Saw III (Unrated Widescreen Edition)
by Darren Lynn Bousman
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Angus Macfadyen, Bahar Soomekh, Donnie Wahlberg, Shawnee Smith, Tobin BellDirector: Darren Lynn Bousman
Brand: LION'S GATE ENTERTAINMENT
Cinematographer: David A. Armstrong
Editor: Kevin Greutert
Producer: Peter Block
Producer: Jason Constantine
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0; English (Published), Dolby Digital 2.0; Spanish (Published)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 108 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-01-23
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Lionsgate
Movie Reviews of Saw III (Unrated Widescreen Edition)
Movie Review: Not the same
Summary: 5 Stars
Since the first "Saw" came out, a highly low-budget film mostly panned by critics which has become surprisingly successful, the sequels have taken the idea and managed to make it if not any deeper or more complex plot-wise, they were certainly more enjoyable. It's especially entertaining to see in Saw II as Donnie Wahlberg's character is driven nuts just talking to Jigsaw, who promises his son's "safe" delivery if he just stays and talks (note: safe not put in quotes because its untrue, it's just a spoiler)
****SPOILERS ALERT****
Saw III starts out with a much denied rumor proven true of Donnie Wahlberg returning as the cop from Saw II. He is placed in the same bathroom as Adam and Lawrence were in the first, but rather than saw his foot off, he does somethng more gruesome (bashing his foot so it can slide through the cuff) and then goes after Amanda who is still in the catacombs. He nearly succeeds in killing her, but she eventually prevails.
Then we move on with the usual someone caught in Jigsaw's trap, and showing more people caught in his traps. But there's something different about these ones... no one is surviving the traps, and while some of them are particularly impossible (try removing a metal ring that is connected to your jaw, beneath your tongue and behind your chin), even if the person somehow managed to survive it, their traps do not let them go.
Before the main victims are introduced, the sole recurring character (save for Jigsaw and Amanda) from the franchise (played by Dina Meyer) discovers that Jigsaw's traps have become inescapable, and the slaughter is becoming more brutal without any particular justification. As she makes this revelation, she is now caught in one of Jigsaw's traps, and would have escaped, but her contraption failed to open with the key she retrieved in a cup of acid, and she dies.
Now we are introduced to the characters. I have mixed feelings about them as I love Angus Macfeyden as an actor, and he certainly brings his character as much to life as he can, while the woman playing his wife (Lynn) seems quite bored in the beginning where she's shown going to work after having an affair. Macfayden's character (Jeff) is perpetually tormented by the death of his son in a car accident, and the person involved has been let off and so his life falls apart as he devotes himself to tracking the people down and--probably--killing him.
Quickly, the two are captured by Jigsaw's new assistant, Amanda, and placed in their respective traps. Lynn, being the doctor, is fixed with a neck-contraption with shotgun shells which will ignite and kill her if a now-bedridden Jigsaw dies, and she is responsible for keeping him alive.
Jeff, meanwhile, is placed in a gauntlet of a different kind of torture. Rather than suffer physically, he is made to suffer mentally as Jigsaw's gauntlet leads him to rooms where other people are placed in brutal traps. Each person has a tape with them, which is addressed to Jeff, and told how each person was partly responsible for either his son's death or the mistrial resulting in his killer's escape from justice. Jigsaw's test is to see if he can forgive them for their actions or inactions and help them to escape the traps.
The first is a woman who was jogging that morning that Jeff's son was hit, and refused to testify in court. She is stripped naked and chained by her hands in the middle of a freezer, while a machine sprays her with misty water every few minutes, intending to freeze her. Jeff is reluctant to free her at first, but soon overcomes this and attempts to retrieve the key to let her go (resulting in a nasty flesh wound on his cheek) but by the time he gets it, she is completely frozen over, and the lock as well.
The next room he goes into he must free the judge who dismissed the case due to lack of evidence. He is strapped by the neck at the bottom of a pit while a machine takes pig carcasses and drops them in a grinder, shooting the liquified pigs into the pit to slowly drown him. Jeff must get the key to shut the machine off by burning his son's stuffed animals which Jeff kept to himself obsessively after his son's death. He gets it in time to save the man, and they move on.
