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Of the post-Scream "Dead Teenager" movies, this one is probably the best of a bad lot. It is certainly the cleverest of them, cleverer, even, than Scream. Maybe it is the blissful absence of Scream screenwriter Kevin Williamson. The writers of Final Destination come from an entirely different tradition: they are graduates of The X-Files.  Like The X-Files, Final Destination is very interested in the mechanics and the broader implications of its paranormal occurrences. As such, it is a LOT more interesting to watch than most "Dead Teenager" movies. It's also AWFULLY funny.

The plot of Final Destination has our hero, Alex, beset by a startling vision of the plane he is on exploding in mid-air. He raises a ruckus and he and five other people are kicked off the plane. When the plane actually DOES explode, he comes under suspicion by the authorities and is shunned by his friends. He has cheated Death, but Death doesnt' play fair. Alex and his friends were supposed to die in the explosion, and now Death is out to even the score. Alex must decipher Death's design for dying if he and his friends are to live a long and happy life.

Oh, and it turns out that Death is actually Rube Goldberg. The deathtraps in the movie are so elaborate that one expects to find the word "Acme" emblazoned on the props. It's kinda fun to watch, really.

Individual sequences are dazzling, particularly Alex's vision of the plane accident. This movie will NEVER be shown on airplanes. Buses (especially buses) and trains ALSO get their fair share of bad press. Some of the surface cleverness is pretty funny, too. Most of the characters are named after famous horror directors: Browning, Murnau, Hitchcock, and, most prominently, Val Lewton (the teacher who escapes the crash is named Valerie Lewton). The talismanic use of John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High" is the best use of popular music in a horror movie in what seems like forever (I never would have pictured that song as ominous, but Denver died in a plane crash). The dire warnings and omens that populate the movie are so heavy handed that they cross the line into comedy--intentional comedy, at that. Like I said, it's awfully funny. It's not particularly scary, though. Oh, it tries hard enough and it has some pretty tight suspense sequences, but it didn't have me jumping out of my skin. As such, I guess it's a failure. An entertaining failure, sure, but a failure is a failure. Better luck next time, guys.