One of the best of recent slew of teenage-death flicks.

Rating: Null/10 (14 June 2002)

I enjoyed the low budget `Final Destination' and I can't particularly say why. Perhaps it's the plot which is reasonably entertaining  no masked killer this time, but instead Death itself. Alex Browning (Devon Sawa) and his classmates are on a trip. As they board the plane Browning has a vision that they must get off the plane, that there's about to be an accident. Between his yelling, and a fight between two others, a number leave the plane. And lo and behold the plane crashes. But it doesn't end there  the survivors were never meant to survive, and Death plans to get those promised to Him
The cast of `Final Destination' are recognizable teenagers from TV series and a few movies. Their acting skills aren't up to much (can you ever see Kerr Smith clutching an Oscar?), but they get the job done albeit their performances are somewhat hammy and weak at times. It doesn't matter because you know most of them are film fodder, sacrificed to the gore machine.
It's the innovative deaths and plot resolving that made `Final Destination' stand out for me. For starters the deaths are completely over-the-top and yet this is okay, considering the ethereal nature of the force they're up against. Indeed the sheer over blown nature of it allows for chuckles and gasps at the ferocity of them  it's not that they're particularly gory, but more that they can be so imaginative.
There's a sense of enthusiasm about this movie, not only in Morgan's fun script, but in James `X-Files' Wong's direction which is able to actually create some tension, excitement and scares  something which is to be commended in these days of formulaic horror.
There's nothing fascinating about `Final Destination' and certainly it won't win any awards. Despite all this I very much enjoyed this movie, and am sufficiently impressed to go out of my way to see the forthcoming sequel. Worth catching. 6.9/10.