Saw IV (2007)

Really Scary

This is the 4th one in the total scary chain, the surprising and unpredictable actions are greaaat.

If you have a rock heart and like the horror movies, then YOU MUST WATCH the whole chain.

Best Regards, October 30, 2008

Breathed new life into the Saw series

I didn't care much for Saw 3. It wasn't BAD, but it certainly wasn't as good as Saw 1 or 2. I thought Saw 4 would be absolutely terrible, for one, since Jigsaw was dead, and secondly, because each movie has gotten progressively worse since the beginning. Thankfully, I was wrong.

Saw 4 took you on a ride throughout Jigsaw's life, in addition to showing a lot more new "games" being played. The background on Jigsaw's life was very interesting, and it answered a lot of the questions fans were wondering about, watching the other 3 Saw movies. We now understood why Jigsaw began playing these "games" to begin with, after his wife was struck by a drug addict, and had a miscarriage, while 7 months pregnant.

Good movie, and am looking forward to Saw 5. October 25, 2008

more twists and surprises

Even after Jigsaw died, his work continues. But why? Why does anyone bother to listen to those tapes he left? Besides, why does anyone go through the trouble of setting up those devious contraptions? We may never know the answers to these questions but that's what the Saw series is all about. If no one bothered to continues Jigsaw's work, there would be no story. So as the series progresses, things are made up about Jigsaw's past (i.e. ex-wife losing his child). On the director's commentary, it is explained that a lot of what happens in this film runs concurrent or before the last Saw installment. For this reason, watching it is rather confusing at first. It's intricate but there are not as many profound philisophical statements as in the previous installment. It's suspensful and full of gore. I like how they use the montage to reveal how things came together in the end. October 23, 2008

Just keeps getting worse.

Saw IV (Darren Lynn Bousman, 2007)

Why oh why do I keep watching the Saw movies? It shouldn't surprise me that, yes, the fourth is markedly worse than the third, and yet it does. Essentially, Darren Lynn Bousman, who's helmed the last three installments while James Wan has been off directing movies that were actually half-decent, seems to have envisioned 2, 3, and 4 as a trilogy. This, of course, explains why so many loose ends were left at the ends of 2 and 3 (though some of them have still floated off into the mist). On the other hand, if you don't have 2 and 3 very fresh in your minds when you see this, you're going to be lost from the get-go, and it's only going to get worse as you go along. So if you must force yourself to watch this movie, I strongly suggest watching 2 and 3 just before you do to refresh your memory. (And you might want to watch the original as well, just to remind yourself that there was, at one point, something worthwhile gong on here.)

This episode focuses on Rigg (Lyriq Bent), one of the cops from 2 and 3. This time, it's his game-- he has ninety minutes to get to the end of a maze where he will be able to save two of his co-workers, assuming he makes the right decisions along the way. But given that 3 ended with the deaths of both Jigsaw and Amanda, who's running the game now?

Yeah, like all the other Saw movies, the plot's pretty skinny here. But unlike the original, and to a lesser extent the second, there's not even a pretense at characterization-- even for the characters we already know. (This is especially grating given that we get a number of flashbacks to John's pre-Jigsaw life.) This movie puts me in mind of the first victim in Saw 2-- they figured out it was a different killer because there was no point to the killing. It's a sad state of affairs when you can use a plot point in a previous movie to define what's wrong with a later movie in the same franchise.

Despite my disappointment, I'll probably end up going to see Saw V later this month. Why? Because Bousman is finally jettisoned (though David Hackl, a Bousman protegee, is probably not going to be much of an improvement, a boy can always hope). * ½

October 10, 2008

John's legacy lives on

The SAW films are all sequential, so 'SAW IV' picks up where 'SAW III' ended. The movie starts with the grisly autopsy of John (Tobin Bell). A tape is found in his stomach, one he made before he died. Though dead, John does not intend to give up his games. The next scene is a tasty trap where two men awaken, one with his eyes sewn shut and the other with his mouth sewn shut. The two are chained together and must get their key off the other man. As usual, its nice to have a trap right off the bat, don't forget about this one.

Lt. Rigg (Lyriq Bent from 'SAW III') is attacked, and finds himself in one of John's games. He's told that Eric Matthews (surprisingly talented Donny Wahlberg) is still alive after missing for six months, and that Rigg can save him if he follows the rules of the game. Rigg must follow the clues, many of which the lives of innocent and guilty people are at stake, to his final destination.

Added to this SAW installment is John's ex-wife Jill Tuck, called into the police station for interrogation on what she knows of John and his background. 'SAW IV' doesn't quite live up to the first three movies. The traps are rather lame in comparison to the previous films, and although bloody they just don't have that feel of genius behind them. John was better as an enigma, with a goal of teaching others to appreciate their lives by putting them into death situations. (taken from John's cancer and the car crash that almost killed him) 'SAW IV' changes the view of John's motives by providing (IMHO) too much predictable background that takes away from John being a simple genius serial killer. (You'll have to watch the movie to see the motive changes) To me, the series lost too much of its complexity along with the mystery that kept the intensity level high.

In spite of all this, I still recommend you watch SAW IV, though you must watch the first three in order if you haven't already. There's adequate blood and gore, some tricky questions of humanity, a decent Jigsaw scenario, and building intensity toward the end. Rent first unless you're a diehard fan (like me), who purchased before watching the movie. Enjoy!
October 7, 2008

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