Saw V: Director's Cut (Unrated)
by David Hackl
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Actor: Betsy Russell, Costas Mandylor, Julie Benz, Scott Patterson, Tobin BellDirector: David Hackl
Brand: Bell
Producer: Daniel J. Heffner
Producer: Gregg Hoffman
Producer: James Wan
Producer: Jason Constantine
Producer: Leigh Whannell
Writer: Marcus Dunstan
Writer: Patrick Melton
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Director's Cut, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 96 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-01-20
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Lions Gate
DVD Reviews of Saw V: Director's Cut (Unrated)
DVD Review: A let down. *spoilers*
Summary: 3 Stars
I don't really write reviews anymore, since I have neither as much time nor interest as I once had. But I felt compelled to write a review for this movie, since I love this series so much.
The Saw series will never be recognized for what it is. The critics will always slam it for having gore, torture, scenes, consisting of 5 movies, and being a world-wide sensation. It isn't foreign, it isn't avant-garde, and it's extremely mainstream. How could any movie snob possibly see anything in this series?
You know what? I've never cared about the critic's opinions. I've stuck by this series for so long, because the screenplays have been very intelligent, and continuity has always been respected in the series. But here, everything that was established in the previous movies has been left meaningless.
Saw 5 picks up where Saw 4 left off, with Agent Strahm stuck inside the sick room. After surviving the first trap, he begins to suspect that Detective Hoffman is the new mastermind behind the Jigsaw murders. As he goes on the hunt to find evidence to support his theory, many old scenes are revisited.
This sounds like a cool idea on paper, and it would have been really neat to see. Unfortunately... this movie takes a big dump over the story points established in the previous films. This never would have happened if Leigh and James wrote this movie. Hoffman is inserted extremely far back into the timeline, before the events of the first film even took place. The entire past was re-written to include a detective that was an afterthought in the last few minutes of finishing Saw 3. Oh but it doesn't stop there... this movie creates plot holes of epic proportions. In the original trilogy, it was established that John Kramer wasn't known as the Jigsaw Killer until Paul's trap was discovered. This movie makes him infamous before Paul's trap was even made! And somehow, Detective Hoffman used Billy (the puppet) in Seth's trap before it was even built - A flashback in Saw 3 carefully established when and where Billy was made - right before Amanda's trap. And how exactly did Hoffman get John's voice on the tape. *Sigh* I actually thought the idea of Hoffman being a copy-cat Jigsaw to avenge his sister's death was a really cool concept, but it could have been handled, much, much, MUCH better.
Oh Jigsaw, where art though. While once a calm, collected, and intelligent man, he is portrayed as a psychotic cookie-cutter lunatic like in every other run-of-the-mill slasher movie out there. Now, I understand John is a psycho - it's obvious that he is - but at least he was an intelligent psycho. Not anymore. This movie also has the worst line in the history of Saw. It's during the flashback of Hoffman's test: "KILLING IS DISTASTEFUL!!!!!!111 ...to me." Ok, John. First, murder is unacceptable to you, and you despise murderers. Now it's "distasteful"? Taking out the trash is distasteful. Doing tedious grunt work in a convenient store is distasteful. Sitting around and doing nothing all day is distasteful. And now, murder is distasteful. Oy.
Now, of course, there's the main game in the movie. In the previous films, the main game has tied in extremely well with the rest of the story line. The victims have had some sort of interconnection, and it all leads up to some sort of connection with John. That's what was so great about the others. Well guess what? The main game in Saw 5 has nothing - NOTHING - to do with anything in the series or even the movie. It's as if the writers said to each other "Uh... what movie are we writing again? Oh yeah, Saw! We're forgetting the traps! Oh we better just stick them in here really fast." hours before it was all complete. These victims are connected, but it doesn't make them relevant, in any way, to everything else. It's pathetic.
Amanda... my poor poor Amanda. While once such a crucial element in the first 3 films has been all but forgotten, and succumbed to archive footage. She's my favorite character of the series right after John. In this movie, her relationship with John has been destroyed and left meaningless. Saw 3, in all of its emotional baggage and glory, established how close she was with John. Saw 5 takes it, spits on it, and throws it out the window. Get this - Amanda was completely unaware of Hoffman's involvement. If that doesn't scream out that Amanda was nothing more than a pawn, then I don't know what does. It saddened me to see how easily Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan dismissed her.
Agent Strahm... what happened? In Saw 4 he was such a cool character who was super-cop. I'm ok with the fact that he died, but his character was dumbed down severely in this movie. I was laughing at the screen while he talked to himself while sorting out everything in his head. Between his head being stuck in the water box trap, and being taken off the Jigsaw case, he must have either developed schizophrenia, or became very lonely with the news of Agent Perez's death.
It isn't all bad, though. The traps in this movie are pretty amazing, actually - much better than the mediocre traps of Saw 4. The first 2 and the last 2 traps are probably my favorite. Director David Hackl, the trap designer of the previous movies, said that he saved the best traps for this movie, and it shows. Speaking of Hackl, he's a fantastic director. Darren Lynn Bousman, director of 2, 3, and 4, has a good style, but those quick cuts and flashes of light became an eye-sore in Saw 4. His style is more like James Wan's, but it's actually his own unique style, and a lot easier on the eyes. I'm sad that he won't be back to direct Saw 6.
This new trilogy has a conclusion with Saw 6, supposedly; just like how Saw 3 was supposed to be the conclusion. I was happy to know this, as I certainly wouldn't want the series to turn into a joke, but unfortunately, it seems like that's going to happen. Tobin Bell's contract has been renewed for an additional 3 movies after saw 6, which is too bad. There are only so many flashbacks you can add before the timeline gets over-complicated and turns into a mess, which is funny, considering that's already happened. All in all, not a bad movie, but definitely the weakest of the series to date. My expectations for Saw 6 will be considerably lower.
P.S. They made a big mistake with the tag line - You Won't Believe How It Ends. The Saw films are popular for their twist ending - not this time. I knew Strahm was going to die the second I heard that tape. It doesn't bother me that I predicted the ending beforehand, but it certainly made a LOT of fans mad.
Description of Saw V: Director's Cut (Unrated)
Genre: Horror
Rating: UN
Release Date: 20-JAN-2009
Media Type: DVD
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