It was about half-way through "Final Destination" that I finally caught on: I shouldn't be laughing AT this movie; I should
be laughing WITH it. For 45 minutes or so, I'd been slapping my forehead over how lame, how contrived, how infernally perfunctory it all seemed to be. It was puzzling: After all, it was written by Glen Morgan and David Wong (and directed by Wong), two guys responsible for writing/directing/producing some of the best "X-Files" episodes in that show's history. They should know how to construct suspense, creepiness and supernatural chills. Yet "Final Destination" was, from its very first moments, exaggeratedly ominous. High-schooler Alex Browning (Devon Sawa), preparing to go to France on a school-sponsored trip with his classmates, gets freaked out by everything: the word "terminal" on an airport sign; the fact that his flight leaves at 9:25 and his birthday is 9/25; hearing a song by plane-crash victim John Denver before boarding; even his dad saying "you've got the rest of your life ahead of you" gets a thundering DUM-DUM-DUMMMMMMM! on the musical score.
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