Final Destination : DVD Review


While awaiting takeoff on a school trip to Paris, Alex Browning (Devon Sawa) suffers a terrible premonition of the plane's impending explosion. Unable to contain his fear, Alex has a panic attack that triggers a fight with hard-man classmate Carter Horton (Kerr Smith, TV's Dawson's Creek). Ejected from the plane, along with four of their classmates and teacher, Alex and Carter continue to fight until the realisation of Alex's terrible vision as the plane explodes shortly after takeoff.

The remainder of the film then tells the story of the seven surviving characters, fighting for their lives against a series of bizarre accidents that begin knocking them off in the order they would have been killed in the explosion. Can Alex, with his spooky foresight, break the chain and save the group from their impending destruction?

Featuring the kind of young and beautiful cast that normally populate the modern slasher movie, this killer-less thriller will keep you guessing right until the inevitable moment of death.

Presented in a 16:9 ratio, Final Destination, like many disks bearing the flickering 'Entertainment in Video' screen, suffers an unfortunate graininess and lack of focus.

Sound is an area in which this disk really excels. Married with the film's jump-inducing sudden claps of thunder or banging of doors, the crystal-clear soundtrack encapsulates the viewer within the film's tense ambience.

The disk also offers a choice of Dolby Digital 2.0 or 5.1 formats to suit your home set up.

Rarely has a disk's extras tied in so well with the plot of the movie. From the skeletal hands that criss-cross the title screen to the questions - such as 'How much do you exercise?' - designed to make the viewer think of how long they have left to live, which pop up between menus. The disk also contains two games - one of which claims to predict the date of your death - cast biographies, a featurette on premonitions, director's commentary, deleted scenes, interviews with executives and an alternate ending.

Despite this mass of information, however, the extras fall just short of perfect due to the lack of quality on some of the features.

A great movie and some good concepts for extras are marred only by a lack of technical quality in some areas.

Author : Jim Digby