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Final Destination 3
New Line Cinema


5.6

based on 28 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 71 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for strong horror violence/gore, language and some nudity

Starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ryan Merriman, Texas Battle, Gina Holden, Dustin Milligan, Crystal Lowe, Chelan Simmons, and Kris Lemche

When high school senior Wendy (Winstead) joins her fiends for a Grad Night celebration at the local amusement park she experience a vivid premonition of a fatal accident in which the rollercoaster becomes a death trap for her and her friends. But that's only the beginning. (New Line Cinema)

GENRE(S):	Drama \| Horror \| Mystery \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Glen Morgan James Wong Jeffrey Reddick (characters)
DIRECTED BY:	James Wong
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: July 25, 2006 Theatrical: February 10, 2006
RUNNING TIME:	93 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Week in and week out, horror movies cheat us, so it's wonderfully cathartic to watch a bunch of kids cheat death in what turns out to be the best installment yet in the "Final Destination" franchise.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

A welcome antidote to the depressing, feel-bad sadism of recent horror hits like Hostel and Saw II, Final Destination 3 puts the fun back in watching stupid people die Rube Goldberg-elaborate, ridiculously gory deaths.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Except for the rock soundtrack, these movies could be silent - and probably should be.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

With each new outing, the Final Destination movies are getting better.

Empire Kim Newman

Sequelcraft 101 – if you liked the others, this is more of the same. Extra points for using a nailgun on pigeons.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

The plot's pretty lame, the dialogue is downright hokey, and the characters are a bore, but somehow Final Destination 3 (an oxymoron if there ever was one) still delivers a certain degree of over-the-top amusement.

LA Weekly Chuck Wilson

Director James Wong and co-writer Glen Morgan seem, in this film's creaky first third, to be working on automatic pilot, but they gradually cut loose, staging one imaginative and gleefully gruesome death after another.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

What makes all of this ''fun,'' instead of dark or threatening, is that the victim was an idiot who leered at the class teases with horny glee.

Variety Justin Chang

In the story's one major stroke of invention, the usual premonitions of death have been replaced with a set of photos.

Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson

It makes it clearer than ever before that these films are comedy. Granted, the sick kind of comedy that involves laughing at stupid people being ripped in half, but we know there are plenty of you out there.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The problem with "FD3" is since it is clear to everyone who must die and in what order, the drama is reduced to a formula in which ominous events accumulate while the teenagers remain oblivious.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

A horror film (or, more accurately, a shocker film) that takes such exuberant, gleeful delight in the unspeakably gory dispatch of assorted teenagers that it may well be the most fun you'll have at the movies all week.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

After a fiendish start, filmmakers James Wong and Glen Morgan approach their task with all the subtlety of a hammer to the head (or a knife to the gut, or an ax to the back). They do, at least, find a mordant humor in the formula.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

If you've seen any of these, you know that the hero is always killed for her trouble, a final stroke of mordant wit.

Philadelphia Inquirer David Hiltbrand

Fortunately for us, they number these Final Destination scarefests. Otherwise, it would be impossible to tell them apart.

USA Today Mike Clark

Movies of this genre don't often engage fresh concepts, but you have to give Wong major points for dreaming up "tan-line flambé."

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Yes, Final Destination 3 is a roller-coaster ride of a movie from start to -- well, only about 10 minutes later. The fun part is over and we settle down to watch a sadistic assembly line of characters making premature exits.

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

A ridiculous teen horror movie that piles on more than enough dry humor and freshly moistened gore to satisfy its lowbrow audience.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Signs of fatigue are all over the film itself.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

There's every reason to believe the creators stopped taking it seriously a long time ago. What's bothersome is that they don't take the audience seriously enough to deliver an actual movie.

Film Threat Michael Ferraro

We are here for the gore – which this film has plenty of. Too bad it doesn't have much else.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Final Destination 3 is a gorefest that should either slake your worst appetites or drive you to the exits.

TV Guide Ken Fox

The downtime between deaths has never been duller, and the Rube Goldberg-type death scenes are so poorly staged that it's difficult to figure out what's about to happen and to whom.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

With a premise as cavalier as this, perhaps director and co-writer James Wong could have found a tone more original than post-Wes Craven cynicism. Instead, he panders to viewers, allowing them to take gleeful comfort in the destruction of the stupid and doomed.

The New York Times Nathan Lee

The third installment lacks the novelty of the first, the panache of the second and the twisted sense of humor that gives the series its participatory sense of fun.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Fans of the genre might appreciate the decidedly R-rated violence and nudity, but that's really all the film has to offer.

Village Voice Mark Holcomb

Rote sequel that surely no one was waiting for: Like the serially thwarted Death (the only "character" to return from the first two Final Destination movies), audiences are required to endure banal exposition and junior-high-level foreshadowing before being treated to the nauseatingly detailed scenes of CGI slaughter.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

There's nothing fresh or off-beat in Final Destination 3, no talent that is struggling to get out. The only thing struggling to get out was me from the theater.

The average user rating for this movie is 5.6 (out of 10) based on 71 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Kat S gave it a10:
It is an AMAZING film and I was left wanting more, you may say its cheezy but thats one of the great aspects of it. I also love how they use the same song when something bad is going to happen to Wendy.

[Anonymous] gave it a7:
Is this movie good? No. Is this movie entertaining? Hell ya. Its great to get a break from the crappy depressing horror films like Saw and Hostel. The thing that works for this movie is that you want to see the characters die.

Candace C. gave it a10:
This was a great movie. Very entertaining with great characters. It's the best of the series. I recommend this to everybody who wants a fun ride of thrills!

Lauren N. gave it a7:
[***SPOILERS***] I liked this movie a lot, but I just can’t figure out if at the end the people died or not ? Does anyone else? I love the plot to the movie. It keeps you in suspense and keeps you thinking. I give it an applause.

Ken D. gave it a5:
The main things I liked about the movie were the cast and the way everything played out. The movie had a good cast, and though I'm not a huge horror movie fan, I saw this one because something about it caught my attention. Though some of the deaths would most likely never happen. The one thing I really didn't like about this movie is that they leave a cliffhanger ending... you don't even know if Wendy, her sister, and Kevin are able to get off of the subway with her new friends. But I guess since it was moving, they probably don't, hence the line "This time death will finish them." The whole setup made this movie...different, at least you don't see a crazed lunatic going around causing gross deaths like other horror movies. Of course, I can now imagine some overactive kid(s) getting on board and pretending or hoping to have a premonition of a fatal rollercoaster ride just so they can cause a ruckus and see what really happens. Oh, well.

Amurabi M. gave it a4:
Everything is funny about this film: the idea, the premise, the filmmaking, the gore and the acting. Its the kind of film that exists just to be teased by critics and public. That could be good if the filmmakers put some fun in the making. In this case, all seems just replaced, recycled and too tired. But the funny premise of killing those stupid characters is more interesting for the simple thing that here, everybody dies.

Vivian P. gave it a10:
Well what can I say!! Wow!! Magnificent movie. I own this movie on dvd. This is the perfect movie of drama, horror, and mystery that I like to see. No other movie has this good than Final Destination 3. Honestly Final Destination 3 is much better than Final Destination and Final Destination 2. I love this movie.

Final Destination 3 New Line Cinema

Final Destination 3
New Line Cinema