Final Destination

Ominous: 17-year-old Alex (Sawa) is excited to be flying to Paris with his high school French class, but seven of the party miss the flight, and watch in horror as the plane explodes above the airport. It seems Alex has got one over on Death - but the Grim Reaper isn't about to let him and his pals off that easily. This portentous chiller is a nasty piece of work. It's not that the idea is unserviceable, more that the film-makers are contemptuous of both the teenagers the movie is about and the teen audience at which it is aimed. It's difficult to say which is more offensive: an uninspired cast struggling with lines about 'Death's design', or the callousness of the characters, who bury their pals without a hint of remembrance or regret. Here death is a mere special effect, the ultimate gross-out spectacle.