Saw (2004)- Carey Elwes (3 ½ )

Director: James Wan

Stars: Cary Elwes, Leigh Whannell and Danny Glover

Genre: Crime | Horror | Mystery

MPAA Rating: R (strong grisly violence and language)

Running Time: 103 Mins

Tagline: "Let the games begin"

Synopsis:

{According to IMDB}

"With a dead body lying between them, two men wake up in the secure lair of a serial killer who's been nicknamed "Jigsaw". The men must follow various rules and objectives if they wish to survive and win the deadly game set for them".

************** WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS************************

                                      

I remember as if it were yesterday, the reaction I had when the final twist to the film came up; it had been a while since a film had shocked me so much. Since the film was so shocking, I will have to say that If you haven’t seen Saw I recommend you stop reading this review and go rent or borrow the movie from someone NOW!. If you have not read the disclaimer, I will mention it again; this review is going to contain plenty of spoilers, so keep in mind that you have been advised.  This review has been written mainly for those who have seen the actual film before and just needs a better understanding of it…or if you just don’t care about twist endings.

Two men wake up in an abandoned bathroom. Both men are strapped with shackles on their ankles. They have no clue how they arrive in the bathroom.  The first character is Adam, a man in his late 20’s, who we later find out is a free-lance photographer contracted to take pictures of the man in front of him.  The man in front of him is Dr. Lawrence Gordon, a surgeon who also has no clue why he is in that room.  In between them is the body of a dead man, who shot himself in the head out desperation...or that is what they want the viewers to think. The clues they have to escape lie in a two audio tapes that they find in their pockets. The objective is for Dr. Gordon to kill Adam before six, if he doesn’t comply, then his wife and daughter will die. The man responsible is John Kramer (the corpse in the middle of the room that is actually not dead.) he finds pleasure in placing victims in his sadistic games of survival. His philosophy is that people don’t appreciate life until they see death up close. What is his motive? He has Cancer, yes, he had nothing better else to do, Monopoly just didn’t do it for him. So, with this we have the beginning of the film Saw…how interesting…no?

THE TRAPS OF SAW

Now that we have the premise (that most people know by now) let’s get into the individual traps of the film, and let’s see how plausible they can be in the real world. I will rate them on a scale of 1-5

1: Not Believable At All

2: Not Very Believable

3: Somewhat Believable

4: Pretty Believable

5: Very Believable

TRAP # 1- REVERSE BEAR TRAP

Amada Young is a drug addict that doesn’t value her life, and for that she is placed in one of jigsaws games. Like the picture, she has a sort of bear trap around her face, and she has limited time to find the key to free herself from it. If she doesn’t find the key on time then the mechanism on the bear trap will trigger, and her mouth will remain permanently open…and thus death will inevitably occur. The key to the trap is inside the other cellmate.  He seems to be dead, but he is just knocked out from an opiate that Jigsaw injected him with. The only way for Amanda to free herself is to stab to death the other man and find the key inside his body. She eventually does find the key and manages to free herself on time.   

Believability:  4.

TRAP # 2- RAZOR WIRE

  A man named Paul is placed naked inside a cage filled with barb wires.  The objective of his game is to find the path along the razor wires to reach the exit of the room. He is being given 3 hours to make it out of the room.  Unfortunately he does not make it out; he bleeds to death from the cuts produced by the razors

 Believability: 5

TRAP # 3- THE FLAMMABLE JELLY

 Meet Mark, a man who had fakes an illness for personal and financial gain, he finds himself in one of Jigsaw’s games. He was placed nude in a dark room with broken glass covering the floor, all he has is   tape telling him that there was a slow acting poison in his blood and the antidote is in a locked safe beside him. He had to find the combination to the lock which was hidden amongst thousands of numbers scrawled on the wall. He was also supplied with a lit candle and a box of matches, so as to be able to see in the pitch black room. Unfortunately, he was also covered in a flammable substance, so if he made once false move, his body would become alight. While searching for the combination, he accidentally moved too close to the flame and was entirely incinerated.

