Final Destination 2 (2003)

The death scenes are pretty great, the rest not so much. The opener is a real corker, a massive auto accident that expands with dizzying logistics and showcases some of the most brutal splatter of any Hollywood film on record. (I nearly shat myself when the tree took out the trooper.) Truth be told, this might be the meanest, most black-hearted studio offering of the last five years. This may explain why it held my interest through the lousy dialogue and superficial, annoying characterization and the mumbo-jumbo about fate and Death's plan; as much as I didn't care about these characters, the film liked them even less and viewed them only as things to be killed spectacularly. The obvious disdain for these whiny wastes of breath pushes the film into nasty black-comedy territory, especially in the fuck-you coda. You'll hate yourself for watching it, and it's not very good anyway, but where else are you gonna see anything as malicious as the 'fence' scene?

Grade: C+