Film
It's always satisfying when a film doesn't disappoint, and Final Destination 2 lived up to all my expectations; I thought it was going to be shit, and it was. In a cunning marketing ploy attempting to cash in on the success of Final Destination, the title is intact with a '2' added to the end, but this is not so much a sequel as a remake which sticks to a tried and tested formula. A similar story as in the first film unfolds; when embarking upon a road trip, Kymberly has a premonition of the impending motorway pile-up and prevents the involvement of her and her friends, inadvertently saving the lives of those in cars behind her in the process. Death, none too pleased with Kymberly ruining its design, takes revenge by inflicting ridiculously gruesome deaths upon those who were supposed to die in the motorway accident.
Although the central characters find themselves in a situation that is literally a matter of life or death, the film utterly fails to induce fear or create suspense; there is no danger of the fabric becoming worn out on the edge of anyone's seat. The only area where Final Destination 2 does achieve a degree of success is in the occasional touches of humour, best exemplified by the hilarious death scenes. The most notable example of this is when one character asks Kymberly if she has foreseen his death and wonders if it will be painful, shortly before being sliced into three after an explosion sends a barbed wire fence flying his way.
At no point does Final Destination 2 prove gripping, and towards the end of the film I found myself wishing that Kymberly had never had her premonition, leaving them to perish in the pile up so I wouldn't have had to sit through the uninspiring story of them cheating death the second time over.
Boasting a premise as bright as anything in a John Irving novel, The Wild Thornberrys deftly avoids the usual pitfall of movies derived from an animated television series - that of being little more than a slightly overlong and undercooked episode of said series.
Eliza Thornberry is a modern-day Doctor Doolittle, granted her powers by a mysterious African shaman cunningly disguised as a warthog. She travels the world in a van with her parents, her sardonic elder sister, a pompous chimpanzee and a hyperactive jungle boy, replete with loincloth.
With a plot borrowing heavily from The Lion King (perceived wrongdoing, realisation of fate, atonement and baboons), the film chooses the well established treatment doled out to movie adaptations of cartoons - of challenging the central conceit of the series, in this instance Eliza's ability to talk to animals, which is contingent on her not telling another living human being.
Eliza's best friend, Darwin (aforementioned primate) is a far more eloquent beast than Donny, the wild, uncivilised jungle boy. Her parents struggle to keep up with the all-pervading sarcasm of her sister. The film sends out a powerful message about the redemptive powers of communication, whether it be between parents and children, siblings, different cultures or man and beast.
Yet the sincerity never reaches painful levels and is kept under check by the brisk machinations of the plot and the generous helping of humour. Young kids will invariably love it, especially such devices as Donny's constant booty-shaking at the camera, the appeal of which, sadly, was a little lost on me.
One to watch for intellectually burnt-out students looking for something unchallenging, sincere and endearingly fun.
6th Feb 2003