Agreed, Saw featured some of the worst acting in a movie all year. Cary Elwes, Leigh Whannell, and even Danny Glover were hideous. It pretty much dragged down the movie for me, which was at least tense and suspenseful at points.

meh......everyone has his own opinion...

Some just happen to be wrong. :wink:

whatever!!... i really felt the suffering of the guys!..... :wink:

Saw
Rated R: strong grisly violence and language
Running Time: 100 minutes


*MINOR SPOILERS*

From the moment I heard about the film Saw, I was interested. I was waiting for the trailers to come out for quite awhile. Then finally, even though there wasn't a theatrical trailer, there were three R rated internet trailers. When I finished watching each of them, I was actually scared. I was getting pumped up to see this movie. Movies never scare me, sometimes they're creep me out, like The Ring, but the only movie that truly ever scared me was the film The Shining, and that one only because I watched it by myself in my basement in the middle of the night. The release date for Saw was perfect, October 29th, just in time for Halloween. I planned to see it with my friend's opening night, but sadly, my theater didn't even get it, which was odd because it was in 2000+ theaters. Now, my theater has had the movie for two weeks, and I just got to see it tonight, and the trailers did the film no justice.
A young man named Adam (LEIGH WHANNELL) wakes to find himself chained to a rusty pipe inside a decrepit subterranean chamber. Chained to the opposite side of the room is another bewildered captive, Dr. Lawrence Gordon (CARY ELWES). Between them is a dead man lying in a pool of blood, holding a .38 in his hand. Neither man knows why he has been abducted; but instructions left on a micro-cassette order Dr. Gordon to kill Adam within eight hours. If he fails to do so, then both men will die, and Dr. Gordon's wife, Alison (MONICA POTTER), and his daughter will be killed. Recalling a recent murder investigation by a police detective named Tapp (DANNY GLOVER), Dr. Gordon realizes he and Adam are the next victims of a psychopathic genius known only as "Jigsaw." With only a few hours left to spare, they must unravel the elaborate puzzle of their fate in the midst of mounting terror. The killer has provided them with only a few clues and two handsaws - too weak to break their steel shackles, but strong enough to cut through flesh and bone.
The two people who were stuck in the basement, Leigh Whannell and Cary Elwes, were honestly terrible actors. Yes, this is a horror movie, so you can expect beyond horrible acting, but the acting from these two actors puts the acting in Freddy vs. Jason to shame. Near the beginning, which was about a fifteen minute diologue scene, I was basically rolling my eyes at their acting, but I still liked what I was seeing. This is one of those rare instances where the acting doesn't really matter, it's the story line, and how graphic and disturbing the film is. I do admit that the movie might've been a little bit better, if in fact, the acting was better, but it was fine the way it was, in the words of the Pope: "it was what it was."
Danny Glover was surprisingly in this movie, and his acting was quite good. I enjoyed his character, and I was rooting for him to get the Jigsaw Killer. The killer was really a gross guy, and he deserved to die. There were times where I thought he was the killer, and if he was, I knew I'd be really surprised. The ending though, was honestly the best ending I've seen in awhile. It was so awesome! I can't believe I didn't even guess the ending, which is a real rarity these days. His performance wasn't anything amazing, I mean, it's only a $1 million budget horror movie, but it was good.
Ever since I saw the movie Patch Adams in 1998, I've always has a little crush on Monica Potter. When I found out she was in this, I got instantly excited. I was really happy she was coming back into movies again, and she looked really cute in it too. I knew that she wasn't going to be in it much, and that was a shame, but I loved her character and her performance. She easily gave the best performance out of anyone in the film. Again, it wasn't anything breath taking or anything, but it was good to see a female character stand up to a killer like that, even though my friends and I were the only people in the whole audience, we were all cheering when she held the gun to him.
This is not your average movie at all. While I did give the film an average rating, it's not usual for me to give a horror movie, the rating I gave Saw. I'm very happy I saw it; it was really a great experience. It would have been absolutely awesome if there was actually an audience there, but we did see it on a Tuesday night, so few or no people are to be expected. The movie itself was a rollercoaster. I've never been scared in a movie theater like I was with Saw. While some thing in the movie got a bit boring, I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. There were times I wanted to look away, not because of the gore, because there was almost none there anyways, but because I was actually afraid of what was going to happen, or what was happening on screen. This is a must for all horror fans, and fans of the film Se7en...which I didn't like much, 5/10 (C-)

7/10 (B-)

Good plot with a great twist at the end. The acting and directing is atrocious though meaning you can't even put it anywhere near the top 10 of the year (2004). It's an enjoyable movie nontheless, but the twist MADE the movie.

B

Ah, it was ok.

Though I have to admit the acting was ultra lame at certain points of the film. Not that it was good at the best points of the film either.

I agree with you, matatonio. Seriously, I did not see the big problem with the acting at all.

Thank you!!

Random bump. Heh.

So, I'm watching it tonight, and...

