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Chad
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Posted: October 26, 2004 at 12:00am
Our feature film spares no time at getting into the action and immediately starts out with Adam (Leigh Whannell) waking up in a dark room with no recollection of how he got here. As he starts to panic and scream due to his situation, he hears a voice telling him that screaming won't do any good. The man attached to the voice turns on the light and introduces himself as Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes). With the lights on, Adam can now see the magnitude of the situation he's in... they're both chained by the foot to pipes in an extremely dirty bathroom, and there's a corpse laying in a pool of blood on the ground between them with a gun in one hand and a tape player in the other. After discussing the situation amongst themselves for a bit, both guys find that they have a single cassette tape in their pockets with the words "Play Me" written on them. Adam manages to get the tape player out of the corpses hand and plays his tape. It criticizes him on how he's lived his life up until now, and that he's one pathetic man. Now, he can either find a way out of this room or die. Lawrence then plays his tape, which tells him that he must kill Adam by six o'clock or Lawrence's wife Diana (Makenzie Vega) and daughter Alison (Monica Potter) will be murdered. Meanwhile, detectives David Tapp (Danny Glover) and Steven Sing (Ken Leung) are working on tracking down a serial killer known as the Jigsaw Killer... but will they capture him in time?
I could sum this movie up with one word, and then leave the review at that... wow. But since you, the reader, came here to read my thoughts on the movie, I suppose I should come through with the goods. The first thing that I'd like to point out is that I watched the unrated cut of this movie, not the R-rated version that will be arriving in theaters this Friday. Therefore, I'm not sure which parts and how much will be cut out between the version I watched and the version movie-goers will see in their local theater. However, they would need to cut a good ten to twenty minutes to get this down to the Hollywood-norm in regards to graphic violence and imagery, and I really don't see how they could get away with cutting that much out. Comparing the running time on the version I watched and the version that will be in theaters, there's only a matter of a couple of minutes difference in the times, so I'd imagine that the end result will still be one brutal film. The methods of violence that the killer comes up with are beyond the level of insane that most are accustomed to, and more than a few are sure to make even the most hardened horror fan cringe upon witnessing them.
The storyline here flows in an interesting fashion, though it can be a bit hard to follow in the early stages of the movie. The main focus of the film is Adam and Lawrence and their situation, but the movie doesn't take place entirely in their location, either. Over time, both Adam and Lawrence have recollections of how they got to be where they are, and these flashbacks are intermingled with their attempts to figure out a way of getting themselves free. The movie also switches over to Detective Tapp on numerous occasions, and also gives him a couple of flashbacks of his own dealing with his involvement with the Jigsaw Killer case. With the rather large number of flashbacks going on during the movie, as well as the events that are actually happening to the characters, it sometimes gets a bit hard to follow as to what's actually going on in the current time frame, and what's merely a flashback to explain some things. Everything is revealed and makes sense in the end though, so this really isn't a problem. Speaking of that ending, holy wow... it easily ranks up there in the top three most shocking finales of all time. Unless you've had it spoiled for you ahead of time, I guarantee that you will not see it coming. Unlike other movies that attempt to end in this manner, the ending does make sense in the grand scheme of the movie and isn't there merely for the shock value, which makes things that much more effective. Couple all this praise with a rock-solid cast to play the events out (even Danny Glover pulls out a nice performance!), throw in a great soundtrack that's effective while not killing the mood of the movie, and you end up with one fantastic experience all the way through.
Overall, this movie is well worth the money and effort to go see it up on the big screen this Friday. I'm almost positive that if you're a fan of horror movies, thrillers, or just good old-fashioned serial killers, you will not leave that theater with any sort of disappointment in your mind. 10/10, easily.
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Deadwired2
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Posted: July 3, 2005 at 6:17am
This movie is horrible. Seriously one of the worst movies I have ever seen. It had some of the worst acting I had ever seen, and the storyline may have been clever, but everything else was just boring and ridiculously overhyped. If this movie scared you or fucked with your mind, you have to be extremely dull-witted.
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BuryMeAlive
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Posted: July 14, 2005 at 11:20pm
A very good movie, even if it has a few flaws... Worth getting.
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doney
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Posted: September 3, 2005 at 11:37am
i loved it, definately half way through i was suspecting just about anyone in the cast of being in on it....
i heard though, theres gonna be a sequel, to me though thats gonna ruin it coz i love the way it was left open the way it was....
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Ginose
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Posted: September 7, 2005 at 2:55pm
The ending jumped out of nowhere and kicked me in the balls! This is a buyer, no doubt!
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bluemeanie
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Posted: October 18, 2005 at 9:54pm
If this film is a 10/10, than I am an orange elephant with pink cauliflower. "Saw" was so cliched and such a rip-off -- you could tell it wanted to be the new "Seven", but it made the terrible mistake of wasting a fine actor like Danny Glover and not cutting out Cary Elwes little weird out at the end, which has to go down as one of the worst acting jobs in the history of major motion pictures. I admit -- I did not know the killer was the body, but that was not enough to make up for 90 minutes of absolute shit. 4/10.
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Crispy
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Posted: November 7, 2005 at 1:25pm
I'm glad you felt compelled to spoil it for those who havent seen it
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bluemeanie
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Posted: November 7, 2005 at 8:52pm
If you haven't see it, you deserve to have it spoiked for you.
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Poltergeist
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Posted: June 21, 2006 at 6:02pm
Wow this guys a LLLLLITTLE gay.
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Dametria
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Posted: April 24, 2007 at 10:59am
I was obligated to see this movie. I work at a haunted house and their PR departent wanted to have the theatre full of "monsters" on opening night so they gave us all tickets and t-shirts. I must say tho, the movie totally kicked ass Weve had a dedicated SAW room in our house every year since...
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Nirrad
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Posted: September 27, 2007 at 9:39pm
I liked this movie a lot. I was so excited to see it, but never got a chance in theaters. But I picked the DVD up first day. I loved the twists in this movie so much, and the ending I did not see coming. I honestly think the twist ending was better than Mr. Twist, M. Night Shyamalan, twist endings. Personal opinion remember. I give this a nice 10/10
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Nirrad
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Posted: September 27, 2007 at 9:40pm
P.S I also picked up the uncut version which comes in a very nice case. I have yet to watch it, but I'm pretty interested to see what was cut.
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Tristan
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Posted: September 27, 2007 at 9:45pm
What a twist! Robot Chicken references rule. While I loved the movie when it came out, it quickly lost its appeal. Once you know the ending, it's sort of a waste of time watching it again. Still though, for a first time viewing, it's really a great movie. 7/10
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danimigra
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Posted: March 15, 2008 at 6:04pm
one of the best ones..!!! On my top 20 best films.... the story... the picture...10/10, easily.!
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I kick ass for the Lord!
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Posted: July 11, 2008 at 3:48pm
I'm going to have to agree with bluemeanie on this one. My wife and I watched this and couldn't stop laughing. My God, Cary Elwes' performance was soooo over the top I couldn't contain my laughter. Worst performance ever, (until Billy Drago took a steaming dookie on Imprint). Also, I thought the ending was a bit telegraphed. Sorry folks, Saw is crap.
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Lucid Dreams
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Posted: October 6, 2010 at 2:26pm
This was alright, nothing truly special as everyone seems to think of it. 7/10
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