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DVD Saw (UMD Mini For PSP)
Saw opens with a gruesome scenario: Two men are chained to the walls of a grimy bathroom with a bloody corpse lying on the floor between them. Tape recordings tell them that one of the men has to kill the other, or his wife and child will die. The corpse is holding a gun in one hand, but it's out of reach...but whoever has locked these two up has thoughtfully provided a hacksaw that can't cut through the heavy chain, but might cut through a little flesh and bone. From there, Saw jumps back and forth as the two men slowly unravel how they know each other and that their tormentor is one of those all-knowing, all-capable serial killers (it goes without saying that Saw is hugely influenced by Seven and the movies of Dario Argento), a fellow known as Jigsaw who disguises his voice and lets a creepy puppet (lifted almost directly from the eccentric animations of the Brothers Quay) be his visual representative. But imitation isn't inherently bad; what puts Saw ahead of its horror compatriots is a gleeful enthusiasm that a dozen sequels to Halloween couldn't muster. Saw has problems--it's clumsily overwritten (every detail of what's going on, no matter how visually evident, will be explained by the characters); most of the situations are static and implausible; and though the cast includes talented veterans like Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride) and Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon), the acting has the depth of a puddle. The rapid pace and frequently frenzied camerawork keep things in motion and while the philosophical underpinnings of Jigsaw won't challenge Hegel or Schopenhauer, they do offer more food for thought than most contemporary horror. Discriminating fans of the genre who like their gore with a glimmer of an idea will embrace Saw.
The Uncut Edition differs only slightly from the theatrical release; it reinserts a little more gore that was cut to get an R rating and tightens up the editing (the uncut version is actually a teensy bit shorter than the theatrical release). The extras are plentiful (if a bit thin): Two audio commentaries (one by director James Wan, screenwriter/actor Leigh Whannel, and Elwes), one by the producers--thankfully, no one takes themselves too seriously. Also included are a trio of typically self-congratulatory making-of featurettes ("He was amazing to work with" etc.), an animated storyboard of a sequence they couldn't afford to shoot, a DVD-ROM game in which you can construct your own puppet, a couple of self-mocking Easter Eggs, and lots of promotional stuff for Saw II. There's a very curious faux-news show purporting to be an investigation of the "real" Jigsaw, which uses clips from the movie as if they were documentary footage--it's hard to say whether this is a misguided attempt to make the movie seem creepier or a bit of flimsy humor. Most fans will find the regular DVD release satisfactory; this special edition is largely for hardcore enthusiasts. --Bret Fetzer
SAW 2 : SAWIN' LOGS (THIS YEARS FALL A-SLEEPER HIT)
SAW WAS LAME.. COME ON.. I AM A HORROR FAN & I THOUGHT THIS WAS LAME.. THE ACTING WAS STRAIGHT FROM HELL.. AND EVERYTHING ELSE IN THE MOVIE WAS A "BEEN THERE, DONE THAT" SCENE.. THIS FILM WAS ALMOST AS BAD AS "THE VILLAGE" OWWWW WAS THAT ONE BAD! AND I WATCHED BOTH THESE FLOPS ON THE SAME NIGHT! HELL, IT WAS I TELL YOU! MY EYES ARE STILL BLEEDING!
SAW ME IN HALF IF I HAVE TO SEE THIS ONE AGAIN!
Tim Allen loves this film
I'm dissapointed, thought this was a film about the evolution of Dewitt tools. I wanted to see who invented the saw, why, and if he cut his finger off in the process. This film is a "seven" wannabe with the killer laying on the floor for 12 hours. And these two dweebs couldn't see him breathing, I'm sure they smelled his farts or witnessed him twitch from a nightmare that he was in a film called "Saw". What was truly horrifing...the credits, they went on forever, I had a neighbors wife I had to attend too. Better film, "Showgirls", truly scary.
Outstanding Plot Device & Ending + Bad Acting & A Lack of Complexity
SAW is a good thriller: a film with a lot of potential, but lacking in follow-through. On the one hand, the premise is very cool. Two men wake up in a bathroom, chained to piping, completely unaware of where they are or why. As the film progresses, these two men start to piece together their situation: they have been planted in this situation by a deranged madman, someone who enjoys placing his victims in life-or-death situations and forcing them to make horrific decisions. It's a marvelous setup and the surprising conclusion is right on target and thrilling.
