This movie has had tons of praise heaped onto. Who else is going to check it out for themselves on Halloween weekend?

For those who don't know, the movies about two cops getting caught up in the web of a sadistic serial killer. it stars Danny Glover and that guy from the "Princess Bride."

SPOILERS!


Interesting film. The basic plot is good and scary and most of the performances are okay (Danny Glover seems a tad uninspired), but there's one central problem.

It's par for the course for films like these to have twist endings. I'm not sure about this film's twist ending. It involves characters that only appear in one other scene in the movie, but that scene is so awkward and out of place that it clearly pegs the characters present as people to keep an eye on. So if you're expecting some very cool twist at the end, you might be disappointed (the revelation about just WHERE the killer is, though, is very nicely done).

********SPOILER************

I thought that the revelation about WHO the character is works pretty good as well. That whole scene seemes designed to make you think that the orderly is the killer. Never once did I think of the sick man. Of course is I had recognized the man from his apperance on 24 I might have thought "why would an actor like him have a non-dialogue role like that" Kind of like the killer in "The Bone Collector"

SPOILER ALERT

Just saw this movie before going to bed last night. Very intense and disturbing and sadistic. Still, I enjoyed it tremendously.

The whole Zep bit was an excellent red-herring. I thought he was too obvious a choice for the identity of Jigsaw and was quite surprised that it looked like he was going to be revealed as the serial killer.

I also thought I had spotted the "X" before the real one was unveiled: I thought it was the body of the "dead man" in the center of the room. (Look at the positions of his arms and legs.)

MAJOR SPOILER ALERT

That brings up this point, isn't it amazing that John, the real Jigsaw, could remain so motionless on the floor for such a long stretch of time - without even a hint of breathing? That's the one thing that makes it difficult for me to believe that he could have been the real Jigsaw.

I kept wondering neither Adam nor Dr. Gordon thought to take the gun and shoot the chain or lock off? That would have been my first impulse.

Tapp and Sing were idiots to go after Jigsaw without backup. I find it difficult to believe that real cops would do that. Not to mention that I kept wondering where were their radios, you know, the ones cops now have on their shoulders?

Why didn't Sing just pull the frickin' plug on those drills? I know he ended up shooting them. But pull the plug, you moron!

Even more moronic was the fact that Sing so boldly walked down that corridor after he shot Jigsaw without checking any and all corners and open doorways for any accomplices Jigsaw may have had. Didn't they train those cops any better at the academy?

You gotta wonder where John got the money to finace all of these games?

"This game is over."

So, Benn....

You saw "Saw"?

I'm glad you got to see "Saw".

Do you plan to see "Saw" again?

Will you see "Saw" by the sea?

And if you see "Saw" by the sea, will you be sawing by the sea afterwards?

Si, ese saw "Saw" ici, see?

So, Sue saw "Saw" aussi?

I kept wondering neither Adam nor Dr. Gordon thought to take the gun and shoot the chain or lock off? That would have been my first impulse.

Remember that they couldn't get to the gun while they were shackeled.

IIRC, there at one point, Gordon was trying to reach the gun using the box that had the cigarettes in it. He almost had it, but the box wouldn't take hold of the gun. (If he had flipped the box over and used the interior to hook it, he'd've probably gotten the gun.) Remember, Jigsaw said there was a way to win. I don't think the gun was there by accident. It was a part of the game, too. When I get my own copy, I'll rewatch it a little more closely.

So, Benn....

You saw "Saw"?

I'm glad you got to see "Saw".

Do you plan to see "Saw" again? - John A. Lang

To answer seriosly, yes, I plan to see Saw again. The copy I watched last night was one I borrowed from one of the nurses at work. I now plan to get my own copy.

So, Benn....

You saw "Saw"?

I'm glad you got to see "Saw".

Do you plan to see "Saw" again?

Will you see "Saw" by the sea?

And if you see "Saw" by the sea, will you be sawing by the sea afterwards? - John A. Lang the Sequel

LOL

"This game is over."

Thinking about it a bit more... Let's remember, Dr. Gordon had Adam make an extra effort to get the tape recorder earlier in the film. It looked to me that Jigsaw's body is in the exact middle of the room, where both men, making similar efforts, could reach what Jigsaw had in his hands. Further, one of the rules of the games is that Lawrence kills Adam. That gun would be a very good - and obvious - way of doing it. It took quite awhile before the cigs showed up.

"This game is over."

So, was the blood on the floor really poisoned? What would have happened if the doctor really did give the guy a blood dipped cigarette?

Another thing that I thought of - does anyone remember if the tape Adam had was wrapped in plastic? I know it was in an envelope in his pants pocket. (That envelope was incredibly dry considering that Adam had been in a bathtub full of water not more than thirty minutes prior to his discovery of it. It should have fell apart in Adam's hands when he pulled it out of his back pocket.) If the tape was not protected by plastic, I'm quite surprised that it played for them.

