Rish Outfield's reviews
Now I know the year is still young, so I may be jumping the gun when I call this the best horror film of the year, but it was really, really a fine film.
Young Alex (Devon Sawa) has a vision (dream? premonition? warning?) that the plane he and fellow students are on is going to explode. He and six others deplane and are spared a fiery death. But the group of survivors find out they can call themselves that only temporarily. For, like big noses in my family, you can't escape death.
Movies affect me in different ways. I remember walking out of a movie and feeling I could take on the world. I remember walking out of a movie and being terrified to look out the window of the car. I remember walking out of a movie and feeling like I was mister cool, driving my car like a secret agent and bugging the hell out of my date.
I don't think I've ever walked out of a movie overwhelmingly paranoid before.
I walked out of the theater afraid to get my shoelaces caught in the escalator. I walked down the sidewalk worried a bus or car might jump the curb and squash me. I got in my car wondering if it might explode on me. I drove through the streets of Los Angeles, looking in my rear-view mirror more than usual, bracing myself when a car moved in front of me, illogically sure that I was going to get in an accident. Is this just me? Did this happen to anyone else?
Regardless, I loved this movie. Glen Morgan and James Wong are great "X-Files" writers, and the creators of the nice-but-sure-to-be-canceled-soon NBC show "The Others." And good job, guys.
I once said (and it's in print) that Devon Sawa would NEVER be in a good film. And I stand by that statement. This film was REEEALLY good (I'm still a liar, aren't I?). Tyranist and I think Ali Larter is darn cool. And it was a scary movie, though not in a slasher way. The death scenes were so wonderfully choreographed, with amazing chain reactions my third-rate writing skills could never concoct. The only weak moment that comes to mind was Tony Todd's scene. I know it was instrumental in Sawa's understanding of death's plan, and definitely crucial to the ad campaign, but it was both rushed and phony-feeling. Still, that's a minor thing indeed.
Best Scare: I have only screamed like a little girl in a handful of movies (okay, a big handful, but few movies nonetheless). When a corpse moved in Final Destination, that handful got bigger.
I'd Recommend It To: I think I just did.
Note: In seeing this again recently with my two sisters, one of them speculated what the moral of the story was. One thought it might be "You can't cheat death," while the other sister thought it was "Never listen to John Denver." Hmmm.

The tyranist's thoughts
It's so nice to see something fresh and just a little different aimed at the teen audience. From the beginning of the movie--which I must insist was after those terrible opening credits--to the "hmmmm" ending, I enjoyed this movie. Originally titled Flight 180, Final Destination is a fascinating exploration of death and our fear of it.
So what would you do if you had a vision that allowed you to avoid death by getting of a plane doomed to explode? There is a surprising amount of tension that can be generated by the ensuing situations. Who's next and how becomes the overriding concern and even when we see the answers, things are still sudden when they happen.
Devon Sawa still isn't a great actor, but he keeps appearing in horror movies that I like. He does a fair job. I am sold on Ali Larter though. Someone is going to have to kill her character in a movie soon or she'll develop Jamie Lee Curtis complex. We'll always know who to root for. Tony Todd's appearance was too short and too much of a cameo to even really merit much mention. As much as I like him (and he made a fine mortician) it seemed like a waste.
So be prepared for an edgy, tense movie that may not keep you guessing the whole time, but will at least keep you involved. The ending lacks a little bit of punch, but the more I dwell on it, the more it makes sense. Enjoy.