Sawing Saw Up.

Rating: 7/10 (11 February 2006)

Saw (2004)
Cary Elwes, Leigh Whannel, Danny Glover, Monica Potter, Ken Leung, Michael Emerson, Dina Meyer, Tobin Bell.
Newcomer director James Wan presents us with a shock-fest that makes Michael Mann's Collateral looks like a purely calm drive down the street. Saw is a hell of a thrill ride, but not without its flaws. It does have holes throughout and parts that I didn't care for, but makes up for them in suspense and tension in certain scenes.
Two men wake up in a dirty bathroom, with no idea knowing how they got there. One is a married doctor, and the other a young photographer. In between them lies a man who just shot himself in the head, and a tape player in his hand. They each find tapes in their pockets, and play them both with the tape player. They find out that they both have just a few hours until "the jigsaw killer" threatens to hurt the doctor's family, unless he follows the rules of the Jigsaw's "game". Meanwhile, a cop is hot on Jigsaw's tail after the murder of his friend.
From the giving of the plot, you would think that "Saw" would be an unoriginal tripe piece of cinema trash. But you are quite wrong. I thought that the trailer looked very good, and figured I would give it a try. After seeing it about a year ago and then just a few days ago again, I felt very entertained the whole time through and didn't feel copped out in the end. However, from the flaws that this film has, it's mostly from the script and the acting.
Most predictable thrillers and carbon copies from classic noirs use the basic "from the cop's point-of-view" scenario. But from Saw, it is given a much more terrifying view, from the victims. Considering that I'm not much of a fan of the Horror genre, "Saw" is one of 2004's biggest thrill surprises and ones that I actually liked, along with the "Dawn of the Dead" remake.
The acting is one of my biggest complaints, however. Cary Elwes tries very hard to succeed in a dynamic performance, but he goes a bit too over-the-top in the film's most gruesome scene. Whannell is OK for a first timer major role, but isn't really convincing once you've been with him for a while in the film. Danny Glover gives probably the best performance in the film as a retired cop (opposed to the one who always planned to retire in "Lethal Weapon") out for revenge.
The direction is good as is the cinematography, editing, and music. The script is good, but tries a bit too hard to act original, and some of Jigsaw's lines are too similar to that of John Doe (Kevin Spacey) from Seven. With all of the hype from the trailer, it was inevitable that this would be compared to similar thrillers, two main ones being Seven and The Silence of the Lambs.
The killer uses the same moral excuse as John Doe, or even Mickey Knox from Natural Born Killers. Ridding people from the world because they don't give "living" any real purpose, or because they really give no thought about their own lives. In the other films, the killer murdered them in different ways, but here the victims murder themselves in the toughest ways possible, and if they make it out alive, they really want to live.
The DVD is pretty fair among the New Releases, nothing that special. We get a featurette, a couple of trailers, and a music video of the song "Bite the Hand that Bleeds You" by Fear Factory, a "Making of" the song, and a short photo gallery. It's just a basic, average DVD that did need more features, and if they sometime make a Special Edition of it, it'll be sucking away my money most likely.
Overall, this is a very effective thriller in the end. The twist, if not very realistic, was very surprising and had me on the edge of my seat. I highly recommend Saw for a fun flick to watch on a Friday night, but it isn't nearly on the same scale as "Se7en" or "The Usual Suspects". 3.5 out of 5 stars.