Final Destination 5

Movie Name: Final Destination 5
Year of Release: 2011
Director: Steven Quale
Starring: Nicholas D'Agosto, Emma Bell, Arlen Escarpeta , Miles Fisher, Ellen Wroe, Jacqueline MacInnes Wood, P.J. Byrne, David Koechner, Courtney B. Vance, Brent Stait, Tony Todd
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 5
Watch it on Amazon

Synopsis and Review

After the disappointing "The Final Destination" (or "Final Destination 4" from director David R. Ellis), the fifth installment of the series gave the creative reigns to the team of director Steven Quale and screenwriter Eric Heisserer, who has since written the films "Bird Box" for director Susanne Bier and the multiple award nominated "Arrival" for director Denis Villeneuve. The narrative this time around focuses on a young professional in sales by the name of Sam Lawton who is about to go on a company retreat with his colleagues. Sam has been contemplating a change of career and has the opportunity to go to Paris and work for a well know restaurant, something he has always dreamt of. The morning before embarking on the bus to go on the retreat, his co-worker and also girlfriend, Molly, breaks up with him, devastating him. During the trip he has a premonition that the bridge they're crossing collapses, and most of his co-workers and himself die in that premonition. Sam wakes up, manages to stop the bus, and get some of his closest friends and co-workers out of the bus, before the bridge collapses, taking the remainder of their team, and many other cars and people in them to the bottom of the sea. The police who starts investigating the case suspects foul play, and that Sam is somehow involved in it all. Soon after the dramatic accident, each one of the survivors start dying due to extreme and unusual occurrences, starting with Candice, the intern and girlfriend of Peter, who is crushed to witness her death. And the deaths don't stop with Candice, all of them start getting picked by the order in which they would have died, had they stayed on the bus.

Steven Quale started his career as a second-unit director for James Cameron's "Titanic" and has since then also worked in that same capacity for his other well known directorial endeavor, "Avatar". Mr. Quale's directorial debut was actually the documentary he co-directed with James Cameron, "Aliens of the Deep", though "Final Destination 5" is in reality his scripted feature directorial debut. Working within the parameters of the series and with a solid script from Eric Heisserer, who actually goes in slightly different directions than the other features of the series. "Final Destination 5" is a worthy continuation to the work James Wong did with "Final Destination" and "Final Destination 3", both of which leaned a bit more heavily into the supernatural aspect of the series, and not solely on the gratuitous aspect of the gore afflicted death scenes. This film gives the characters something more substantial to do and react to, providing some extra context into the relationships between the co-workers, and even giving some additional (even if limited) information on Sam and Molly's relationship. The film still illustrates the gruesome accidents, as it has become a staple of the series, but it smartly takes its time in setting up the scenarios. It also benefits from actors who are more subtle about their performances, creating characters that feel more authentic than the ones that paraded around on the prior chapter of the franchise (even if most of the characters on this chapter aren't the most layered ones of the whole series of films). The production team is competent even if unremarkable, but overall this film is an average addition to the series. 

The Old Guard 2

Movie Name: The Old Guard 2
Year of Release: 2025
Director: Victoria Mahoney
Starring: Charlize Theron, Kiki Layne, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Matthias Schoenaerts, Marwan Kenzari, Luca Marinelli, Veronica Ngo, Henry Golding, Uma Thurman, Kamil Nozynski
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 3
Watch it on Netflix

Synopsis and Review

Five years after the release of the first film, "The Old Guard" is back, with a new director in charge of what seems to have been a troubled production. The narrative picks right after the events of the first feature. Andy, now a mortal, is still leading her team of immortals, this time around with the addition of Copley as their logistics team member. Joe in the meantime has been keeping tabs and regular contact with Booker, who was exiled from the group due to his treasonous behavior from the prior film. His partner Nicky is disappointed in his behavior, but the group agrees to reconnect with Booker. He lets them know that Quynh, Andy's former companion and partner who all believed to be lost at sea, has been saved and retrieved. She has been brought back by the first immortal, a woman going by the name of Discord, who sets Quynh on a path of retribution and revenge against Andy, but who has agenda of her own. 

Victoria Mahoney has a considerable directorial career on her resume, the large majority of it focused on Television/Streaming shows. And much like the shows she's worked on, the imprint that is left on this film is equally generic and without much of a point of view. What the original film set in motion, namely a group of immortals who work together, and have been changing humanity throughout the years, is largely set aside to focus on a pseudo revenge tale, one that doesn't make much sense, and that as the story continues to develop, gains less and less traction and believability. The script hailing from Greg Rucka (who wrote the original graphic novel) and Sarah L. Walker (who has mostly written TV Shows and TV movies), gives no additional information on any of these characters, not to mention providing very little in terms of background on the new characters who are added, including Tuah and Discord. For a film that was apparently shot in 2022, and has been lingering in this post production limbo since then, it's surprisingly meager how little this film adds to the mythology that the original film tried to establish. It's a film that feels rushed, lacking development in the relationships between the core group, stealing much of what made this group of characters so interesting to begin with, namely their different relationships, including the romantic couple of the team, who this time around is downplayed to what seems a buddy partnership. Everything the first film set in motion, even if it did so in a contrived and limited manner, was further sanded down, leaving all these characters without much of an arc, without much of a presence, and without much of anything to make them memorable (including edge or humor). The cast tries their best with the material they have, and the film is watchable largely because of the luminous Charlize Theron, who is as always a striking presence, but even she can't save this generic drivel. Uma Thurman, Matthias Schoenaerts and Chiwetel Ejiofor as good as they are, also have very little to do. The production team is sadly equally less than impressively. Barry Ackroyd, a formidable veteran cinematographer (he works with Paul Greengrass quite frequently, and lensed Kathryn Bigelow's "The Hurt Locker"), lights this film in such a way, that there's no specific tonality in the film, everything is so brightly lit that it renders the film as something cheap. The production design, the costume design, is equally unimpressive, which is saying something for a film that is supposed to cover such a wide timeline. This is a head-scratcher, considering all the talent involved. A barely watchable head-scratcher.