Believability: 5

TRAP # 4- THE DRILL CHAIR

As Detective Tapp became more obsessed with the Jigsaw case, he eventually finds one of the secret lairs of Jigsaw. With him is another Detective.When they arrive they find a man strapped to a chair, and two power drills are aimed close towards his temples. Jigsaw is about to be arrested by Tapp before the drills become activated the only way to deactivate it is to find the key inside a box, in the box is countless keys, and very little time. One of the detectives, Detective Sing, did not know which key was the necessary one needed to unlock the neck brace, and instead shot the drills, deactivating those moments before reaching  the victims head. My problem with this trap is that the detectives make it just on time to witness a game, and Jigsaw manages to somehow know that the detectives are going to be there on time…I don’t buy it, sorry.

 Believability: 3

 

TRAP # 4 -THE QUADRUPLE SHOTGUN HALLWAY TRAP

In case of emergency, jigsaw placed four double-barreled shotguns suspended from a ceiling in a hallway, each connected by a tripwire strung across the floor of the hallway. If someone were to cross the string, then the wire would pull the triggers and thus the four shotguns would go off simultaneously, blowing the victim to pieces. In this case, the victim was Detective Sing, who was chasing Jigsaw through his warehouse in an attempt to capture him.  While chasing him he passes through the tripwire, and sets of the shotguns and his head is blow up. While is still don’t buy the whole thing of the detectives arriving in the lair and finding a jigsaw game taking place, I can buy jigsaw being cautious…but even so, if a victim where to pass the wire and activate the guns, he would have to do it forcefully…and Detective Sing does it slightly. The only possible theory is that the wire is securely tight to the trigger of the gun…so even a slight move can trigger it.

Believability: 4

THE FINAL TWIST

After trying to find a way out of the bathroom, Dr. Gordon sees that there is no time left, and that the saws won’t cut of the chains, he ultimately decides to saw off his own foot. After doing so, he reaches for the gun in the middle of the room and shoots Adam in the shoulder.  The man who was thought to be Jigsaw was in fact part of the game as well; his name was Zep, and orderly at Dr. Gordon’s hospital. Adam survives the gunshot and kills Zep. Adam tries to find the key inside the jacket of Zep, instead he finds another recording explaining that Zep had a slow acting poison in his system and only jigsaw had the antidote, so his options were “limited”. I emphasize limited because even if he was poisoned, I would have tried finding someone specialized In poison…that just me.

Final Thoughts

The movie may in fact have a list of flaws, but compared to the subsequent sequels, this one stands out as the best in the franchise. The biggest complain the film has is the acting. The acting in the first saw is pretty laughable, I will admit that, but keep in mind that this film wasn’t intended for theatrical release. Shot on a mere 1 million dollar budget, the crew did the impossible to shoot the entire film in just 15 days. So in all, I give the creators and crew kudos for being dedicated to their work.

                             

I have owned Saw so many times on DVD that I have honestly lost count. I had the theatrical cut released in 04, the special unrated edition released in 05, and I even re-bought the unrated edition just because it was released in a nice box set.  So let’s just say that I have bought Saw various times only because of cover art or special features.

Video

Since saw was a low budget film, I don’t hold too much against the film’s picture quality.  The Blu-ray presents the movie in a remastered 1080p. Personally, I see no difference from the DVD to the Blu-ray.  Even if some scenes do look a bit sharper I still wouldn’t consider it better than an up converted DVD. 

Audio

On the other hand, the audio is very impressive, boasting a 6.1 DTS ES surround sound. All the sounds in the movie sound amazing in this Blu- ray, everything from droplets of blood, sounds of machines, gun shots, etc.   

ENDING OF SAW

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OHFXOByYRM&feature=related

Navajo Joe (1966)- Burt Reynolds (3 ½ )

Director: Sergio Corbucci

Stars: Burt Reynolds, Aldo Sambrell and Nicoletta Machiavelli

Genre: Western

MPAA Rating:  R

Running Time: 92 Mins

Tagline:" Relentless in his vengeance! Deadly in his violence"

I stumbled upon this movie because I found out that Quentin Tarrantino had used the score of this movie on Kill Bill. I had already seen a case of this when he used a piece of the score of another Spaghetti Western (Death Rides A Horse) and I will admit I was initially very upset at this notion. I don’t like when directors or writers steal material from other films. But when I come to think of it, it is part of Tarantino’s style to use scores and even actors from these older films. I see it as a form of homage, paying tribute to the films that will never be again.

