Excellent premise for a movie, reasonably performed.

Rating: 8/10 (7 February 2003)

*** SPOILERS ***
This was a bloody enjoyable movie. I missed the first 10 minutes or so but it was easy enough to catch up. You couldn't call it horror. I wasn't scared. I watched it in my house on my own in the middle of the night with a storm a-brewing, and anyone that knows me, knows that even watching the Simpson's Treehouse of Horrors episodes on my own at night can put me close to brown trouser time.
My point? It was a fun movie.
Of the five death scenes (excluding the flight of course), three were so daftly convoluted that you had to laugh. In fact, after the first one I found myself really looking forward to the subsequent deaths just to see what daft ideas they'd come up with next. The second death was more of a shock. It was unexpected, in a way, as I was expecting another 'Mousetrap' scenario but was left with my mouth open at the instant dismissal of an easily forgettable character.
The end pleased me. These films need twists, they can never be straight.
Acting in these type of films is rarely great. The lead, Devon Sawa, was half-decent, the rest made the minimum of effort. Seann William Scott as Billy Hitchcock was the worst, he didn't seem sure whether he was one of his no-brainer characters from `American Pie', or `Dude, Where's My Car', or was he acting straight. A strange amalgamation of the two happened instead - forget the recurrence of 25/9 and 180 etc., the recurrence of him falling off his bike was the only decent moments for him.
Overall it could've been so good; it's a great idea for a movie and was reasonably well executed. I'm not looking forward to the sequel.