28 from Glasgow, love films - so you'll probably only ever see me write about them lol
28 from Glasgow, love films - so you'll probably only ever see me write about them lol
Member since:08.03.2004
Reviews:116
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Taking the horror genre to a whole new premise, Final Destination introduces the villain as Death itself. Devon Sawa stars as Alex, a high school student who is preparing to go to Paris on a field trip with his class. From the opening credits, all the signs point towards something sinister. And as Alex gets on the plane, he finds himself thrust into a mid air explosion. Moments later though, he wakes up and discovers that it was nothing more than a dream. However, convinced it was more like a premonition, he and a handful of students get into a brawl and are thrown off the plane. As they are rounded up in the departure lounge, they watch in horror as his premonition is realised and the plane explodes moments after taking off. The police are instantly convinced that Alex must be part of some conspiracy to blow the plane up, and as the survivors being to die in strange ways in order of the seating plan on the plane, Alex continues to piece together
the signs in order to save his remaining friends. Meanwhile, the FBI are hot on his trail, convinced that he is doing more than just providing proof of his theory about death.
This is one of those clever little thrillers that occassionally arrive to re-define the horror genre. Relying purely on thrills, jolts and an old fashioned sense of Hitchcockian chills, Final Destination came hot on the heals of Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer. The difference between this film and those aforementioned thrillers is that this one takes itself exactly as seriously as it should. It doesn't bash you over the head with terribly clever rules, it doesn't boast an utterly stupid villain (check out Scream's daft looking masked killer for reference) running stupidly into doors, and the deaths are both inventive and as gruesome as neccessary. It also relies on its own storytelling, rather than injokes and daft meandering, to get across the requisites of its tale.
The cast are everybit as they should be as well. Devon Sawa is an unlikely hero. Not nearly as good looking as his co-stars, and taking on the coveted role of survivor usually allocated to big haired healthy-lunged women, he makes an interesting choice for the lead role. He boasts just the right amount of panic and grief for his role, and despite not being a particularly expressive actor, is decent enough to carry the picture. Ali Larter takes on the role of Clear Rivers, one of the only characters who believes in Alex's claims. Again, she isn't going to win any awards, but she screams in all the right places and looks different enough that she isn't just big breasted knife fodder. Dawson Creek's Kerr Smith shows up in a semi-integral role to provide the essential clever-teen-tv connection, and its one of the very few attempts at in-jokery showcased here. The rest of the cast are effective enough, and manage to carry the load just well enough that they are not upstaged by extremely good and realistic looking effects.
James Wong takes on directorial duties of a screenplay penned by Glen Morgan. He does a superb job, putting the money on screen. The deaths are all gruesome and bloody enough to scare the bejezus out of its audience, but he gives us enough sympathy for his character's plight that we actually care when they do meet their maker. Death is also an interesting foe, and one that has little been explored on the big screen. Its nice to have a film where people have enough brains to see off some pillock in a mask waving a potato peeler around, but are actually facing something far more deadly and undefeatable. All in all, a clever premise, with good direction, a smart sharp script and a decent cast make for 90 minutes of pure entertainment.
The DVD extra's on the original disc release include a brilliant theatrical trailer, information on the cast and crew, some deleted scenes, a useless documentary on Premonitions, and some cast interviews. But seriously, on a film that has this much potential for extra's and insights into the making of, there is very little on offer, and most of it is by the numbers documentary nonsense.
The DVD is widely available from www.play.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.hmv.co.uk, and www.virginmega.co.uk
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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
I love these films. the rollercoaster is the best. Good review :0)
chcouper 23.04.2007 22:13
Good review. I've seen one of the sequels to this film and it sounds like it's exactly the same as this one, except that next time it's a rollercoaster ride instead of a plane.
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![Final Destination [DVD] [2000]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78522736.jpg "Final Destination [DVD] [2000]")
Apr 23rd, 2007
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