Click Poster to Purchase
Review #553 of 365
Movie Review of Saw IV (2007) [R] 95 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $8.75
Where Viewed: United Artists Denver Pavilions Stadium 15, Denver, CO
When 1st Seen: 26 October 2007
Time: 8:20 pm
DVD Release Date: 22 January 2008 (click date to purchase or pre-order)
Film's Official Website • Film's Trailer
Directed by: Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw III)
Written by: Patrick Melton (Feast) • Marcus Dunstan (Feast) story by Patrick Melton, Marcus Dunstan, and Thomas Fenton
Featured Cast (Where You Might Remember Him/Her From):
Tobin Bell (Saw III) • Costas Mandylor (Saw III) • Scott Patterson ("Gilmore Girls") • Betsy Russell (Saw III) • Lyriq Bent (Skinwalkers) • Athena Karkanis ("The Best Years") • Justin Louis (Shooter) • Donnie Wahlberg (Dead Silence)
Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word or less review of this film]
Click to read the spoiler points for Saw IV
Click to see the Saw Film Franchise Movie Poster Extravaganza
Saw III was my introduction to the Saw franchise. Admittedly coming in on the phenomenon late, it took some time to get caught up on the mythology and history. Most surprising was that, aside from the excessive gore, there was something about the intelligence behind the film that made
Saw III stand out in the genre. When a lot of money is being made as well, it stood to reason there would be a Saw IV; but, as is so typical, as the original creators move 'upstairs' due to past success, often the original vision and concept morphs beyond all recognition leaving die hards frustrated and newcomers lost in the dark.
"… true fans of the franchise are going to be disappointed "
There's probably no way to really comprehend much of what is going on in Saw IV without, at least, having seen
Saw III. So, if you are compelled to get in on what has become the new 'Halloween' film for Halloween, make a quick trip to the video store first. Understand, of course, that this is a grisly, bloody, serial killer with traps series that leaves little to the imagination. The killer of the first three films is Jigsaw John. A former civil engineer, his specialty is designing maniacal mechanical traps that fit onto a person and then activate his or her death depending on circumstances and values of variables in the environment. Generally, Jigsaw feels he is teaching the person a valuable lesson and there is an escape route enabled, though often this route involves the person in making a horrible decision to remove a body part in order to escape. The classic original example of this being simply a man chained by the foot who will die by other means if he cannot get out of the room who is presented with a saw (hence the titles). If he cuts off his foot, he can escape, but is he willing to make that decision. Jigsaw thrives on mind games with his victims, and he operates on a holier-than-thou philosophy. Often his victims are criminals themselves, whom he feels he can change by teaching them a valuable lesson. But, as those of us who saw
Saw III learned, Jigsaw is dead. He was the victim of cancer. So, Saw IV begins with two events: his gruesome autopsy that is not to be watched on a full stomach and, of course a maniacal trap. As for the autopsy, it is in John's stomach that the pathologists find the clue to the continuation of Jigsaw's game in the form of a micro-cassette and it is Detective Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) who is first alerted to the tape's existence. He, of course, plays it immediately. As for the trap, two men, one with eyes sewn shut and one with lips sewn shut, are chained by the neck to a rolling bar in the middle of an engine device. Each has a key to the other's neck lock, on his neck. When the engine activates, it will pull in their chains and eventually strangle them both. To save them both, they will have to figure out they need to work together. But how, one cannot see and the other cannot speak. Unfortunately, both are not going to survive. Now, here is where things start to get really confusing. The team gets word that one of their team members has been found. They go to investigate. She's in a Jigsaw trap. They send in a remote operated camera to scope the situation and look for other traps. Rigg (Lyriq Bent) cannot wait, as soon as he sees his former partner on the screen, he leaps into action and tries to save her, but she's already dead. Hoffman reprimands him. Two FBI profilers: Agen Strahm (Scott Patterson) and Agent Perez (Athena Karkanis) are on the scene. They aren't too happy with Rigg's attitude and willingness to put himself in danger. Meanwhile, Eric Mathews (Donnie Wahlberg) has been missing for weeks and presumed dead. Working hard to get to the bottom of this, Rigg watches interviews with Jill (Betsy Russell), John's former wife feeling she knows something. Hoffman sends him home. He goes home to find his wife leaving to go spend time with her sick mother. As he sleeps, he is awakened by a noise in his apartment. Moments later he finds himself in a 90-minute game at the hands of someone who knows Jigsaw's world with a twist. This time all of the traps and people will be saved or not partly by Rigg's decisions, and ultimately, Rigg will need to learn the lesson of patience, or watch his friends Eric Mathews and Hoffman die in a vicious trap. Eric is hanging by his neck, standing on a block of ice. When the ice melts, he falls to his death and the water will conduct the electricity to electrocute Hoffman. So, he enters this new game running him from one side of the city to the next with time seeming to be his enemy. Back at the station, Strahm and Perez become convinced that Rigg is Jigsaw's next apprentice and if they can break Jill down, she'll give them what they need to catch him. Their interrogation of Jill opens the doors for flashbacks in to John's life where we see a principled philanthropist transformed into a moralistic serial killer when a junkie forces his pregnant wife at knife point to let him into her clinic to get drugs. When he rushes out, he crushes her between the wall and the door killing their baby. His first trap ever will be one he designs to teach this junkie a lesson. He will have to make a choice. Bleed to death slowly from puncture wounds in his arms, or release the rods now piercing his flesh by using his face to push open a series of levers. The trick is that the levers are all blade-facing him knives. He will have to slice up his own face into pieces to escape the trap marking his exterior with the same ugliness of his interior soul or so John reasons. As much as Strahm pushes Jill he gets nowhere. She doesn't know anything, but clues help them track Rigg arriving on the scene of each new trap and victim moments too late.
