Final Destination (2000) from Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski)

Devon Sawa plays a guy who is sitting on the runway, on his way to Paris for his senior trip, when he has a disaster vision. Because of his erratic behavior, he and six others are kicked out of the plane. Lo and behold, his vision was accurate, and the plane blows up. Well, it turns out that the deathmeister is just not happy at being cheated of seven victims. Heck, he's still unhappy about that chess game in The Seventh Seal. He decides to claim the victims back, in the same order in which they would have died on the plane. The challenge for the seven "survivors" is to determine whether they all doomed, or whether there is a way to beat even death itself.

It's a slasher movie, except that death has cut out the middle man, and just does his own work. And it's a good slasher movie, made with humor and imagination. Despite some flaws, Final Destination has genuine thrills, and is many cuts above the typical offering of this type. The highlights of the film are the gory deaths, which are executed with bizarre Rube Goldberg-like chains of action. It's all enlivened by some very good use of the surprise cut techniques, some good production values, and some good performances from the kids.
 

DVD info from Amazon

  • the DVD contains deleted scenes, an alternate ending, and commentary

  • The widescreen transfer is anamorphically enhanced

 

NUDITY REPORT
There is no nudity. It is rated R for language and grisly violence.

The Critics Vote ...

  • Super-panel consensus: no consensus. One liked it, one hated it. James Berardinelli 1/4, Roger Ebert 3/4

 

The People Vote ...

  • IMDB summary: 6.6 out of 10. This is an extraordinarily good score for a teen-oriented grisly death film.

  • Box Office Mojo. It grossed $53 million on a budget in the mid twenties. It grossed another sixty million overseas.
The meaning of the IMDb score: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence equivalent to about three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, comparable to approximately two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, equivalent to about a two star rating from the critics, or a C- from our system. Films rated below five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film - this score is roughly equivalent to one and a half stars from the critics or a D on our scale. (Possibly even less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

Our own guideline:

  • A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre.
  • B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. Any film rated B- or better is recommended for just about anyone. In order to rate at least a B-, a film should be both a critical and commercial success. Exceptions: (1) We will occasionally rate a film B- with good popular acceptance and bad reviews, if we believe the critics have severely underrated a film. (2) We may also assign a B- or better to a well-reviewed film which did not do well at the box office if we feel that the fault lay in the marketing of the film, and that the film might have been a hit if people had known about it. (Like, for example, The Waterdance.)
  • C+ means it has no crossover appeal, but will be considered excellent by people who enjoy this kind of movie. If this is your kind of movie, a C+ and an A are indistinguishable to you.
  • C means it is competent, but uninspired genre fare. People who like this kind of movie will think it satisfactory. Others probably will not.
  • C- indicates that it we found it to be a poor movie, but genre addicts find it watchable. Any film rated C- or better is recommended for fans of that type of film, but films with this rating should be approached with caution by mainstream audiences, who may find them incompetent or repulsive or both. If this is NOT your kind of movie, a C- and an E are indistinguishable to you.
  • D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. We don't score films below C- that often, because we like movies and we think that most of them have at least a solid niche audience. Now that you know that, you should have serious reservations about any movie below C-. Films rated below C- generally have both bad reviews and poor popular acceptance.
  • E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre.
  • F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

 

Based on this description, this film is a C+, top-notch genre fare.

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