*SPOILERS*

The part where Cary Elwes and Leigh Whannell pretend that Cary gave Leigh the cigarette with the poison on it. And, when Leigh pretends to die, I couldn't help myself...I laughed my freakin' ass off.

Such a good movie with such craptacular performances.

Still an A.

I think that scene was meant to be funny.

C

Wayyyy overrated guys. Still fun at at parts, but it just felt rehashed and toned down for some reason. Like a lamed down rip-off of Se7en, with a much worse plot, writing, and acting. I actually could sit through the acting, even if it bad, if the rest of the movie held up like I thought it would. It didn't. The twist was OK, but not to make this one of the best of the year. I was disappointed guys.

I'll repeat one more time: A lamer copycat version of Se7en.

Just bought the uncut version... I had never seen it before but I was dying to see it last year...

Wow, amazing

9.6/10

A

I'm just glad I didn't see both this and The Grudge when they were first released, otherwise I may have lost complete faith in new horror films. There are some interesting/original concepts here, some good visuals, and a clever ending, but the rest of the movie keep it from being anything decent. I hated the way the film played out, with all the flashbacks and jumping back and forth, it felt like a scatterbrained mess. I didn't find anything in this scary, and I was waiting to be incredibly grossed out or whatnot, but it never happened. The acting was ok, or just a tad below average, until the last 10 minutes, that's when Elwes' constant sobbing became an odd form of comic relief. I don't understand why he didn't use his shirt to grab the phone instead of sawing off his foot, but if he did that would have defeated the whole point (was there one?) of the movie. Oh and there were SO many points were someone would get a gun and have the big bad man cornered, but instead of shooting him they would tell him to stay still, don't move! or whatnot. I could let it slide if it happened once but two or three times was too much. anyway I'd give it a C overall. It's not all bad but it's just not good enough.

This film probalbly gets a D in the acting category, But the Suspense and Plot was Awsome. I loved it

B

It was a good movie. The suspence was really high, but it failed to live up to my expectations that some had it at. I give it a B+.

Word.

It was decent, but it's way overrated.

C+

a shit thriller and a big waste of time. i watched it with two new friends of mine who had already seen it and like it, and they wanted me to like it too, so i decided to be polite and said "cool" when it was over, but "wtf" would have been more appropriate. how can someone watch the car chase towards the end, which is so terribly filmed and edited that i thought the movie turns into some kind of bizarre satire, and claim that it is good or even great? saw gets a D+ because its partly watchable.

I just saw this for the first time.
The concept was far better than the execution, and the acting was god-awful (especially by the guy who played the doctor).
However, I did like the ending, although it was pretty obvious he was the culprit because of the earlier hospital scene.

B-

Good enough to make me want to see at least the first sequel.

You shouldn't do that. They might make you watch more movies later.

I used to do that; now, I just don't care. If something sucks, I say it. I don't want to have to watch it again. People I know like to watch movies multiple times -- that's a no no.

Bad acting, not much suspense and the mechanism palls soon. It's not worth the whole success it had.
C+ or 6.5/10

Oh, and considering the avatar, I'm sure Joseba knows when a horror movie is good.

Oh so wrong. If you don't like horror movies, then yes, you're obviously not going to like this. Sure, the acting wasn't great it was good enough and I loved the plot. Not really a Seven ripoff like people say. Did the guy in Seven devise elaborate traps and lock people in rooms? Did he have cancer? Was Saw mainly about detectives hunting for a killer? No it was about his victims as Dr. Gordon and Adam were easily the main characters.

Plus, unlike Seven, this was an independent film made for under $2 million dollars.

Quite fun, but I had a couple of problems. "I'll get help... I wouldn't lie to you" was laughable. Also, I had plausibility problems. A medical doctor simply wouldn't have fallen for the blood on floor routine. Think how much poison would have to be in the guy's blood for his a tiny drop of his blood to be fatal on the end of a cigarette (not even the end you put in your mouth). If a single drop of his blood contained a fatal dose, think how much there would have been in his whole bloodstream. He would have dropped dead straightaway, not been alive long enough to kill himself with a gun. So the doctor wouldn't have believed the set-up anyway (he would have smelled a rat anyway).

Also, come on. A surgeon who can't improvise a tourniquet? Whatever!

The traps weren't tailored to the perceived "crimes" enough. "Just like the people you burned with your lies" was lame. The wooden doll thing was too silly to be scary.

On the other hand, some of the details were brilliant ("cut himself so deep there were traces of his stomach acid on the floor", plus the whole reverse beartrap scene - incredibly tense, even though you knew that she survived). And that last "any*MORE*!" was very well delivered.

It was okay - nice for an independent effort (better than most of the crap in the genre) but nothing special.

C

I still really like this one. It's not especially artful or original, but the story unfolds well and it's not nearly as torturous as the sequels. And the twist is not only terrific but also executed supremely well.

It may be a blatant Se7en knock-off, but I still enjoy watching it. The bad acting doesn't even bother me that much.

Yikes.

There needs to be some sort of rule against bumping up old threads that feature horrendously embarrassing reviews.