Saw
by James Wan
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Cary Elwes, Danny Glover, Dina Meyer, Ken Leung, Leigh WhannellDirector: James Wan
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 103 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-02-15
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Lions Gate
Movie Reviews of Saw
Movie Review: How much blood would you shed to stay alive?
Summary: 5 Stars
Heck yeah! Finally, a mainstream horror movie that's not afraid to be gritty. No campy, PG-13 family-friendly crap. No teenagers running around having sex and then getting hacked by a lumbering serial killer. Just 2 men locked in a dirty bathroom, cryptic clues left by a deranged killer, and a puppet.
The beauty of this movie is in its simplicity. The entire film was shot in one building with an extremely low budget. The two main characters, a photographer named Adam and a surgeon named Lawrence, wake up one day to find themselves locked in a grimy bathroom, chained to pipes on opposite sides of the room. In between them, there is a dead body with a gun in one hand, a tape recorder in the other, and his brains blown out and pooling on the floor. From then on, the two men must work together to solve the puzzle the killer, Jigsaw, has left them, and get out of their situation alive.
Jigsaw is a serial killer who uses "traps" to test his victims. His basic M.O. is that he puts them in situations, often with medieval-like torture devices, that will either kill them horribly, or leave them alive with permanent psychological and/or physical damage. Most of the time, these traps relate in some way to the person's lifestyle. Jigsaw's goal is to teach people to be grateful to be alive.
There are many misconceptions people have about this movie. First of all, it's not THAT gory. Yes, there is blood aplenty, and the traps Jigsaw sets for his victims(including a web of barbed wire a man must plow through, and a device hooked into a woman's jaw that could potentially permanently rip her mouth open) are just sick. But most of the horror comes with the THOUGHT of how painful the traps are, and not necessarily what is shown on screen. The majority of the gorehounds I know say that this movie is pretty tame.
Second of all, "Saw" is NOT torture porn. "Hostel" is torture porn. "Touristas" is torture porn. "Saw", however, is not. You know why? The fact of the matter is...THERE IS NO PORN IN THIS MOVIE. Not even a boob or a buttcrack. THERE IS NO NUDITY. And heck, there isn't really any "torture" either...not really.
However, I'm not gonna lie and say this movie is flawless. This has a lot to do with the director's lack of money, but that doesn't account for everything. In fact, I can see why some people really don't like this movie.
There are a ton of plot holes and unanswered questions. There are quite a few hammy one-liners("This is the most fun I've had without lubricant!"), and the acting in some places is hilariously abysmal(Like when Adam pretends to die). I understand how these could get in the way of enjoying the movie, but for me, they weren't that big of a deal.
All in all, this is one creepy and fascinating movie. The most enjoyable aspect of it is discovering more and more facts about the two main characters as the movie progresses, and discovering the connection they have while watching them learn to cope and work with each other. While not perfect, it's certainly entertaining and worthwhile.
Summary of Saw
Adam (Leigh Whannell) wakes up in a dank room across from Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes) and the body of a guy who has blown his own brains out. Not a happy place, obviously, and it gets worse when both men realize that they've been chained and pitted against one another by an unseen but apparently omniscient maniac who's screwing with their psyches as payment for past sins. Director James Wan, who concocted this grimy distraction with screenwriter Whannell, has seen Seven and any number of other arty existential-psycho-cat-and-mouse thrillers, so he's provided Saw with a little flash, a little blood, and a lot of ways to distract you from the fact that it doesn't make a whole hell of a lot of sense. Wan and Whannell (who's not the most accomplished actor, either) pile on the plot twists, which after some initially novel ideas become increasingly juvenile. Elwes works hard but looks embarrassed, and the estimable Danny Glover suffers as the obsessed detective on the case. The denouement will probably surprise you, but it won't get you back the previous 98 minutes.--Steve WieckingHorror DVD Video
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