The movie begins with the massacre of a small tribe of Indians. From the tribe, a survivor seeks out revenge on the men who brutally murdered the innocent people of the tribe. Navajo Joe is peculiar in that it stars Burt Reynolds as a Native American Indian. Initially I didn’t buy the whole thing of a white man playing the character of an Indian; Reynolds however pulls it off, unlike William Shatner who did a horrible job in White Comanche. Anyway, the plot isn’t too complex; the only complexity they add is story about these criminals seeking a safe of money. Even if simple and formulaic, it works wonders, thanks to the cinematography and wonderful score by Ennio Morricone.

Navajo Joe is one of countless spaghetti westerns that were released during the golden time of the era. It actually came out the same year as The Good, the Bad & the Ugly. It wasn’t as popular, even if it was directed by Sergio Corbucci. I wouldn’t miss this forgotten and underrated western. Like I said don’t expect any form of originality out of this western; it is quite generic and predictable. I will leave a link down below so you can hear the score that plays in this movie, which was later used in Kill Bill.  Let me know what you guys thought, I always appreciate comments.

Hereafter (2010)- Matt Damon (3 ½ )

Director: Clint Eastwood

Stars: Matt Damon, Cécile De France & Bryce Dallas Howard

Genre: Drama/Fantasy

MPAA Rating: PG-13 (mature thematic elements including disturbing disaster and accident images, and for brief strong language)

Running Time: 129 Mins

Tagline:  None

Synopsis:

{According to IMDB}"A drama centered on three people -- a blue-collar American, a French journalist and a London school boy -- who are touched by death in different ways. "

Discussion

I can’t remember the last time a Clint Eastwood movie disappointed me.  The only one I can recall is unforgiven; which I never understood how or why it became so popular, to me, it was just a boring and mediocre Western.  All other films Directed and acted by Clint have been superb; just as this new directorial take on the subject of the afterlife

Hereafter reunites Matt Damon with Clint Eastwood (previously worked together: Invictus) in what I can describe as a rare treat. I came into the film a bit skeptical, while I wasn’t expecting to be disappointed, I wasn’t hoping to be mesmerized either. I don’t think I got neither of these reactions, I mostly felt pensive after the closing credits.  The movie’s theme which deals mostly with what happens when we die has always intrigued me, perhaps because I, like anyone else, doesn’t really know what happens when we seize to be. I have my thoughts on the subject, but rather not get into them; I will more than likely dwell on that subject more than the actual movie I should be reviewing.

 

Matt Damon plays George Lonegan, a retired psychic who is trying to live a very private life; working in the day in a factory and taking cooking lessons at night. Even as private as he wants to be, his brother brings to him someone who wants a “reading” (a seeing of the afterlife) initially refusing to do it, he eventually agrees, being the last and only time. With that reading more people come into his life who are interested in “readings” George tries to explain to his brother that what he has is not a gift, but a curse; people will not understand what he is going through. He decides to leave the country and move to London to begin anew.  In London and France we are introduced to other pivotal characters that eventually connect with George. One being a young boy who has recently lost his twin brother, now in search of someone who can tell him if he is ok or if there is an afterlife; the other being a female reporter who survives a Tsunami and for a couple of minutes experienced death.  

Personally I was pleased with the picture, it was slow, but not boring, took its time developing each character; Giving enough time to explore each character’s belief in death. The ending however is one that left me mixed. I think it was ended that way as a metaphor of enjoying more the time you have alive, than that of which you will be dead; you will only be alive for so little time.

DVD

I was skeptical about this movie, so I ended up renting it from blockbuster on DVD. I might actually get this one in the future on BD.

Video

For a DVD the quality was pretty sharp, the contrast wasn’t too high nor too low, just right for the tone of the movie. I only saw pixilation in some scenes, but nothing too distracting. The tsunami scene had some pixilation, but after that it scene I didn’t witness anything else.

Audio

The movie wasn’t loud, don’t expect this to be 2012 or Armageddon. In exception of the first scene involving a Tsunami, the rest is very slow and mostly dialogue. The 5.1 surround works nicely with the first 10 min of the film. Throughout the film you will feel the 5.1. Mostly in the atmospheric music and exterior sounds.

Bottom Line

I say give it a try, I enjoyed it, might actually end up buying it in the future. If you have taste for thinking and observing this is for you. If you are expecting a disaster flick, this is not for you

Theatrical trailer