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One Way Or Another, Heads Will Spin. Or Explode. Or Both.
By bukkhead | March 23, 2008
FILM REVIEW: ‘SAW III’
Written by James Wan and Leigh Whannell
Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman
Rated R
113 mins.
I’ve never written a review for this kind of movie before, so let’s see what happens. What’s the appeal of the Saw films? (I hesitate to call them films, but this is a review environment, so I’ll use the nomenclature). I suppose it’s those insidious traps and devices, and of course, the plot twists at the end. They’re almost too expected by now, though, if you put enough time and other movies between the Saw sequels, you should be okay, In Saw III, the other element is furthered, sort of building on the momentum in from Saw 1 and 2: other people.
In this one, the main test subject is Jeff, who’s son was killed by an otherwise innocent driver when the boy dashed into the street. His series of “tests” involve a choice to either save the people indirectly involved in his son’s demise (see? Nomenclature) or let them die as he gets closer to finding the driver. Lain on top of that is Jigsaw on a gurney and a kidnapped doctor who’s instructions from Jigsaw’s assistant are simple: keep him alive while Jeff goes though his tests, or die.
The traps in this go-round are both the same old cruel, crude, dirty-metal contraptions, with a touch of a deeper grotesque that devolves their complicated side but adds an almost spiritual element. The doctor’s trap is a necklace of shotgun shells set to go off when Jigsaw’s heart monitor flat-lines. Jeff’s first test, a woman who witnessed the accident, is merely chained naked to the ceiling of a freezer, periodically sprayed with cold water. His second, the judge who passed a too-light sentence on the driver, is held to the bottom of a cistern where rotted and bloated pigs are liquefied and dumped on him. The driver himself is locked in a rack that in turn twists each limb, and his head, through 360-plus degrees.
I don’t feel too bad about these spoilers because you have to see them to feel them in this movie. If nothing else, Saw’s creators James Wan and Leigh Whannell, and collaborator Darren Lynn Bousman have all but perfected the grit and grime of the torturescapes they create. Due credit should go to art director Anthony A. Ianni who literally paints the picture that the writers have tried to imply.
We get to see Tobin Bell as Jigsaw more than ever this time (yes, we saw him the whole time in Saw I, but he was just a body on the floor—this time it’s his face) and Shawnee Smith as Amanda. As acting goes, fear and anger are the easiest, so it doesn’t take much to do the required job here. That just leaves those good old plot twists and retwists, an appropriate approbation as it’s always the twisting of the plot threads that ties up everything in a neat little bow, leaving enough thread dangling to support the next sequel. Saw IV is In my queue, and 5 hits theaters this October.
Topics: Movies | 1 Comment »
April 8th, 2008 at 5:02 am
hey man…wassup ? I think saw movies lost their charm..SAW I and II were gory and smart.. the rest are just gory..saw IV is strictly OK..but I will still wait for your review.