A lukewarm execution

Rating: 7/10 (31 October 2004)

Having see "The Grudge" a couple of days before, I welcomed the opportunity to watch "Saw," as a more psychological, rather than supernatural, thriller.
Although I did not think the film was great, I liked the main idea, and didn't find most of the twists and turns to be predictable to the extent that I groaned when they'd occur. At the least, I wasn't spending my viewing time thinking about what would "obviously" happen next, because there were definitely some surprises in there.
But while the idea of two men waking up trapped in a dingy bathroom while a puppetmaster pulls their strings was a good one, the performances were generally not that good. They were passable, but the dialogue is very poor, and no one was going to parlay that crappy script into an Oscar nomination.
The psychological thriller styles itself after "Se7en" and "The Cube" but the execution pales by comparison. (although the dialogue in "The Cube" wasn't exactly fresh). I thought it was probably worth full price admission for the story, but the dialogue will likely keep you from truly being drawn completely into the film.