We wouldn't line up to see Final Destination 2 and chances are, you wouldn't, either -- but this one's a winner for every adolescent looking for spectacular gross-out effects and first-date squeeze possibilities.

Final Destination 2 is not so much a movie as it is a collection of fabulously disgusting death and dismemberment vignettes, and all of them done with a certain witty flair that has to be seen to be believed. Squishy, we must say.

This one is a sort-of sequel to Final Destination, the plane crash movie that dampened frequent flyer enthusiasm forever. In this follow-up, A.J. Cook plays Kimberly, a young woman whose psychic abilities allow her to see a hideous multi-car pileup on the freeway before it happens. Of course, lucky viewers get to witness the carnage right along with the prescient heroine; you may never drive again.

(Maybe Final Destination 2 should be added to whatever driving horror stories are currently being screened for kids by Young Drivers Of Canada? It could happen.)

Sure enough, Kimberly's vision is correct, but in the meantime she's able to save several people from certain death by blocking the on-ramp to the highway. They sit, helpless in their cars, and watch the bloodshed they've narrowly avoided. But death isn't put off that easily. Each person who cheats death comes to realize that he or she is going to die soon anyway, and probably in a freak and freakishly gross accident. Because death has a plan. Yipppeeee!

Can Kimberly and her buddies avoid dying? Not on your nelly. Let's get Ali Larter, a veteran of the original Final Destination into this story, and let 'er rip. Explosions! Decapitations! Runnings-through! Human melting! Full body annihilation! Gut spillage! And so on. You might want to save the popcorn for later.

Final Destination 2 is often funny -- on purpose -- and manages to out-do most teen scream entries while spoofing them simultaneously. Yes, of course that's been done before, but not with special effects like this.

The jump-scares (and horrible deaths) are all very cleverly set up with visual red herrings; you expect one thing, and then SPLAT! You get something else. We liked how the story is littered with scary movie images -- a full moon, a menacing-smiling-clown-doll, a shot of ice-skate blades -- that work like a running gag.

For sheer anxiety creation, the opening sequence of drinking, drugging, speeding, inattentive and impatient drivers is wildly effective. All that, and dialogue like this: "We drove a long way to get here, so if you know how to cheat death, tell us now!" make Final Destination 2 fairly irresistible.

Fairly, we said. Fairly irresistible. Do NOT bring the kids.

(This film is rated AA)

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