James Wong and Glen Morgan have worked together on shows such as The X-Files, Millenium and Space: Above and Beyond. But, they have now made their jump to the big time with Final Destination, which on DVD courtesy of New Line Home Video, and if this fun and inventive horror film is any indication, they have a big future ahead of them.
With the box proudly boasting the tagline Death is Coming, its one of the more accurate taglines around. The film opens with Alex Browning (Devon Sawa) at home finishing his packing for a school trip to France, its here we see he is quite scared to fly. Next we see him at the airport, and eventually the class board the plane. Once on, Alex has a premonition that the plane will explode after take-off and demands to get off. He gets thrown off as do six other passengers - Todd (Chad E. Donella), Billy (Seann William Scott), Claire (Ali Larter), Carter (Kerr Smith), Terry (Amanda Detmer) and Ms. Lewton (Kriston Cloke).
Most of the others are upset at Alex and think he is a bit scared but then the plane does explode. Its after this that the remaining survivors die one by one in strange ways that Alex realises that they were all suppose to die in that crash, but dodged death and comes up with a plan of deaths path. He starts to have visions of how and when the others will die and the FBI are hot on his trail, he must figure out how to avoid Deaths plan.
Director James Wong and producer Glen Morgan take this great storyline and drag ot out as far as possible, in the end creating a refreshingly
entertaining horror film that is very creepy and very fun. Once the plane has blown up and the plot is set, we know most characters are going to die we just dont know when. The same idea is repeated again and again but each time the death is different including one scene that is a rip off of a similar scene in Bride of Chucky.
The film does have a few holes (mostly about the continuity of the death scenes) and the sequence just before the end is quite weak. Final Destination is the best horror film in the post-scream rip offs and gives us a great storyline with good performances from all the cast (especially Sawa and Kerr), creepy scares and intelligent characters.
Final Destination is part of New Line Home Video’s Platnium Series, and this DVD is simply filled with extras. Director James Wong clearly worked very hard to make Final Destination a visual feast and this transfer allows us to see his vision as it was intended. Dialogue is clear and never muffled and Shirley Walker’s score comes across powerfully.
Following the theme of the film, someone at New Line must have worked themselves to death stuffing the extras on this DVD. There are three audio commentaries. The first commentary features director/writer James Wong, producer/writer Glen Morgan, editor James Coblentz, and writer Jeffrey Reddick. This commentary is a must, as the creative team points out all of the minute subtleties hidden throughout the film. Simply stated, almost every shot contains some kind of illusion to death or foreshadowing of the deaths in the film. While some are clearly visible upon an initial viewing, this commentary helps you to spot them all.
Wong, Morgan, and Coblentz do most of the talking, as it’s obvious that Reddick’s track was recorded seperately and his comments are kept to a minimum. The filmmakers offer up very frank stories about the making of the film and how they worked and fought the executives at New Line over various aspects of the film. This is a very informative and entertaining commentary.
The second features cast members Devon Sawa, Kerr Smith, Kristen Cloke, and Chad E. Donella. It is the opposite to the first one. The four actors are very casual in their comments and don’t seem to be taking the commentary very seriously. While this is somewhat fun, I couldn’t help but wish that they could be more specific in their comments. They do talk about what was involved in certain scenes, and how they each were cast in the film. However, for the most part this commentary is made up of in-jokes and comments that don’t really tell the audience much about the film.
The third commentary is imbedded in an isolated music score which is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. Between musical cues, composer Shirley Walker tells us about what went into creating the music for Final Destination. She gives us an idea of where her motivation for the score came from and describes her working relationship with Wong and Morgan. This is one of the more interesting music commentaries that I’ve heard and it definitely fits into the quality of this DVD.
The Final Destination DVD features three deleted scenes. Instead of your typical scenes, these three scenes represent an alternate version of the film. There are two brief scenes introducing a subplot between Alex and Claire (with an extended love scene). The third scene is actually a series of scenes, which make up an alternate ending totally different from the ending on the finished product. I won’t give away anything, but this ending is a total bummer and would’ve completely ruined any fun the viewer would’ve had while watching the movie.
If you saw the film at the pictures and enjoyed it, then you must see what Final Destination could have been. There are two documentaries on the DVD. The first is entitled A Look at Test Screenings. It runs about thirteen minutes and is another must have part of this DVD. This featurette outlines the test screening process and gives us an overview of how these screening are conducted and scored. We are treated to video footage of a test screening audience, and specific comments on why the deleted scenes didn’t work. Wong and Morgan read some of the comments from the test audience, they are hilarious (Q. What would make the film better? A. More pussy!). This documentary offers insight into why certain scenes were deleted or reshot and offers both an artistic and business viewpoint on the subject.
The second documentary concerns real-life investigator Pam Coronado. The 20-minute feature explores the life of this woman who has helped the police on many murders and missing person cases with her psychic ability. While this is certainly an interesting documentary, and a clever tie-in to the subject matter of the film.
The DVD contains two non DVD-ROM games, which are actually more like interactive demos. The first one is a grim little number entitled Death Clock. For this, you answer a series of health related questions and it tells you how long you will live. The second game is a Psychic Test featuring Zener cards. These are five cards with various geometric shapes. You are presented with 25 sets of cards and you must guess (or sense) which card is the correct one.
The DVD also contains the original theatrical trailer for Final Destination. As well as filmographies for the main cast and crew.
For horror fans looking for a good fix, you can’t go wrong with the Final Destination DVD. The movie is a great ride that should satisfy any major fan.
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Production Year: 1995 - Horror - Director: Bill Condon - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Tony Todd, Kelly Rowan, Timothy Carhart, Veronica Cartwright
Production Year: 2003 - Horror - Director: Marcus Nispel - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Jessica Biel, Jonathan Tucker, Erica Leerhsen, Mike Vogel, Eric Balfour, Andrew Bryniarski
Excellent write-up of an exceptional movie. I hadn't noticed the extra scenes though - will go check them out now. Thanks :)
mattmorrison 11.02.2001 19:28
Great opinion, and right on too. I loved the film and was going to buy it anyway, but like you summed up, as far as extra features go, no other film comes close (except Go, have you checked that out?). Cheers, Matt
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Advantages: A gorefest, little details that bring the film together Disadvantages: No story line to get my teeth into, some of the acting was a bit wooden
![Final Destination [DVD] [2000]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78522736.jpg "Final Destination [DVD] [2000]")
Feb 11th, 2001
very helpful by (100%):
