Implausible, irritating and full of plot holes

Rating: 2/10 (9 July 2006)

The current rating for this horror film indicates it is one of the greatest of all time. Give me a break! It's not even close. Unless you are VERY forgiving of glaring plot holes, bad acting, annoying dialogue, "trendy" rapid fire MTV-style editing, lame "edgy" industrial music soundtracks and a pathetic "moral" justification for murder delivered by a psycho obviously copied from Kevin Spacey's Se7en character, then you might be amongst the people who think this is something special. But if you're like me and take a more analytical approach to these thrillers, this thing simply falls apart at the seams and leads up to a surprise twist so implausible and unbelievable it must be seen to be believed. Not only this, but the film refuses to stay in one place for long. It jumps from the main story (leads Cary Elwes and Leigh Whannell chained up in a bathroom and trying to figure a way to escape) about five times too many to maintain the suspense. We get to see bits and pieces of the police investigation and the killer terrorizing the wife and daughter of Elwes' doctor character. Said wife acts like a complete and utter moron even after the killer sticks a gun in her daughters face.
It's not a great movie. It's not even a good movie. It's just a pedestrian thriller all jazzed up with tricky editing, jump cuts, some gore and loud music to appeal to the teenagers and intellectually stunted adults in the audience. Anyone with a brain, however, will find it hard to swallow and not worth the effort at all.