Of course, there are bound to be some unexpected twists: the identity of the true apprentice, for example, the introduction of a slimy lawyer character, Art Blank (Justin Louis), and fiendish traps and puzzles of Rigg to solve, for example. There are some story continuity problems, and the editing leaves a lot to be desired. Much too often, it's hard to tell what's going on. Meanwhile, if anyone could come close to accomplishing all that Rigg's accomplishes in 90 minutes of real time, more power to them. It would seem impossible to think he could get around town to all of these locales in under 90 minutes. But, he is motivated to save his colleagues at any cost. The film isn't a crisply written as the previous film; and, perhaps, the writers and director tried to take on too much with the prequel / sequel rolled into one concept. This also complicated the editing and the sense of time in the film. The film lacks the 'scariness' of the previous film as well as much of the novelty of these ingenious traps. That is not to say that this series of traps isn't still quite clever. The acting, however, was atrocious. Donnie Wahlberg could win the award for most annoying victim of all time and least likely to be, therefore, saved. How many times does he yelp, "Who's coming through the door?"? Partly because of the near lack of character development on the parts of the two FBI profilers but also because of their wooden portrayals, these two characters come across as borderline dolts not highly trained professionals. Again, how many times is Agaent Strahm going to toss a file folder at Jill and claim she's hiding something?
Probably, true fans of the franchise are going to be disappointed, especially when this one ends as if with a new beginning for a whole new series of films. At some point, stories run their course. What you really want is closure not a new beginning. No one can be Jigsaw. But, that's exactly what seems to have happened. He has managed somehow to transfer his concept. Of course, there could be a trap within a trap going on here that we'll have to see Saw V to understand. We can only hope that if there is another Saw, that more care and time will be spend on character development and the acting to match the story resulting in a more complete cinematic experience. It was somewhat interesting to see the beginnings of Jigsaw, and Tobin Bell was equal to the task. It was probably a mistake to kill John off in the first place.
Alternate Posters
Click to Purchase
Alternate Posters
Click to Purchase
Send This Review To a Friend
Related Products from Amazon.com
Other Projects Featuring Saw IV (2007)
Cast Members
Tobin Bell • Costas Mandylor • Scott Patterson
Betsy Russell • Lyriq Bent • Athena Karkanis
Justin Louis • Donnie Wahlberg
Director
Darren Lynn Bousman
Writers
Patrick Melton • Marcus Dunstan
Review-lite
Saw IV (2007) [max of 150 words]
Tobin Bell is back as Jigsaw John—the serial killer who uses fiendish traps to offer his victims choices to grow and learn or die. Having dies of cancer in the last film, this film begins with his autopsy, but flashbacks from his wife allows new insight into the character. Along with this, the film ensnares Rigg (Lyriq Bent) in a new an more maniacal game where he has but 90 minutes to learn a valuable lesson in personal restraint and save his two remaining colleagues from death. He must do this by setting other people up in their own traps, as we will learn the key to Saw IV is that everyone is still being controlled by one of Jigsaw's traps. Poor editing and too much story with wooden characters and acting make this film less fresh than its predecessor.
Send This Review To a Friend
No comments:
Post a Comment