Saw (2004)
The Cast
Leigh Whannell .... Adam
Cary Elwes .... Dr. Lawrence Gordon
Danny Glover .... Detective David Tapp
Ken Leung .... Detective Steven Sing
Dina Meyer .... Kerry
Michael Emerson .... Zep Hindle
Monica Potter .... Alison Gordon
Directed by James Wan, & co-written by Wan & Whannell (Adam), Saw is a half thriller, half shockfest, bloody murder mystery whodunnit. In a blender. The premise is fairly simple: two men awake in a shithole bathroom with no memory of how they got there. Someone has attached chains to their feet & left cryptic messages for each of them, alluding to personal knowledge of each victim. It's a high-concept idea, to the point where a couple years from now, when there's a glut of movies like this in the marketplace, they'll be referred to as Saw on a boat, or perhaps, Saw on a plane, & hopefully, Saw in a sawmill.
The mood is set from the opening scene, but is almost ruined previously by the ludicrously over-wrought corporate logo of Twisted Pictures. After seeing the cheesy logo, it nearly deflates any interest you might've secretly harboured for seeing the movie. I must admit that working in a music store & seeing customers scoop it up like the slavering dogs that they are, I was curious as to what all the hubbub was about. Was it actually good buzz, or was it just another Butterfly Effect?
I'd say it's a bit of a mix of the two actually. For the first half of the movie, when the characters are going over the pseudo-serial killer (perhaps serial threatener would be a better name for the guy) & the execution of his evil ways, it just seems like gore for the sake of gore. Exploitive gore, whatever you want to call it, if the only point is to gross out the viewer, well that's just sensationalistic filmmaking, & frankly I find it boring.
At some point, it picks up a bit & I actually started to get involved in the movie. Not as involved as singinggrrl was, what with the jumping & face-covering (which was actually quite adorable & endearing), but I actually started to care about how the movie turned out. The execution of the mystery was alright, though singinggrrl actually called the ending of the movie about half an hour into it (I was kinda half right, in our interpretation).
I'm fairly meh about my Saw watching experience. Half of it disgusted me, the other half nearly enthralled me. Some of the performances are above average, though Westley will never reach the epic heights of his breakthrough role in the Princess Bride, which, incidentally enough, is just waiting to be reviewed by some lucky Top Five Reviewer! The overall execution of the movie needs some polish, but it was alright for what it was I guess. Since I enjoyed half of it & felt pretty meh afterwards, I'll go with a 2.5 outta 5.
Mikey Iaco's review
Roger Ebert's review