Mini-Reviews: “Fight or Flight” and “Final Destination: Bloodlines”
"Fight or Flight" is about ex-Secret Service agent tuned mercary Lucas Reyes (Josh Hartnett) trying to protect an asset on a plane full of killers.
In general, Josh Hartnett is great. He tends to pick interesting projects, but this is not one of those. This was a chance for him to be silly. This movie would be a total waste of time were it not for him. He is clearly having a blast playing Reyes. He is drunk most of the time and wears some of the most ridiculous clothes throughout this movie. He commits to all of it and takes what would have been unwatchable garbage to a fun, bad movie to watch.
The action scenes are pretty fun and make good use of the plane setting. The confined spaces make for interesting fight scenes, and Hartnett is great in them. He gets to play a character who is kind of a buffoon but very good at what he does. Overall, this is a fun but very dumb movie with some decent action scenes.
I will also give the movie credit for pulling a Babe Ruth and calling its shot by immediately setting up a sequel—one I don't think is coming.
The plot has never been the driving force behind the popularity of the "Final Destination" franchise. That comes down to the Rube Goldberg death sequences. In these movies, someone gets a premonition of some massive disaster that kills many people. That person manages to save some and soon finds that death is not done with them. The survivors end up dying in bizarre accidents.
"Bloodlines" takes a slightly different approach. The disaster that opens the movie takes place decades before. The character who survives ends up evading death long enough to start a family, and since they shouldn't exist, death starts coming for them.
I like this series of movies, even if most aren't that good. This one has a good plot and some of the most elaborate deaths in the franchise. I would go as far as to say that it is the best "Final Destination" movie. Not saying you should rush out to see it, but if horror is a genre you enjoy, there are a lot worse movies than "Final Destination: Bloodlines."
