Home Video Exclusives

[JohnIan101]

Past Tense - Dance With The Reaper Part I


[An earlier version of this PT was originally posted on October 20th, 2011 on JoBlo's "DVD, Blu-Ray & Home Theater Discussion" forum.]

Week four of "L.E. Horror" brings the Reaper itself, "Final Destination 3"... a two parter!



The motion picture opened on February 10th, 2006. It was made with a budget of $34,000,000 (estimated) and grossed over $54 million during its U.S. theatrical run. The film opened number two at the box office, the following week it dropped to number five.

The feature opened against "Big Momma's House 2", "The Pink Panther" (remake), "Curious George" and "When A Stranger Calls" (remake).

This release originally came with a cardboard foil slipcover. The front cover mirrored the case's wraparound, but the rear was a different picture and an abbreviated list of bonus contents. It came with two double sided inserts. The first an ad for "Snakes On A Plane" (2006), the other side - advertisements for "Domino" (2005), "A History Of Violence" (2005), "Cyber Wars" (2004) and "Squeeze" (1997).

The second was a web link for a survey on the title's "Choose Their Fate" feature. After answering questions you could win an exclusive FD3 t-shirt (up to 150 winners). The other side was the contest rules. This offer expired October 25th, 2006.

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Nearly all the major stores had an exclusive. Man, I bought this DVD three times over; sold the extra copies on Ebay. I believe I lost money on this endeavor. Such is the cries of fanboys. Oh well.



On release day, July 25th, 2006, Circuit City offered an exclusive mini, twenty-four page comic book which came inside the case. This set sold for $13.99. Unlike most exclusive comics, this was a fully self-contained tale, "Final Destination: Sacrifice".

It tells the story of an unnamed man on the bus, a ride from Harrisburg to Atlantic City. The driver has a heart attack and causes a pile-up, but not before crashing into the Delaware River, the remaining survivors/commuters drown. The vision ends and the man tries to warn the passengers before they board the bus, he fails.

His next premonition is at work, a steel mill. An explosion causes a major fire; he is killed by molten steel. This time people listened and stayed away from the factory that day. Death comes from each; falling into a riding lawn mower, a plugged in radio dropping in a bath, broken ladder - falling onto a picket fence and hit by a train.

Death follows the man until his ravings tears apart his family and friends. Living alone and destitute, he arranges to see his wife and kids - only to have another vision. Their meeting at a diner is cut short by an explosion, a man smoking a cigar next to the gas station. It ends with him deciding to save his loved ones and end his torment. He hangs himself, a melancholy yarn. The comic was published by ZeneScope Entertainment.



Also on that day, Target offered an exclusive lenticular cover sheet (this was under the clear plastic on the case); priced at $16.99.

As I recall this didn't come with a slipcover.

The lenticular came with either the wide screen or full screen editions.

Mine is inside the comic, inside the case.



The last exclusive was from Wal-Mart, a bonus disc (with its own case), packed side by side. As with Target; available on wide screen or full screen editions. This set sold for $22.99. The bonus disc has a run time of 55:55 minutes.

Don't know how "Snakes On A Plane" is related, but there's a preview for it. A couple of making-of featurettes and assorted bonuses along with a collection of New Line trailers.

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Rant.

This is a permanent condition of the most serious kind.

- Pat Benatar



When I saw this on home video (missed it at theaters) I wasn't too impressed with Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Wendy Christensen our heroine - suffering a Cassandra complex.

Hard to pin down why. I didn't hate her. Just...

Something.

But she has certainly gown on me - has turned into quite the looker. *nods*



Easy on the eyes in that cheerleader's outfit for "Death Proof" (2007).

A bit of trivia, Winstead auditioned for FD2. I can't imagine her there, that role was so right for actress A.J. Cook. The movie (FD3) itself annoyed me at first. It's different. In the previous installments, our prophet gets the surviving group to believe and help each other.

Did not happen here; nobody believes her minus her friend Kevin Fischer (Ryan Merriman). In short everybody dies. Yeah, it's a spoiler, get over it. That has a nice twist, sway.

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Don't forget to check out my "Night Of The Living Dead DVD Retrospective".