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Men In Black 3

It’s not a sequel that needed to be made, but thanks to the charm of its leads and a tone that harks back to the wit and humour of the original, it’s a pretty enjoyable trip.

Bel Ami

The excellent female support cast saves this patchy effort, which is let down by its leading man and a flat screenplay.

The Dictator

A disappointing, often repulsive and mean-spirited mess of a film with seemingly only one real criterion on its agenda: to shock and offend.

The Woman In Black

Packed with atmosphere, this old-fashioned but deftly told ghost story delivers ample chills and thrills.

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Final Destination 5 3D (Film)

by Anthony O'Connor | August 31, 2011 13:23 | Edited August 31, 2011 13:25

As expected, it’s formulaic rather than innovative, but it’s a moderately enjoyable splatter fest.

By the time a horror franchise reaches its fifth entry things tend to be an exercise in formula rather than innovation. Final Destination 5 is no exception to this rule, however, watched with that caveat firmly in place it can be enjoyed in a silly, gory, popcorn flick sort of way.

 

If you're new to the series, the films work like this: movie starts with some spectacular mass death scene - be it a plane crash, traffic collision or, in this case, a bridge collapsing. We then pull back to reveal that Generic Protagonist #1 saw said calamity in a premonition. He/she freaks out and drags a bunch of otherwise doomed characters out of harm's way. Then said survivors start dying in the order they were destined to in unlikely, often extremely splattery and grimly humorous ways.

 

The Final Destination series has basically become the equivalent of later Friday the 13th entries for the new age - with the grim reaper taking over killing duties from Jason Voorhees. Bereft of character development or any real sense of tension, each entry is judged on the manner of the main cast's demises. From that perspective Final Destination 5 is a lot better than the woeful Final Destination 4 but still nowhere near as enjoyable as the first two. It's probably on par with the patchy third entry.

 

The opening bridge collapse is spectacular and a gymnastic-themed death will have audiences excited for what else is to come. Unfortunately, then the film seems to go to sleep for about 40 minutes - offering great setups that aren't paid off with any real nastiness - just a lot of dodgy looking 3D CGI. The ending, however, pulls a clever twist which, hopefully, will wrap this series up before they send it to space or straight-to-DVD damnation. This does seem a trifle unlikely as the previous entry was apparently the conclusion.

 

Overall Final Destination 5 is moderately enjoyable splatter for those in an undemanding mood but never attains any real scares or resonant moments.