He's at the 40, at the 30.....FUMBLE!

Rating: 4/10 (22 March 2000)

Did you ever walk out of a movie feeling cheated? I did last night.
Agreed, some films do this intentionally (Patriot Games, Basic Instinct, Evil Dead) but some suffer from the problem of having a great beginning, a fairly solid middle and a seriously disappointing ending.
Such is the case with Final Destination. A French student's clairvoyant dream saves 6 other would-be pieces of fried chicken from a plane explosion that they witness from the terminal. Thirty-nine days after the thirty-nine schoolchums die (including the professor that not too many seem broken up about), Death wants a little payback...in spades. Our hero and his doomed friends try to figure out Death's "design" (killing each off in the order they would have died) and try to save each other from their fates while avoiding the FBI who want answers.
Okay, decent semi-Hitchcockian (note one of the characters named Hitchcock) opening and a decent plotline, What went wrong, right?
A few things, actually. Firstly, there was no real love relationship at all. This was an extremely subtle part hinted at but more or less was tacked on at the end.
Secondly, there is the ending itself. How terrible was this? It felt as if the testing audiences didn't like the original ending so some new situation was written and alternate footage shot at the last minute. Even so, did they think this ridiculousness gave closure? Not to spoil the ending but ask yourself this question, would you fly on a plane six months after you've had the forementioned ordeal?
Do yourself a favor. Leave this film 20 minutes before it ends and imagine your own version of an ending. I'll bet you my $8 movie ticket that your idea far excelled the way it actually concludes. Sad, isn't it?