 SAW
MPAA Rating:
 for strong grisly violence and language (previously rated NC-17 in 2004)Reviewed by: Brett Willis Extremely Offensive
Moviemaking Quality:
 ½Primary Audience:
Adults
Genre:
Suspense, Horror, Torture Porn
Length:
1 hr. 40 min.
Year of Release:
2004
USA Release:
______
   “Every piece has a puzzle.” This is easily the most disgusting film I’ve seen in a year or two. It’s just as mindless as Jeepers Creepers (although there’s no supernatural element), and it has a similarly unsatisfying bad-guy-wins ending. That’s not a major plot giveaway, since the identity of the “good guys” and “bad guys,” along with most everything else, is kept in doubt until the end. But it’s a warning for those who are willing to endure graphic violence in order to see justice done. In this film, justice DOESN’T get done. Two men, Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes) and Adam (Leigh Whannell), awaken in a decrepit underground bathroom, chained by their ankles to pipes on opposite sides of the room. A serial killer known as Jigsaw has placed them there as a test. Through tape recordings, Jigsaw tells Dr. Gordon that he must kill Adam by six P.M. or else BOTH men will die, as will Dr, Gordon’s wife and daughter. Jigsaw also communicates through clues left in the room and a one-way cell phone. Both men have hacksaws available, but they’re not strong or sharp enough to cut through metal. Only strong enough to cut through limbs. As the time ticks away, both men try to remember how they were captured, and to guess what their relationship is to Jigsaw. We see, in flashback, several of Jigsaw’s other crime setups. In one, a near-naked man is forced to crawl through a tangle of ribbon wire as the only alternative to certain death. In another, a woman with an explosive device locked on her head is told that the key for the device is in the stomach of the dead man on the floor next to her. She raises the knife…and the man awakens. Rather than try to attack each other, Dr. Gordon and Adam generally work together. But nothing in this film is quite as it seems. Neither man is telling the absolute truth. Sexual content is minimal. There’s no female nudity, and the male nudity is nothing you wouldn’t see at the beach (except for the gore). Dr. Gordon is seen in a flashback, meeting a woman at a seedy hotel for the purpose of sex; but before anything happens, he changes his mind. Situations where women and girls are tied up by male captors always carry the imagery of and potential for sexual abuse; but in this case, no such abuse occurs or is even hinted at. The bad guys seemingly do what they do without regard to gender. There are many curses, and several occurrences of f* and other graphic language. But the mainstay of the film is extreme violence. And horror, and suspense. After one “bad guy” was revealed, I suspected that there was another bad guy behind that one. I made several guesses, and all of them were wrong. The main storyline trudges on graphically and relentlessly, with no comic relief. While guessing at the upcoming plot twists is probably the only effective diversion, this isn’t “Murder She Wrote” or a Murder Mystery Dinner Theater. It’s a carnival ride into a world where the killer always gets the breaks, even in Act Three. My take: This story is utterly unbelievable, even by Hollywood standards. And utterly pointless as well. I don’t recommend this film to anyone. Violence: Extreme / Profanity: Heavy / Sex/Nudity: Minor
 Negative - I recently “saw” this movie and I admit I had very high
expectations. I’ve seen the trailers for this film since last year and
believed it was an excellent concept for a film and had potential to live
up to or exceed the genius that was the movie Seven. It was a surprise to
me how awfully made this movie was. Everything it aims to be, it falls
short to fulfill. The acting is forced and unbelievable and it lacks
proper story and character development to give the viewer any sort of
emotional attachment with the characters. The first one hundred and twenty
minutes of the film was torture to watch, it wasn’t only until the
characters Adam and Lawrence began to feel how desperate and hopeless
their situation was that the film started to pick up. But even the
ending(arguably the most redeeming portion of the film) which sought to
shock viewers in proper M. Night Shyamalan fashion only further confuses
the entirety of the story. In sum, Saw was conceived from a great idea,
but in birth was a lackluster and bland film. Christians will not be
amused with such a deplorable movie with little impact behind its redeeming moral lessons. Negative - This movie was AWFUL!! The only thing scary about it was the
psychological mindset that was present in the antagonist. The acting was
so bad that for the last third of the movie, almost everyone in the
theater was literally laughing. And this was supposed to be a part that
really got to you. There was potential to be a decent movie with the
story line, but the acting among a few other things made it total crap.
Don’t even waste money to rent this movie. It’s definitely not worth it.
