Ridiculous, gimmicky storyline, clumsily shot and edited, all of it impossible to take seriously and never scary--just like the first one, in other words

Rating: 3/10 (6 July 2006)

What could people possibly see in this movie (or its predecessor, for that matter)? Okay, maybe you can understand why desperate horror nuts might be willing to clutch at even the slightest straws that float along, given the state of horror movies today. Maybe because the SAW movies do represent something a little different from the pitiful genre norm, maybe because they seem a little more mean-spirited than the bland stuff they're being served up nowadays, maybe because there seems to be a hint of originality on offer here in these two movies amid a sea of faceless, undistinguished remakes.
But none of that makes up for that face that both movies are, in their own ways, as ill-conceived, as botched in execution, as borderline unwatchable, as impossible to take seriously, and as seriously UNscary, as the worst of today's generally undistinguished and unmemorable horror offerings.