B+

It seems I inevitably kick these threads off. I enjoyed it quite a bit -- a small, nicely tense movie. No major twists, just a nicely twisted ending.

Is every set-piece bathed in puke-green lighting? Is it edited into incomprehension? Does the camera do that hilarious 360 degree rotation around every trap? Is any attempt made to distinguish one character from another?

I ask these questions with a genuine sense of curiosity. I wouldn't hate seeing this movie, but I don't want to waste my time.

The movie's pretty green, but it's not the puke green trap stuff from the earlier films. It feels a little more like natural lighting, a little less like "Wow, Photoshop has a color corrector..."


No! There's a crane reveal in the opening trap, but they actually cut the MTV quick-cut bullshit for the most part.


Actually, yeah. The main players are pretty easy, but even in the group trap you've got stuck-up corporate woman, sassy black chick, funny, pissed off writer guy, and self-mutilator. That's about as deep as it gets there.

Interesting. If the sins of Darren Lynn Bousman have mostly been corrected, I will probably see this.

It's significantly lower key than Bousman's stuff. Even the two in-camera transitions are really simple.

But then I read this, and I'm thinking maybe not.

Yeah, the over-editing was mostly absent, aside from a bit during the finale.

I found it to be quite entertaining. I liked all the flashbacks to show how Hoffman and Jigsaw became a team. The traps weren't all that great and a little disappointing. This was actually not that gory for a Saw movie (Probably the least gory of them all). I was also let down by the standard Saw twist ending. All of the Saw movies have had great twists that left me scratching my head, but this one really wasn't all that complex. I did love the smile on Hoffman's face in the last scene.

I'm looking forward to Saw VI to see how Hoffman and Jigsaw's wife continue to play this out. And what was in the box?

B-

It warrants a sixth film in order to answer all the unresolved questions this film raises, chief among them: What's in the box Jigsaw left to his ex-wife?

A picture -- or at least, that's what was in it when they filmed it. B-roll footage of an extended ending is online, with Jill telling someone (presumably Hoffman) "I know who you are," holding a picture from the open box.

I was thinking that maybe it was a series of pictures and tapes Jigsaw left so his wife could continue where he left off, but first getting rid of Hoffman.

I don't think he's trying to get her to be a full-blown accomplice, but I imagine it's stuff on Hoffman so that he can be tested (as per the autopsy tape).

Did they shoot this for 8 dollars and change? I haven't watched any of these Saw sequels, but a curious twist of fate got me in there today and now I'm totally depressed. Ugh.

WTF? This played out like Dexter crossed with an episode of Double Dare (actually, make that Big Brother, because I think I saw one or two of these setpieces on there...). I'm not sure I've ever hated anything as much.

Director's name is funny, though. Hackl. How unfortunate for him. And it was amusing to see Costas Mandylor. Man, he's gotten fat and old since Picket Fences.

I loved this movie so much. Third best of the series.


A

The Saw series has come full circle. The first was shit, the second was good, the third was great, the fourth was decent and now the fifth brings us back to shit. This is the worst in the series. The first one got by on unintentional humor. As much as I'm nowhere near being a fan of that movie, I can at least watch it to see Cary Elwes camping it up. In the fifth movie we get more of the same, just without any profile actors. Great. And the fact that this film lacks the one key ingriedient that made the others work (or in the case of the first film - interesting) in that it doesn't have a twist and despite having the plotlines jumbled is actually easy to guess where it's going (I was actually over thinking it. I thought the last woman standing was Jigsaw's ex wearing a bad wig), is extremely disappointing.

Outside of Tobin Bell, this is a worthless movie. I'm done with the Saw series in theaters. I'll check out the sixth one on DVD.

1/2*

That Tobin Bell guy always sounded like he was doing Christian Bale's distracting Bat-Voice.

It's better than the absolutely terrible fourth installment, but it's still not a good movie at all. It's badly directed and edited, devoid of any suspense and scares and filled with terrible, terrible performances. It doesn't even live up to being the gross-out flick that several people probably saw this film expecting. Costas Mandylor could quite possibly be one of the worst actors ever - he's beyond awful and one-note here and I found his performance absolutely grating. Scott Patterson was also terrible and the plot twist with his character at the end was moronic. Ironically enough, I found the most interesting characters to be those actually in the trap - Julie Benz and Meagan Good were solid enough considering the genre and the others weren't that bad. But director David Hackl chooses to focus on the whole cop storyline, which continued the trend of the fourth by having annoying flashbacks-within-flashbacks and was frankly boring as hell. I'd pass on this one, it's another nail in the coffin for this massively overrated franchise. C-

C+
Mediocre sequel. I was disappointed in the lack of a twist. Amanda should be the main focus of these sequels, but they fucked that up by killing her off in Saw III.

Yeah she should have been and yes they were.

Overall decent, and I really did like how they connected Jigsaw and Hoffman back to the original films. Really cool stuff.

It's about on-par with Saw IV, and both are just a huge step down from 1-3. 4-5 are good, but just cannot match how well the first three worked. But they're still enjoyable horror flicks, so keep 'em coming, I suppose.

**1/2

The worst of the franchise IMO. I thought it was somewhat boring and not very interesting but still good amount of gore . Im really not liking the way the series is going.

C

Saw- A-
Saw II- B+
Saw III- A
Saw IV- B-
Saw V- C

Somewhat suspenseful. But I didn't like the way the film tried to offer commentary on emotion and human nature. It's talking about how a certain type of steel is not credible in the long term (for cutting a person in half in a trap?) and...

B+

I Really liked the movie, no mayor twist at the end, but good amount of gore.