Movie review of Final Destination

Friday, March 17th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

If you've ever ridden that particular ride at Six Flags that just sort of shoves you out over open sky, dangles you in midair, then drops you 10 or 12 stories, then you know what watching "Final Destination" is like.

Big fun for some, and the cause of a nauseated stomach for others. This fast-paced thriller operates on the principle that if a disaster is thwarted and someone escapes certain death, does death come a-knockin' to get his due anyway?

Alex (Devon Sawa) is on a flight with his high school French class to gay Paree when he has a premonition that his plane will explode in a ball of fire.

Which should lead all those with a fear of flying to take these subtle hints: If strange winds blow through your bedroom with the windows shut the night before a trip, if the time you leave is the same as the numbers in your birthday (9:25, for example, equals Sept. 25), or if John Denver plays in the airport bathroom (he died in a crash!) DON'T GET ON THE PLANE!!

Alex figures this out soon enough and bolts, followed by his best friend Tod; jocky Carter (Kerr Smith) who wants to fight Alex; Carter's girlfriend; one of their teachers; and Clear (Ali Larter), a girl who senses Alex may be right.

Needless to say, the plane blows up moments after it takes off, but the real nerve-wracking parts are still to come. Co-written and directed by "X-Files" scribe James Wong, the movie is scariest simply because it avoids the "enemy formula" of most teen horror flicks.

There's no knife-wielding maniac or masked psychopath, who (let's be honest) just isn't as scary once Jennifer Love Hewitt has the power to smack him to the ground.

By making the grim reaper a villain you never see, "Final Destination" really hits home, since this is one killer none of us is going to escape.
Of course we hope to meet him in our comfy old-age beds, but for the survivors there's no such luck. Alex figures out that the series of explosions on the plane follows the pattern of who's next on the list. By throwing death off course, he hopes to cheat it once again.

We won't tell you that "Final Destination" is particularly original. And the flick does have a rather jolting, ham-fisted way of delivering the scares. But if you have a fear of household appliances, fire, knives, electrocution, airports or John Denver, "Final Destination" brings the scares home. And isn't that what a good horror film is all about?