Not too bad but no where near as good as the first.

Rating: 5/10 (17 December 2006)

Can I just say that I really liked the first film. The plot was interesting and the twist was utterly unbelievable. The second film, however, I find to be in the shadow of its predecessor. I absolutely adored Tobin Bell's performance in this film and Jigsaw had a fair script. Everyone else was lacking in these areas. The cop (Donnie Wahlberg) was ridiculously annoying. You wanted to punch him for his impatience and the ending made you want to murder him yourself because of his idiocy. The ending was a twist. Sure. I had actually thought that maybe, just maybe the girl was in on it but then I figured, "No. That's just silly. The movie would never work." Ha. Apparently I was wrong because that's how it ended up and let me tell you, I've never heard anything as painful as listening to her voice on the tape player and realizing that the movie was doomed. The plot was fairly predictable and the characters were static and stereotypical. I did like the fact that the kid was found safe and sound in a 'safe place' at the end. Everything else seemed pointless though. The gore was fair play and I cringed in some bits but I ate the bowl of chili and chips that I had until I was full with no negative repercussions. Apparently even the cringe inducing bit of someone slicing the skin off the back of their neck (which I found to be somewhat silly, should have just asked the girl, then killed her) was not gory enough to cause me to lose my lunch. The one redeeming quality was the insight into the mind of the killer and that is why my rating isn't lower. As a sequel this movie has no dice but on it's own it could be considered fair game. In other words, if you're looking for something that lives up to Saw, forget it. If you just want a movie to pass the time with that's better than trying to watch the original movies on the Sci-fi channel, go for it.