When they found the heart, Adam reached into the toilet bowl to see if there was anything in it. What a dope. I'd've checked the toilet tank first. After all, that is where the heart actually was. (Putting my hand in a bowl full of b.m. would be an absolutely last resort for me.)

So, was the blood on the floor really poisoned? What would have happened if the doctor really did give the guy a blood dipped cigarette? - Anonymous

Adam would have probably been stupid enough to smoke it. Personally, if I was I smoker (which I'm not), I'd like to think I'd be a little too squeamish to smoke a blood-stain ciggie. Especially in this day and age.

"This game is over."

I also would have thought of using the gun to shoot through the chains. Also, why try to cut the THICK chains when the locks were much more slender, if i was going to take my hacksaw to something, i'd take it to the actual lock.

The most unbelievable part of the movie would be the fact that Jigsaw did remain motionless on the floor the entire time. I would think that in the many hours they were there he would have messed up in some way. When examining the room, they had long stretches of silence in the room, breathing, movement, ANYTHING should have been noticed. If anything else, not laughing when adam "faked" his own death (it was that over the top) or him pressing his little button that shocked them SHOULD have clued them in a little.

Another thing that I thought of - does anyone remember if the tape Adam had was wrapped in plastic? I know it was in an envelope in his pants pocket.

I think the envelope was in a ziplock type back, or some sort of plastic anyway.

Back of course should read bag...

Ok, here are my thoughts . . .

The first is not really a nit, but more of an observation. Everyone seems to place too much "brilliance" on the part of the killer. They keep asserting that "this guy has thought of every angle" and therefore don't even attempt to change the rules of his game. The only person with a REAL immediate time limit was the girl with the trap on her head. The others just allowed themselves to panic.

If the saw can't cut the chain, what about the lock, what about the shackle itself, or what about the pipe to which it's attached. The characters could have tried these off screen, but it seems they give up far to easily. How about looking for a pipe or something else to use as a lever and TWIST the chain. They had hours, find something small and try to pick the lock.

When the killer says, "you've been poisoned," everyone believes him. The orderly is told to kill a wife and child or he won't get the antidote. Yet, the orderly works in a HOSPITAL and was allowed to move about with aparent freedom. Before I kill a family, I'm going to see if the HOSPITAL where I work can find an antidote. It seems far more likely that a hospital can find an antidote in time rather than trusting the psycho killer who claims to have poisoned you in the first place.

On electrocution, once the two guys realize that the chain to which they are attached can electrocute them, they do nothing about it. Unless the criminal removed it, there should be a rubber stopper in that toilet, a potential insulator against electrical current if placed between the loose shackle and your ankle.

Maybe it's just me, but if I only have a few hours to escape, my corner would be cluttered with all the cr_p that I at least tried to take apart, like the piping on the toilet, like rummaging through the pockets of the "corpse" in the center of the room etc.

That's all for now.

like rummaging through the pockets of the "corpse" in the center of the room etc.

Too far. They had trouble just getting the stuff from his hands, let alone trying to play pickpocket .

Why was the "Follow your heart" message on Dr. Gordon's tape? The heart was on Adam's side of the room. Was there a heart on Lawrence's side that was never found?

I'm not sure John could have been Jigsaw. When we first see him, he's in the hospitalj as a patient. From the way Zep and Dr. Gordon were talking, he'd been there awhile. Yet, when Detectives Tapp and Sing bring Gordon in for questioning, they ask him about the previous night, when Jigsaw had apparently last struck. Of course, this all depends on how long John was in the hospital. But if he has a brain tumor that started as colon cancer (and wouldn't that mean that the cancer had covered a large portion of his body?), then could John have been in good enough health to have pulled off these games? (And if he's having to financially deal with cancer, where'd he get the money to put together these games?)

"This game is over."

After Adam is electrocuted, he falls to the floor. Besides his head is a hacksaw - intact. Didn't Adam break the blade of his saw when he tried cutting the chains? (For that matter, didn't he throw the saw at the mirror? Or were there three saws in that bags?)

Just how does Jigsaw activate the electricity to shock Adam and Lawrence? In one hand was the gun, in the other the tape recorder. Moreover, how could he have pushed the shock button without being seen?

After Lawrence cuts his foot off, if you look carefully, you can see the foot is still there, but covered by the leg of his pants.

"Game over."

Despite huge leaps in logic, I did enjoy this movie. It has a lot of plot-holes, the characters are really, really stupid, and the majority of the premise is un-believeable. Beyond this though, I did enjoy this film simply because few films today take as much joy in tormenting and disgusting it's audience then this one. It is sadistic and mean and vile and I loved it. This is why they call them "horror" movie.

Also it wins points for a twist ending that totally beat me in the side of the face. The ending really saves the rest of the movie. Three out of four stars.