 Tagline: Every game has its loopholes... Jigsaw has disappeared. With his new apprentice Amanda (Shawnee Smith), the puppet-master behind the cruel, intricate games that have terrified a community and baffled police has once again eluded capture and vanished. While city detectives scramble to locate him, Doctor Lynn Denlon (Bahar Soomekh) and Jeff (Angus Macfadyen) are unaware that they are about to become the latest pawns on his vicious chessboard. Storyline: Jeff is an anguished man, who grieves and misses his young son that was killed by a driver in a car accident. He has become obsessed for revenge against the man and reckless with his wife and daughter. When Dr. Lynn Denlon, who has troubles with her marriage, is abducted by the deranged Jigsaw's apprentice Amanda, she is brought to a gruesome warehouse to keep John Kramer alive in spite of having a terminal brain tumor. Amanda puts a necklace gadget full of explosives around Dr. Lynn's neck connected to John Kramer's life support system, and tells her that if he dies the device will explode. Meanwhile, Jeff is submitted to a sick game of forgiveness with surprising dark consequences. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman, January 18, 2008 -- Warning: this review contains spoilers relating to earlier films in the Saw franchise. Vengeance doesn't solve anything. It only makes the pain greater. The law of diminishing returns generally holds true in horror movie franchises. Most franchises begin promisingly enough, and the classics of the horror genre inneviteably spawn numerous sequels, most of which fail. This was especially true in the 1980s as sequel after sequel of the Halloween, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street and numerous minor franchises played almost nonstop at theaters. Seemingly every week a new one was released, generally to an apathetic audience and negative reviews. Hardcore horror took a break in the 1990s, but the new millennium brought forth a new wave of horror that relied mostly on copious amounts of gore to frighten audiences. To date, the Saw series of films represents the most prolific of the new wave of horror franchises. Like the slasher films of the 1980s, the series is starting to show signs of wear as the movies get progressively less interesting. Saw III, unlike its predecessors, relies more on gore than story to move the plot along, and this transformation does not come unexpectedly. The movie does an admirable job of explaining away this new angle, but after being mostly impressed with the first two films, Saw III left a bad taste in my mouth as I couldn't help but think that it just wasn't a necessary entry into the franchise. However, the Saw series sells, and that's the bottom line. More and more films will be made until audiences decide that enough is enough. With Saw IV now on Blu-ray and a fifth film due in October, the franchise appears far from dead. Saw III picks up right where Saw II left off. As the character left for dead in the second film attempts to escape his imprisonment, audiences are greeted with a gruesome act of self inflicted violence sure to churn the stomachs of even the most dedicated of horror fans. Jigsaw (Tobin Bell, reprising his role from the previous films), ridden with cancer and on his deathbed, hatches one final scheme with his apprentice, Amanda (Shawnee Smith, also reprising her role) who looks more mature and stoic this go- round. She kidnaps a doctor named Lynn (Bahar Soomekh, Mission: Impossible III) as part of an elaborate scheme set up by Jigsaw that involves himself, Lynn's estranged husband Jeff (Angus Macfadyen, Equilibrium), their dead son, their kidnapped daughter, and herself. While Lynn struggles with her captivity and is forced to operate on the dying Jigsaw, Jeff must work his way through a maze where he confronts individuals who played a part in both his son's death and the legal aftermath until he comes face to face with the man who killed his son, imprisoned in the most elaborate and vile device seen yet in the series. Will Jeff's thirst for blood and revenge get the better of him, ultimately leading him down a road even more destructive than he bargained for, or will he come to his senses and pass Jigsaw's most intricate test yet? Hardcore Saw fans are most likely going to love this movie. As a casual observer, I found it to be, by far, the weakest entry in the series to date. Perhaps this is more of a case of Saw fatigue having screened the first three films in a two day period, but I found this one to be overly long, lacking in abundant originality, and mostly uninspiring. As the third film in the series, it's no surprise that we see a lot of recurring themes, dialogue, and catch phrases from the first two films repeated here. Saw III does manage to tie up loose ends and answer lingering questions from the first movie of the series, but I felt that such in-depth detailing of the intricacies behind the set-up of the original Saw ruined its magic a bit. While nice to know, the simple shock of the situation presented to Dr. Gordon and Adam in the first film, knowing no more than they do, is what made that film so effective. Of course we learn the secret at the end of the movie, but did we really need to see the entire set-up? Perhaps hardcore fans of the series did, but not I. While Saw III is a decent gore fest of a movie, I felt that it tried a little too hard to be something that it's not. The movie presents a foreboding atmosphere, but at times the movie seemingly tried a bit too hard in this department, resulting in sometimes clichéd and laughable moments. The movie also attempts to create a few touching and emotional moments, mostly centered around the impending death of Jigsaw, but it's awfully hard to care for a man such as he. Saw III, as a whole, is a mostly complete departure from the first two films of the series in that this one relies on blood and gore rather than tension and fear to move the story from point A to point B. It explains this shift in direction away with a subplot involving Jigsaw and Amanda, and while it made sense, it felt like a bit of a cop out to me. Hopefully the fourth film will make it worth the effort and reward fans with a film that hearkens back to the spirit of the first two films in the series. Saw III proved to be the weakest link amongst the first three films. It resorted to the blood and guts approach rather than staying true to the successful formula of the first two films, a formula combining elements of horror and suspense with minimal on screen carnage to stimulate viewers. Here, the goal seems to be to gross out the viewer as much as possible, displaying diced pigs, blown up heads, and twisted limbs in gruesome detail. You may never want to consume pork products again after watching this movie. It's not the goriest movie I've ever seen, but it's enough to make the weaker viewers sick to their stomachs. I hope Saw IV manages to regain the magic of the first two films. If not, this franchise is doomed to imminent death. Technically, this disc is the best of the Saw series on Blu-ray so far. The picture is a slight improvement over parts I and II and the audio quality is nearly second to none for a lossy encode. Plenty of extras make this a disc fans will enjoy. Like the other two films, I can recommend Saw III as a purchase to hardcore horror, gore, and dedicated Saw fans only. Cast Notes: Tobin Bell (Jigsaw/John), Shawnee Smith (Amanda), Angus Macfadyen (Jeff), Bahar Soomekh (Lynn), Donnie Wahlberg (Eric Matthews), Dina Meyer (Kerry), Leigh Whannell (Adam), Mpho Koaho (Tim), Barry Flatman (Judge Halden), Lyriq Bent (Rigg), J. LaRose (Troy), Debra McCabe (Danica [as Debra Lynne McCabe]), Costas Mandylor (Forensic Hoffman), Betsy Russell (Jill), Jane Luk (Nurse [Emergency Room]). IMDb Rating (04/05/15): 6.2/10 from 125,315 users IMDb Rating (01/20/07): 6.4/10 from 12,579 users
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