Cast
Alex Browning (Devon Sawa)
Clear Rivers (Ali Larter)
Carter Horton (Kerr Smith)
Valerie Lewton (Kristen Cloke)
The Mortician (Tony Todd)
Billy Hitchcock (Sean William Scott)
Directed by James Wong Written by James Wong, Glen Morgan
and Jeffery Reddick
Rated R for graphic violence, language and terror
Running Time: 95 minutes Distributed by New Line Cinema
Final
Destination is an okay teen horror film that has some interesting
moments in it. Alex Browning (Sawa) is a typical high school
student that is taking a trip to Paris with his classmates.
As the plane is about to take off, Alex has a fatal premonition
of seeing the plane exploding in mid-air. As Alex panics and
warns everyone to get off the airplane, he and six other people
are forced off the plane. While trying to calm down in the
airport lounge, Alex's premonition comes true as the plane
explodes after taking off. After many questions are left for
Alex to answer, he figures out that he and the other passengers
have some how cheated death. Now, Alex and the survivors have
to figure out when death is coming back after them.
Final
Destination is a horror film that has a unique plot and few
exciting moments. Though Final Destination is probably the
best horror film that I have seen since Stir of Echoes, the
film still had some flaws.
Final
Destination was directed and co-wrote by James Wong. Wong
is a veteran director of the X-Files episodes on television.
I liked Wong's creepy and quick direction in this film. There
are a few predictable moments in the film of something jumping
out. However, it is the moments that the audience least expect
something to surprise them that works well in this film. The
script is where the film runs into problems. Wong co-wrote
the script with Glen Morgan and Jeffrey Reddick. The dialogue
is absolutely absurd in this script. An example of the bad
dialogue is when Alex has an encounter with Carter, who is
student that was an original passenger that blames Alex for
the tragedy. While Cater is referring to Alex as a freak,
he tells him, " I am going to live forever". The script also
has some loopholes, the biggest one develops in the last scene
of the film, in which I thought all the open questions in
the film would be tied up, but they are not.
The
acting ensemble of Final Destination is full of mostly young
actors. Devon Sawa, who plays Alex, shows some depth with
his character, and he will only get better in the future.
Ali Larter, who plays Alex's love interest Clear, is not too
established at all with her character in this film. However,
the worst performance in this film is by Dawson Creek's Kerr
Smith as Carter. Smith plays the hothead jock of the group.
His performance is flaky and lost. The bright spot of the
cast is Sean William Scott, who plays Billy. Scott was the
scene-stealer as Stifler in last summer's American Pie. Though,
Scott doesn't have as much area to work with in Final Destination
as he did in American Pie, he still turns in the best and
most likeable performance in the film.
Final
Destination might be a movie that will do well at the box
office. I can see it finding its own audience and becoming
a sleeper hit.
Report
Card Grade: C
Beastman's
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