If you’re in the mood for a mid-altitude crisis that checks every air disaster box without ever pushing the emergency slide of insanity, Rough Air: Danger on Flight 534 is the in-flight entertainment you never asked for—but might not mind watching with a bag of stale pretzels. This 2001 made-for-TV thriller stars Eric Roberts, who delivers one of the most aggressively disinterested performances in a movie about a plummeting death tube ever recorded. And yet, somehow, the film still finds a way to stay airborne as an enjoyable slice of light turbulence TV cheese.

The plot is your standard disaster blueprint: a disgraced pilot (Roberts) is pulled out of aviation exile to take over a flight after the captain suffers a sudden heart attack mid-flight. Cue the typical cabin drama: nervous passengers, a weepy stewardess, shaky controls, a storm system on the radar, and the always-welcome fuel crisis. But instead of going full barrel roll into each disaster trope, the film kind of… brushes up against them. It starts to nosedive into clichés and then levels off just before impact, leaving you wondering if it’s building to something bigger. (Spoiler: it’s not.)

What really sells the surreal mediocrity of the movie is Eric Roberts, who is not so much phoning it in as texting it in from a burner phone. His emotional range here is somewhere between “waiting at the DMV” and “mildly annoyed a vending machine ate his dollar.” The stakes may be life or death, but Roberts plays it like he’s watching a curling match and doesn’t know the rules. He’s not wooden. He’s laminated indifference.

Still, there’s something kind of comforting about the movie’s half-hearted commitment to disaster movie glory. It never crashes and burns, nor does it soar. It just floats in the airspace of “pretty okay.” If you’re a fan of “Fly Hard” flicks—where troubled pilots, stormy skies, and panicked passengers do their dance—this is a breezy 86-minute ride. Just don’t expect to remember anything about it once you’ve deplaned.

This special episode we go through our favorite bad and cult movies from our 10th year in podcasting. We'll also give our favorite 3 movies from the year 2024.

Death appears completely unqualified to do its job. It should apply for a cabinet position in the government. Hey yo!

"Final Destination" starts with an intriguing premise for an X-Files episode – a group of high school students narrowly escape a plane explosion thanks to a premonition, only to find themselves stalked by Death itself in the aftermath. It’s a clever setup, but the movie drags its feet getting to the fun part. The initial plane disaster sequence is drawn out like it’s gunning for an Oscar in tension building, but instead, it feels like a slow crawl through a TSA line. The characters spend far too much time brooding about fate and existential dread before the real fireworks begin.

Once the film finally lets loose and the Rube Goldberg death traps start rolling, it hits a much better stride. Each subsequent demise becomes more absurd than the last, delivering the kind of schlocky, over-the-top fun that horror fans crave. There’s a certain perverse joy in watching the universe bend itself backward to off these characters in increasingly elaborate ways, as if Death took a weekend workshop in improvisational murder. It's the kind of movie that practically demands a group viewing, where half the fun is shouting predictions at the screen like a demented game of Clue: "It was the faulty microwave cord in the kitchen with the poorly placed puddle!"

The cast, led by a moody Devon Sawa and a wildly underused Tony Todd, struggles to make the clunky dialogue feel meaningful, but the real stars here are the death scenes themselves – more creative than the writing and far more memorable than any of the actual characters. By the time the movie throws subtlety to the wind in its final act, it's gone from "grim supernatural thriller" to something closer to a darkly comic carnival ride.

In the end, "Final Destination" is a mixed bag – sluggish at the start but ultimately rewarding if you hang in there. It’s a popcorn horror flick that knows how to make an audience wince, cringe, and occasionally cackle at the sheer audacity of its kills. Would I watch it again? Sure, but only if I’m in the mood to laugh at Death's clumsiest attempts at efficiency.