Unfortunately, the film reeks of a small budget. The acting, in particular, is quite poor. Unlike SEVEN or SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, SAW fails to explore its characters. Instead, the madman's device becomes the center of the entire film and our poor actors get to scream and cry their way through 100 minutes. Moreover, our madman is portrayed as a deranged person, complete with a secret lair and everything. Unfortunately, we don't come any closer to understanding him by the end of the film than we did at the start. He appears to be "teaching" his victims a moral lesson, but what that lesson is in his mind is completely obtuse. Both SEVEN and SILENCE OF THE LAMBS also have clever plot devices, deranged madmen, and the like. But unlike SAW, they decide to spend most of their time revealing their characters instead of merely relying on the plot devices. The result is a much more engaging, interesting, and ultimately satisfying thriller. It may seem like a strange thing to say, but exploring the haunted games of a madman is not nearly as creepy as exploring the haunted depths of a madman's mind.
In the end, SAW has a really cool plot device on its hand, but lacks the heart and complexity of other thrillers. It's definitely worth a look and will thrill anyone who loves this genre. But with mediocre acting and complexity, it will never reach the status of either SEVEN or SILENCE OF THE LAMBS.
It's not the scary hit that The Ring was in 2002, but The Grudge makes a similarly convincing case for American remakes of popular Japanese horror films. Barely a year passed between the release of Takashi Shimizu's creepy ghost story Ju-On: The Grudge and the production of this American remake, set in Tokyo and starring Sarah Michelle Gellar in her first post-Buffy horror film. About the only significant difference between the two films is the importing of a mostly-American cast (including Bill Pullman, Clea DuVall and Grace Zabriskie), but The Grudge was reconfigured (by screenwriter Stephen Susco) to allow Shimizu to refine and improve the spookiest highlights of his earlier version, which enjoyed previous incarnations as a short film and two... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Sarah Michelle Gellar - Jason Behr - Clea DuVall Director(s): Takashi Shimizu DVD Release Date: Released the 01 February 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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With a plot that might've been lifted from The X-Files, nothing is quite what it seems in The Forgotten, a psychological conspiracy thriller with Julianne Moore doing fine work as a grieving mother whose nine-year-old son was killed in a plane crash. At least, that's what she's been led to believe, but when even her husband (Anthony Edwards) tries to convince her that she's delusional and never had a child, things start to get very spooky indeed. Dominic West (from HBO's superb series The Wire) plays a similarly traumatized father, and when they witness some very strange events--and a mysterious man (Linus Roache) who might be indestructible--this glorified B-movie potboiler directed by Joseph Ruben (best known for Dreamscape and The Stepfather)... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Julianne Moore - Dominic West Director(s): Joseph Ruben DVD Release Date: Released the 18 January 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Brutal and breathtaking, Sin City is Robert Rodriguez's stunningly realized vision of Frank Miller's pulpy comic books. In the first of three separate but loosely related stories, Marv (Mickey Rourke in heavy makeup) tries to track down the killers of a woman who ended up dead in his bed. In the second story, Dwight's (Clive Owen) attempt to defend a woman from a brutal abuser goes horribly wrong, and threatens to destroy the uneasy truce among the police, the mob, and the women of Old Town. Finally, an aging cop on his last day on the job (Bruce Willis) rescues a young girl from a kidnapper, but is himself thrown in jail. Years later, he has a chance to save her again.
More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 16 August 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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In delivering PG-13-rated excitement, Alien vs. Predator is an acceptably average science-fiction action thriller with some noteworthy highlights, even if it squanders its opportunity to intelligently combine two popular and R-rated franchises. Rabid fans can justifiably ask "Is that all there is?" after a decade of development hell and eager anticipation, but we're compensated by reasonably logical connections to the Alien legacy and the still-kicking Predator franchise (which hinted at AVP rivalry at the end of Predator 2); some cleverly claustrophobic sets, tense atmosphere and impressive digital effects; and a climactic AVP smackdown that's not half bad. This disposable junk should've been better, but nobody who's seen Mortal Kombat or... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Sanaa Lathan - Raoul Bova - Lance Henriksen - Ewen Bremner Director(s): Paul W.S. Anderson DVD Release Date: Released the 25 January 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Even when his trademark twist-ending formula wears worrisomely thin as it does in The Village, M. Night Shyamalan is a true showman who knows how to serve up a spookfest. He's derailed this time by a howler of a "surprise" lifted almost directly from "A Hundred Yards Over the Rim," an episode of The Twilight Zone starring Cliff Robertson that originally aired in 1961. Even if you're unfamiliar with that Rod Serling scenario, you'll have a good chance of guessing the surprise, which ranks well below The Sixth Sense and Signs on Shyamalan's shock-o-meter. That leaves you to appreciate Shyamalan's proven strengths, including a sharp eye for fear-laden compositions, a general sense of unease, delicate handling of fine actors (alas, most of them wasted here, save... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Bryce Dallas Howard - Joaquin Phoenix - Adrien Brody - William Hurt - Sigourney Weaver Director(s): M. Night Shyamalan DVD Release Date: Released the 11 January 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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