Final Destination 2

Aside from inventing absurdly elaborate and gory new ways of doing in the victims of its unseen supernatural menace, Final Destination 2 is basically just another 100 minutes worth of proof that the people who make horror movies couldn't care less about acting ability, dialogue, or common sense. A sequel to the 2000 modest hit in which "Death" mercilessly stalked survivors of an accident that was supposed to kill them, the sequel brings together random strangers who survived a freeway pileup and starts whacking them in repetitive scenes. If screenwriters J. Mackye Gruber and Eric Bress had put half the effort into fixing the embarrassingly hackneyed dialogue as they put into the Rube Goldberg device-like killings, or if director David Richard Ellis had cared one whit about the acting, Final Destination 2 might have risen above the dregs of its bottom-scraping genre. Instead the filmmakers squander the movie's potential, abandoning it to the most tired of formulaic claptrap--right down to the idiotically obligatory, sequel-baiting it's-not-over-yet finale. Not recommended. [DVD extras include Infinifilm (which plays popup links throughout the movie that link to related features); audio commentary by director David Ellis, producer Craig Perry and screenwriters Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber; “Beyond the Movie” features that include a 13-minute “The Terror Gauge” featurette (charting reactions to the film), the 17-minute featurette “Cheating Death: Beyond and Back,” “Choose Your Fate” random fortune cards, and a fact track (with onscreen trivia and history); “All Access Pass” features that include the 29-minute featurette “Bits & Pieces: Bringing Death to Life,” five deleted and alternate scenes with optional commentary, two music videos, and trailers. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a disappointing horror flick.] (R. Blackwelder)