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Friday
23Oct2009

Movie Review - 'Saw VI'

DateFriday, October 23, 2009 at 3:02AM
Saw VI

Starring Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, and Betsy Russell
Directed by Kevin Greutert
Rated R

saw6poster.jpg Though it's a moderate step up from the last movie in the franchise, Saw VI is still far from a good horror movie, if you could even call them horror movies at this point. It's not as though they're scary, just bloody.

It reminds me of a admirable round near the end of a bad fight in the career of a boxer who doesn't know when to hang up his gloves - the punches aren't as crisp or powerful as they used, they make contact less often, and the paunch is impossible to ignore, but for a fleeting moment the effort is there.

If you're not a fan of Saw, you won't be after this, although the story within the framework of this individual film is more thorough than the last two entries combined. How it fits in the overall scheme may be a problem, but for one movie at least, Saw felt like it had some kind of direction.

One immediate problem with Saw VI is that it can't hook you in as a viewer if you haven't seen at least the past three movies. And it would help if you've seen them all recently. There are flashbacks - poor ones - but the argument could be made that a series about a complicated human puzzle can be precisely that in its structure. But there are better ways to do it than we've seen in IV, V, and now VI.

It must be difficult to keep coming up with games masterminded by Jigsaw/John Kramer (Tobin Bell), seeing as the character died in the third movie. One way the series is not aided by the multiple sequels is in the chronology. It seems as though Jigsaw passed on, well, three years ago (you'll remember he had cancer in the first movie), but in the time frame of the story, that might only be a few months. So it's probable within this convoluted narrative that the traps set for the sixth movie could have been plotted before Jigsaw's death. But how much further can it all go?

This time around, the choices between life and death are again meted out by Jigsaw's widow (Betsy Russell) and the Hoffman (Costas Mandylor), the crooked cop who has sort of assumed the mantle. But in a surprising turn, Saw has turned political, choosing to demonize those social villains the predator lender and the health insurance claims adjustor. Talk about frightening.

There is a loose thread here related to Jigsaw's own cancer treatment, and it does fit 2009 fairly well, but I'm not sure there's any value in the lesson the movie is trying so hard to teach. But, as far as ingenuity goes, this is vastly superior to the repetitive nature of part five, but that was the worst movie in the series so it may not seem like a compliment.

We owe the esteemed critic David Edelstein credit for coining the phrase "torture porn," a catch-all for movies like this and Hostel that have such incredibly gratuitous violence, you begin to wonder if it isn't the bloodshed and the grisly way in which it occurs that people are truly paying to see. Saw is lumped in with that crowd because of its enormous success, although probably half the time it's no more bloody or gruesome than most slasher flicks. And more the half time, it actually attempts to tell a complete story amid the mayhem.

However, the opening sequence in Saw VI is about as extreme as it gets. I don't believe they've ever risen to this level before, or perhaps it's more accurate to say they've never stooped so low before. So be warned. The rest of the violence is not paralyzingly graphic on the whole, and in fact, one kill in particular doesn't show you enough of how Jigsaw's gadgetry actually works.

But whereas most of the time we've accepted a lesser story in this series because the real inventiveness was with Jigsaw's traps, this time the brutality seems rather obligatory. They even bring back an old stand-by. You wind up more invested in the story, which, as I said, is at least better than what we've seen in a couple of years.

The time for a good Saw movie may be gone for good. It's hard to envision a drastic increase in quality, but at least here in the later rounds, there's a brief flurry of activity.

AuthorColin Boyd | | in , , , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | Comment3 Comments |

Reader Comments (3)

I stopped watching after saw 3, Im not even going to bother with this one either. I wonder when they'll stop! Saw 10 anyone? 13 even?

Friday, October 23, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterFishFish

I still dont get why, knowing they wanted to make mroe, that they killed off jigsaw.
Following that how they have completly skipped on numerous ways they could of had a succesor created fro him instead of traps he setup before his death.

Friday, October 23, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterOrinn

yo this movie scared the living hell out of me i never seen a horror movie and im 19 years old this was my first horror movie ever but this movie right here is disgusting it gave me nightmares screaming in class all day

Monday, October 26, 2009 | Unregistered Commenterdelaney

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