FINAL DESTINATION: DVD
Derived from a story originally written for The X-Files, Final Destination uses
the concept that ‘death’ has a plan and that there’s no escape from it.
However, if you somehow cheat this destiny, ‘death’ will get it’s revenge;
sooner rather than later.
The transfer of the film to DVD is almost perfect. The image quality, barring a few
film artefacts, is spot on. Sharp, clear, colourful and 16x9 enhanced; you couldn’t
ask for much more. The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is very expansive and makes constant use of
all channels. Be warned however that this is a very dynamic soundtrack so don’t let
the quieter dialogue-driven scenes fool you into thinking the volume is too low, because
the louder sound effects like the plane explosion and the ‘incident’ involving
the bus are just that: loud. These scenes in particular managed to leave my heart beating
at a very irregular rate for some time.
The commentary by James Wong (director), Glenn Morgan (writer/producer), James Coblentz
(editor) and Jeffrey Reddick (writer) reveals many details about the production,
particularly how many subtle images and messages were used throughout the film as hints to
the storyline. For example the walls of the airport departure lounge are covered in murals
depicting the fate of each of the characters. Trivia buffs will have a ball with this. The
featurette entitled ‘The Perfect Souffle: Testing Final Destination’ offers an
insight into how test audiences responded to the movie, the most entertaining part of this
being the executives reading out the answers from audience questionnaires. The three major
deleted scenes are also extensively covered in this featurette and are testament to how
test screenings can greatly benefit a movie. These scenes, which include an alternate
ending, can also be viewed separately on the disc with production audio only. The 19½
minute ‘Featurette on Premonitions’ contains a somewhat detailed interview with
Pam Coronado, a woman with ‘real’ psychic abilities. The two games ‘Death
Clock’ and ‘Physic Test’ are merely one final attempt to scare the DVD
audience once the movie is over.
Although aimed at the teenage market, Final Destination is a genuinely scary movie that
should give most viewers like myself temporary heart trouble on more than one occasion.
However, I can’t help but wonder what the story would have been like had it been used
for an X-Files episode."
Ben Hooft
Published January 25, 2001
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FINAL DESTINATION (MA)
(US)
CAST: Devon Sawa, Ali Carter, Kerr Smith & Tony Todd
DIRECTOR: James Wong
RUNNING TIME: 94 Mins
RRP: $34.95
DVD DISTRIBUTOR: Roadshow Home Entertainment
DVD RELEASE: December 20, 2000
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Anamorphic Widescreen
Dolby Digital 5.1
Deleted Scenes
Production Featurette
Premonitions Featurette
Audio Commentary
Biographies
Games
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