Meanwhile, while Lynn is caring for Jigsaw, we get some insight not only into Jigsaw and his past, but also insight into Amanda, and how her apparent Stockholm Syndrome with Jigsaw evolved into a full-on obsession, so much so that she begins to grow insanely jealous with Lynn, whom Jigsaw is treating benevolently, while scolding Amanda for lashing out emotionally. She relieves the pain by cutting her thighs.
There are also some very nice and insightful flashbacks, showing that Amanda's assistance of Jigsaw has extended as far back as Dr Gordon and Adam in the first movie. We see her preparing Jigsaw for his stint in the room, taking a drug to slow his breathing and heartbeat (so he can appear a corpse) while also placing Adam in the cold bath and setting up everything. We even see her coming in after Jigsaw has left Adam in the bathroom, and see her reviving a still-alive Adam and then murdering him (by wrapping a plastic bag around his head), and the rush she gets from killing him.
We also get to see flashbacks showing Amanda developing an almost daughterly obsession with Jigsaw, and her growing taste for murder. We find out she is the one responsible for making Jigsaw's traps unwinnable, and Jigsaw is not oblivious to this.
Back with Jeff and the judge, they come into the final room, where the man who killed Jeff's son is placed in a crucifix-style trap. It slowly begins to twist his limbs one by one in 360 circles, and the key to unlock the man from the device is hanging inside a glass tube connected to the trigger of a shotgun. Jeff is obviously hesitant, but with the pressure of the judge, he decides to help him, but is having trouble trying to get the key without setting off the shotgun. We are led to believe that the shotgun is empty and that this is merely a test of Jeff's willingness to shed some of his own blood to save another. Still, he yanks the key and jerks away, just as the shotgun fires off and accidentally hits the judge who is standing off behind him. Jeff attempts to use the key to free the man in the trap, but the key does not fit (Amanda's doing) and he is killed with the crucifix twists his head completely around, and Jeff is left alone now.
Jeff finds his way to Jigsaw's workshop somehow, and Amanda grows further infuriated with Lynn. She then pulls out her gun and shoots Lynn, only to then be shot by Jeff who has found a gun nearby. Jigsaw then reveals to Amanda that he has been testing her as well, and that she has failed. Now that they are confronted, Jigsaw challenges Jeff with his last test---to forgive Jigsaw, for putting him and his wife in this situation. Jeff says he forgives him---then retrieves a buzz saw and slits Jigsaw's throat. As he starts to bleed to death, he unveils a tape recorder in his hand, and plays a pre-recorded message for Jeff in the event of Jigsaw's death. He tells Jeff of what will happen, that he has failed, and that now he can never save his child---as Jeff had been told in Jigsaw's first tape that he would save his child, thinking it to be his son by getting justice for his death, when he never realized that Jigsaw had also kidnapped his daughter and placed her in a secret place.
As Jigsaw flatlines, Lynn's neck contraption goes off and kills her, and Jeff is left to wail loudly in pain as his wife is dead, his daughter missing, and the exits to the hideout are closed shut by automatic metal doors, effectively trapping him inside.
All in all, there was a lot more attempts at a philosophy in Jigsaw's torturous tests, and a lot of deeper insight into the minds of Amanda and Jigsaw, as well as a strong theme of forgiveness. Along with this, it is also much much gorier than the previous two, but nothing that is both gross and traumatic (like live amputations and such). One of my favorite gory scenes was the emergency brain surgery performed by Lynn on Jigsaw using power tools and stolen medical equipment :P
While not something deep and thrilling, it was an enjoyable ride, and I strongly oppose the studios' decision to call for a Saw IV. It is over. Jigsaw is dead, Amanda is dead, Kerry is dead, Detective Matthews is dead, Doctor Gordon is dead, Adam is dead, Lynn is dead, Jeff is dead, there's no one to go on other than lame copycats which we would rather not see.
Summary of Saw III (Unrated Widescreen Edition)
Jigsaw has disappeared. With his new apprentice Amanda (Shawnee Smith) the puppet-master behind the cruel intricate games that have terrified a community and baffled police has once again eluded capture and vanished. While city detectives scramble to locate him Doctor Lynn Denlon (Bahar Soomekh) and Jeff (Angus Macfadyen) are unaware that they are about to become the latest pawns on his vicious chessboard.System Requirements:Run Time: 113 mins Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR Rating: NR UPC: 031398208099 Manufacturer No: 20810Similar DVD Movies
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