For some it might be highly offensive, but I am not offended easily, so it
is hard for me to make that call. Negative - I am 21 years old. I went to see this movie with two of my
friends from college who are slightly younger than I am, who warned me
that not only would the movie be scary, but that they were bringing
stuffed animals to it. (I followed their advice and retrieved my polar
bear) [Extremely Offensive/3] —Emily, age 21 Positive - This is not a movie for families or Christians who are easily offended. It was one of the most graphic and intense movies I have seen in my life. I have seen many thrillers in the past years, but not one has had
a climax so intense and graphic that the entire audience was freaking out and yelling at the screen. The film contains many grotesque deaths that will disturb almost everyone. It’s a great thrill ride, but you have been warned about its graphicness. Negative - Shouldn’t Christians be offended by such disgusting
displays of pointless violence? We are to be in the world and not of it,
but it seems that we’re getting just as comfortable with this type of
material as the rest of the world. Positive - I think that this movie should not be viewed by families and
children, due to the violence involved. I went to watch with two of my
friends and they commented that it’s a good show. Even though it’s a
sadistic show with all the different ways of deaths shown, which the main
motive is to gore people out, the story births from a highly intelligent
plot which impresses me a lot. This is one of the impressive movies that I
had watched before, but hope that it won’t give people out there more ideas
of committing crimes. Neutral - Though it was very gory, I thought it had a good plot, a real good
ending, and in it’s own sick way a good message. That is to live life to
the fullest, and thank god for every thing you have. You could be in a
much worse situation than you are. I DO NOT think kids should see it. It
is for mature viewers. Comments from young people
Negative - Plain and simple, this movie was sickening! From a Christian standpoint, this movie was awful. I honestly don’t find any redeeming value from the movie. What was the point? If it was to make people appreciate life, then why did only one person live? The movie itself was fairly decent. The gore was done very well, but the acting, in my opinion, was sub-par. This is definitely not for those who are sickened by massive amounts of gore. There was no sexual content, language was abundant, including approx. 30 F-words, and crude dialog, etc…I think the real downfall is the language. My advice, don’t waste the time to watch it. By the way, the movie isn’t really 'scary', a better term to describe it would be 'freaky'. I’ll leave you with that. Negative - This film was a waste of time and money. I can’t believe I paid $7.25 for it. It takes itself way too seriously, focusing on grisly violence to disturb its viewers instead of atmosphere and filmography to slowly frighten them. Whenever the film builds up suspense, it shatters it in a loud and fast scene which simply confused me. There were some strangely funny parts, like the pig mask and the clown on the bike, but those parts are not worth sitting through an incoherent and illogical plot of sin and boredom. Positive - This movie was great! Yes, it was rather violent, gory, and twisted, but it had a real message to it that I think people are
overlooking. We can be rather ungrateful for our lives and the things that
should mean a lot more to us (family, friends, helping others) but we are
a society increasingly worried about ourselves than those less fortunate.
The killer in this movie picks his victims who don’t appreciate their life
and aren’t grateful for what they have, so he puts them in life or death
situations to make them realise how fortunate they are. They have a
certain amount of time to perform a task that is their only way of
survival but could very well kill them or they will surely die if they
don’t attempt it at all. (Would you find the key to a device in the
stomach of a man to save yourself from having your jaw ripped open?) Like
I said, this movie is twisted but provided lots of thought and
self-evaluation about what we take for granted in life and how fortunate
we really are. ::NO KIDS SHOULD SEE THIS MOVIE:: Positive - This was one of the best scary movie I’ve ever seen, not because it’s super scary, but because it’s so psychological and doesn’t have any of the loopholes that most movies in this genre have. It did have some curse words in it, but it would be unrealistic for a movie like this to not have any and surprisingly there were less than I expected. I’m only sixteen so my friend an I saw it with her mom and we thought it was excellent, but I don’t think that anyone who is really sensitive to disturbing images or blood should see it. Over all, I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a good psychological thriller sort of like the movie “Seven,” but without Brad Pitt cussing every five seconds. Positive - This movie was terrific. Very creepy; I saw it with my girlfriend and both enjoyed it. The quality was excellent and had a very unique concept. Positive - Although this movie is offensive to the Christian community, I enjoyed it. Movie Critics
“…not quite worth the ordeal it puts us through…” “…It’s just depressing… Gruesome set-up but no payoff… radiates idiocy…” “…grisly, goofy B-movie lunacy - one part Poe, two parts Larry and Curly… creates suspense, shows gore and causes psychological damage…” “…oddly satisfying, though the gag reflex never entirely goes away…” |
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