It seems that above all others, horror is the one franchise in which it’s culturally acceptable to release as many sequels as possible. Even superhero films, which are one of the highest grossing movie genres to date, has only gone to 3 or 4 films before ending or rebooting a franchise. Not horror. Films like Saw, Friday the 13th, Toxic Avenger, and countless others keep getting cranked out.

One of those franchises still cranking is New Line’s Final Destination. Starting in 2000, the franchise is now hitting it’s fifth (and probably not final) film in this August. Here’s the breakdown.

In “Final Destination 5,” Death is just as omnipresent as ever, and is unleashed after one man’s premonition saves a group of coworkers from a terrifying suspension bridge collapse. But this group of unsuspecting souls was never supposed to survive, and, in a terrifying race against time, the ill-fated group frantically tries to discover a way to escape Death’s sinister agenda.

Lots more “accidental yet creative” deaths, some more cringe-worthy tension, and the return of Tony Todd! Check it all out in the newest trailer for Final Destination 5 — or as we like to call it FIVEnal Destination.

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I caught (that verb seems appropriate) director Xavier Gens’ new film The Divide as a midnight screener at the Ritz theatre. By far the best thing I can say about the experience is that the volunteers running the show just let us in instead of making us wait in line and thus subjecting us to the depraved drunken antics of 6th Street on St. Patrick’s Day.

Of the two dozen films I saw at SXSW, this is easily the worst (beating out even the agonizing ponderousness of Silver Bullets—that at least had some laughs and exhibitionistic women). It starts out impressively enough, with a cold open that throws you straight into the onset of a nuclear apocalypse, with big, loud explosions, screaming viscera, panicking droves, and the like before slapping you in the face with the title screen.

But after that it settles in to devolving into a bargain-basement “people stuck in a shelter” psychological thriller, which is to say populated by the usual clichés—the crazy veteran (Michael Biehn), the flighty mother (Roseanna Arquette), the coward (Ivan Gonzalez), the budding psycho (Milo Ventimiglia)—and a host of others whose sole purpose is to scream and make stupid decisions—and yes, there’s a screamy child, too.

And oh, what stupid decisions they make: failing to attack the psycho when they have the chance; attacking the wrong guy when they do work up the “nerve”; neutralizing the only person who displays any sort of competence; killing the black guy first, and all other head-slapping tropes you can imagine. My father once criticized The Dark Knight because he reasoned that someone just should’ve shot the Joker.

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Hamburger Hill (1987) is an intensely, well acted Vietnam War movie which shows seasoned combat troops at their very best. The film follows a group of men of the U.S. Army’s 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division as they are ordered to assault a hill fortification of Vietnamese trenches and bunkers from May 10,-20, 1969.

The troops of the 3rd Battalion nicknamed Hill 937 “Hamburger Hill” because it chewed men up like a meat grinder. In fact, according to military historians, the battle for “Hamburger Hill” was one of the last major ground battles fought in Vietnam before American personnel became downsized due to the unable to be won nature of the war, and against America’s enemies.

The film stars a group of up and coming actors, many who went on to becoming huge stars including Dylan McDermott (SSgt. James Frantz), Steven Weber (Sfc. Dennis Worcester), Courtney B. Vance (Spc. Abraham “Doc” Johnson), Michael Boatman (Pvt. Ray Motown), and a young Don Cheadle as (Pvt. Johnny Washburn).

One of the main reasons I have always enjoyed this film is because it shows the hardships, camaraderie, and the dedication that each of these men had for each other while facing some of the most brutal combat in the war. The main characters open up to one another and begin to learn about each others lives as well as what their plans are when they get out of the war.

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With the departure of Marc Guggenheim, this leaves me a little dismayed with FlashForward and last night’s episode was a bit of departure and not that good. It did, however, expand on some characters, rather than just focusing on Fiennes and Cho. We spent time getting to know Courtney B. Vance’s character of Stanford Wedeck, who is Head of the FBI LA office, and Christine Wood’s character Janis Stark.

We open on Fiennes, Cho, Vance and guest star Barry Henley as Agent Vreede, walking out of some building.  Fiennes and Vance are talking and Vance says something about not telling anybody anything about his [Fiennes] flash forward or they are”d.o.a.” Fiennes is on the phone with Janis Hawk telling her something about funding.  Getting into a car, they are immediately set upon by a black SUV and hit with a Rocket Propelled Grenade blowing up the car, seemingly killing all four inside.

Cut back 39 hours, and the four of them are in a basement taking a lie detector test. Apparently they are in Washington, D.C for a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on what the various  agencies are finding on the black out case, and they have to take the test for the hearing.  After the test, Fiennes talks with his sponsor who tells him to go to AA meeting which Sophia Walger overhears the sponsor talking about while he fixes some stuff around the house.  He’s apparently helping them out around the house while Fiennes is away doing document support for Vance in DC.

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