Metacritic Film

Final Destination 2

Starring Ali Larter, A.J. Cook, Michael Landes, Terrence 'T.C.' Carson, Keegan Connor Tracy, Enid-Raye Adams, and Sarah Hattingh

MPAA RATING: R for strong violent/gruesome accidents, language, drug content and some nudity

New Line Cinema
Suspense/Thriller
100 minutes | Color
USA
Released In Theaters January 31, 2003

This sequel to the hit 2000 supernatural thriller finds Clear Rivers (Larter), the only survivor of the crash of Flight 180 left alive, Locked away by her own choice in the perceived safety of a psychiatric hospital. Clear now lives in constant terror that Death is coming to claim her, as it did all her friends. (New Line Cinema)

WRITTEN BY
J. Mackye Gruber (also story)
Eric Bress (also story)
Jeffrey Reddick (story and characters))

DIRECTED BY
David R. Ellis

Overall Metascore

This is a weighted, normalized average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

38 / 100

Critic Reviews

75 San Francisco Chronicle C.W. Nevius
Funnier than the original.
70 Los Angeles Times
The horror sequel is less philosophical than the original, but it's just as intelligent.
70 Washington Post Richard Harrington
Can't wait for the next sequel . . .
70 Salon.com
Essentially dumb and sadistic, but it's not like that's something new for pop culture. What we've got here is a solid, grade-B genre sequel, not as scary as the original but a bit funnier, and with a nasty little sting in its tail.
67 Austin Chronicle
It’s most definitely not for the squeamish nor the easily offended -- the death scenes in Final Destination 2, of which there are many, are immensely bloody and imaginative affairs, full of exploding limbs, squashed bodies, and graphic, gory ultra-violence.
60 The New York Times
Has a ghoulish wit. It's not as cheekily knowing as the "Scream" movies or as trashily Grand Guignol as the "Evil Dead" franchise, but like those pictures it recognizes the close relationship between fright and laughter, and dispenses both with a free, unpretentious hand.
50 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
A series of Grand Guignol skits played for mean-spirited laughs.
50 Dallas Observer
A tight, rockin' popcorn flick packed with nasty kicks, the year's first major sequel is a rare beast, matching and in some ways superseding the original movie.
50 Baltimore Sun
It ain't art. But as a cinematic house of horrors, it more than fills the bill.
50 Chicago Reader
The plot is just a delivery system for a series of gruesome, convoluted, and--depending on your tolerance for sadism--hilarious freak accidents.
40 TV Guide
If this is your idea of fun, step right up.
40 LA Weekly
The cast of the original looks Shakespearean in comparison to Cook and her hapless cohorts, but to be fair, those first dead ducks had a real script to explore, which this bunch does not.
40 Variety
Suffers from the same rancid dialogue and acting problems as the original but with a much funnier pulse. The real progenitor here is less the previous pic than the sick-funny horror cinema of George Romero.
38 Chicago Sun-Times
Perhaps movies are like history, and repeat themselves, first as tragedy, then as farce.
38 ReelViews
The movie mandates complete gullibility and vacuous attention in order to work on any level.
38 New York Daily News
The movie doesn't even have novelty on its side, since we're basically watching the original "Final Destination" all over again, minus the smarts and humor.
38 New York Post
Alas, the laughs - courtesy of screenwriters J. Mackye Gruber and Eric Bress and director David R. Ellis - are unintentional.
33 Entertainment Weekly
The only pleasure to be derived from the resulting carnage comes from the Rube Goldbergesque chain reactions that precede each fatality.
30 Film Threat
I wasn’t much scared by anything in Final Destination 2 which is silly and illogical.
25 The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
This is a miserable sequel to the modestly well-reviewed Final Destination.
25 Boston Globe
By the time I saw poor Tim crushed, head to toe, by a falling sheet of plate glass, I was certain I hadn't signed up for anything this punishing.
25 USA Today
That a group of creative people chose to direct their energies on this repulsive spectacle simply provokes disgust.
25 Chicago Tribune
Despite some imaginative fatalities, is less a movie than a slick video game.
20 The Onion (A.V. Club)
While “Final Destination” was gimmicky enough, its sequel begins with the same flawed premise, then piles on layers of contrivances until it reaches a level of implausibility rarely seen outside of films pitting giant radioactive monsters against each other.
0 Village Voice Justine Elias
This risible thriller is merely a sadistic series of misread premonitions and vile murders.

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