought it was Shannen Doherty for a second.
continuity was highly presumed re: roller coaster.

 

[Jamie Cole]

I'll buy this tomorrow... saw it in the theater and dug it. I'll tell you one thing... that scene


at the drive thru


is just about the sickest, slickest little piece of gore filmmaking you'll ever find in a mainstream cineplex horror movie. Absolute stomach-churning brilliance.

 

[Nate Anderson]

I actually really liked the Choose Their Fate feature of the DVD. It is a bit gimmicky, and probably not something I would play with a lot, but I thought it was an amusing little thing, to see what option would do what.

 

[willh51]

I watched this last night and enjoyed it more at home, as the effects look better on a smaller screen. The tanning bed death
is brutal! I appreciate New Line giving horror fans great dvds like FD3 instead of dumping them onto crap discs. I look forward to watching Kill Shot: Making FD3 and I also thought the choose your fate thing was well done, I like how it dissolved into "choose" mode. I think this could be used in other movies where lots more footage is shot.

 

[Rakesh.S]

I'm experiencing video pauses during the death scenes in the theatrical version.. It almost seems as if these are the points where the choose the fate version would pop up something to ask you how you want to proceed.

I'm not the only one because plenty of people on IMDB have reported the same thing. Pretty disappointing that a buggy release made it out like this. I know it works fine on SOME dvd palyers, but the idea is that it should work fine on all players.

 

[Matt Stone]

What kind of DVD player do you have? I tested it on my Samsung HD841, Toshiba 5700, and my PC with no problems (which is interesting, considering all the problems I've had with the Samsung).

 

[Stan]

I'm experiencing the same problems as Rakesh. Just a brief pause before each death scene begins. Hardly rocket science with a movie like this to know when somebody's time is up, but it still takes you out of the moment to have these little pause/reminders come up.

I'm still using an early Toshiba, SD-2108? I believe, bought in 1998, but it works great. Only problem I ever had was that spy movie with Brad Pitt where the subtitles couldn't be shut off.

Movie itself was OK, but I'd rank it behind 1 & 2. Looking forward to watching the extras this weekend.

 

[Rakesh.S]

I have a Toshiba sd-4960

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Looking foreward to seeing this one as I really enjoyed the original and sequel.

It seems like a fun horror film which is right up my alley, unlike that God aweful The Hills Have Eyes remake which was just pure garbage IMO.

This one will fare better for me I think.

 

[Matt Stone]

It's definitely more "fun" than Aja's remake of Hills.

 

[TravisR]

I don't think The Hills Have Eyes was supposed to be fun. At least, I hope it wasn't.

 

[Bill>Moore]

I liked the first two a lot more than I did the last one. The coaster was CGI'd so much, it probably had twice as many loops as the current record-holder. The coaster definitely seemed to keep running much further than any other coaster I've seen where there was a partial derailment. It's just a movie though, so I survived some of the silliness.

The Choose Your Fate feature was interesting. I wouldn't use it more than the once, but it was fun to check out the alternate events. Most of the time it was pretty minor, but there were one or two instances where some greater change happened.

What was a very cool "feature" that added a bit of creepiness was the "DVD shuts off your receiver right after terrible death" feature! Right after the vision of the initial coaster accident ends and immediately transitions back to the coaster in the station, my receiver shut off. We didn't even notice it at first and figured it was part of the movie. Once we figured out the receiver somehow shut off, we turned it back on and backed up to just before the end of the coaster accident vision to hear what we missed when it transitioned. BAM! Did it again in the exact same spot. Something in the sonics or such were just perfect so that every time the DVD hit that spot, the receiver would spontaneously shut off. Throw in the very ominous lightning going on outside the house and we figured Death was screwing around with us! Heh, heh.

Just a bizarre thing I've never seen before. To have it happen in that exact spot on a horror flick definitely raised the spooky factor.