keeps you occupied enough to not notice its flaws

Rating: 7/10 (29 October 2006)

there's enough going on to keep you entertained. the biggest problem is that much of the story seems to be back-story for the 2 previous films. I would have been confused if I thought about previous victims or Shawnee Smith's involvement in the murders, but as I said, the strength of the film is how it keeps you interested in what's happening to the characters now. since we have a terminally ill Jigsaw, we get to see how he's dealing with his illness; we also have the tests given to the latest victim(s). and as with any good puzzler like these, we shouldn't be able to guess how all the victims are related until the final piece is revealed. and this is why this movie succeeds. we have four characters to follow through their ordeals, we get several mini tortures to enjoy, and we are filled in on details from the previous films. under any level of analysis, these stories are silly, this recent film had me wondering whether Jigsaw buys tape recorders in bulk as he uses about 7 in this movie. I'm not sure if the Saw franchise has anything left to tell us, but it's fairly obvious that Jigsaw will be back again since he's been given a mini-reprieve from his terminal illness.