Final Destination

REVIEW
Beware of any horror film with the following on the video box and/or poster: five to seven, TV-bland teens staring straight ahead with pouty, quasi-frightened expressions, topped with a portentous tagline. With the exception of the first Scream (which started this soon-to-be-annoying trend), the actual "product" is bound to be cookie-cutter dull and decidedly unscary. Unfortunately, Final Destination doesn't break the mold. An overacting high-schooler (Sawa) has a premonition that the plane he and his classmates are on will explode. He makes a scene, and is thrown off, along with several of his friends and one teacher. The plane does explode, but Death is unhappy that Sawa has ruined his Design, and proceeds to pick off the survivors one by one. Wong and his cowriter Glen Morgan wrote some of the best episodes of "Millennium" and "The X-Files"; here, despite a very silly but interesting premise, they come up with one or two creepy/funny touches, but basically settle for snooze-inducing teen slasher clichés, dorky "philosophical" discussions, and an idiotic (though, to be fair, studio-imposed) ending. They're capable of much more.