FINAL DESTINATION
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2000 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): * 1/2
"Live it up, Alex, you've got your whole life ahead of you," his father
prophetically advises. Since James Wong's FINAL DESTINATION is a teen
horror movie, one immediately sees the humorous irony in this advice,
which occurs in the first few minutes of the story.
Alex Browning (Devon Sawa) and the rest of his French class are off to
France for the summer. Using the horror genre's favorite weather, noisy
lightning, the movie sets the stage for what will be a disastrous plane
flight.
Filled with premonitions of catastrophe, Alex gets on board the
aircraft, only to see every mechanical part as a possible source of
failure. After a daydream during passenger loading, he yells, "This
plane will explode on takeoff!"
Needless to say, this isn't something you want to go screaming on a
jumbo jet. The crew does not take kindly to such outbursts and neither
do his fellow students. The upshot of all of this is that the plane
leaves without Alex and 6 other would-be travelers to the land of Brie
and croissants.
Of course, the plane crashes in a massive fireball. If you've ever been
afraid to fly, this isn't the movie for you. Actually, if you are
currently okay with flying several miles up in the air in a long metal
tube, you still may want to avoid the film since its images may not go
away. The rest of the story is a traditional teen horror flick with
severed heads and flying knives, but the plane crash is something else
entirely. The director makes it seem entirely plausible and shockingly
realistic.
One problem that some viewers may have is that the details of the
tragedy sound remarkably similar to real-life plane crashes. But, the
problem that most viewers will have with FINAL DESTINATION is that they
have seen it all before. If you feel in the need for a generic teen
horror film, there is no reason to choose this one over any of the
others.
The body of the story has Alex trying to cheat death by outsmarting him.
Death, you see, doesn't like having had 7 of his intended victims
escape, so he's back on the prowl to collect them.
The movie is at its best when it goes more for humor than shock. "I
will not let this plane crash be the most important thing in my life!"
the blonde bimbo survivor tells the others. She doesn't need to worry.
It won't be.
FINAL DESTINATION runs 1:33. It is rated R for violence, terror and
language and would be acceptable for older teenagers.
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Have I seen this movie: Yes
And what did I think: This is a movie about a teen who has a vision of he and his friends dying in a plane crash. Because of this, he gets off the plane along with five of his friends, and one teacher. Supposedly Death feels cheated, so his friends start dropping off one by one throughout the movie. From the start of this film, it looked to be a very good suspensful thriller when it was leading up to the airplane crash. However, the best scene is the plane crash, and not too much after after that. I thought the crash scene was done very well, you could feel the helplessness and horror that the people went through. I don't think this film will ever be shown as an in-flight movie on an airplane. While that was good, the other scenes of his friends dying were some of the stupidest death scenes I've ever seen I think. It's hard to tell if this movie was trying to be genuinely scary or funny, but it comes off as just plain ridiculous at times. There were numerous things that didn't make sense to me. For instance, I don't understand why all seven people were made to leave the airplane from a little wrestling match in the aisle. I just think that in reality, only Alex, the main character, would be taken off. I also didn't know why the teacher was so hostile towards Alex considering he saved her life. There was one scene of them easily breaking into a funeral home from a high skylight... of course it doesn't show how they got up there. Must have been a handy ladder nearby I guess. And the most confusing scene was at the end, but if you haven't seen the picture I won't give it away, I'll just say I don't know how they could get on a plane again after what they went through. This movie is full of typical cliches and you'll spend the movie watching the body count add up and wondering who's next. There are no stars in the film, only Tony Todd from "Candyman" fame has a wasted and senseless cameo here. Perhaps teens will enjoy this film, I just like my horror films with a little more thought behind them. So is it worth the 8 bucks for admission? No.... wait until video.
I give Final Destination 2.5 out of 5 stars
Review written March 20, 2000.
