 Tagline: The Traps Come Alive Witness the last diabolical act of a legend as the final pieces of Jigsaw's puzzles are revealed... As a deadly battle rages over Jigsaw's brutal legacy, a group of Jigsaw survivors gathers to seek the support of self-help guru and fellow survivor Bobby Dagen. But Dagen hides his own dark secrets, ones that will unleash a wave of unrelenting terror and suffering in this heart-stopping finale to the most successful horror movie series of all time. Storyline: Detective Matt Gibson chases the psychotic Detective Mark Hoffman while Jigsaw's widow Jill Tuck tries to kill him as assigned by her husband. However he escapes and Jill meets Gibson and offers to sign an affidavit listing the murders committed by Hoffman. In return, she requests protection. Meanwhile, the prominent Jigsaw survivor and leader of a support group Bobby Dagen is abducted with his wife and friends and forced to play a mortal game to save himself and his beloved wife. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, January 14, 2011 -- Elvis Presley once famously struck back at critics with an album entitled 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong, and yet there were some cynics amongst us who may have asked, "Why not?" The producers of the Saw franchise may, like Elvis (and/or Elvis' ghost, depending on whether or not you believe The King has indeed left the building), may be saying, "Can $848 million in box office receipts be wrong?" To which the cynics amongst us may just as dogmatically respond, "Yes." Is the Saw franchise "torture porn" or "torture horror"? Its creators insist it isn't, and yet it's hard to argue that point when every film is filled with some of the most disgusting imagery imaginable of (at least sometimes relatively) innocent people getting stuck in the films' many signature "traps" and meeting their fates in any number of horrible ways. Some sociologist either has already had or no doubt someday will have a field day trying to explain the psychological reasons people need to actually pay money to sit there and watch other humans get their eyeballs sewn shut, their bodies pummeled and hacked by any number of horrible instruments of pain and destruction, their limbs severed, their intestines spilled, and their heads burst apart like some cranial version of David Letterman's "stupid watermelon" tricks. What is it about these films that so appeals to people? "Basic" horror or thriller films are perhaps easier to understand on a general level; after all, virtually everyone enjoys a good scare now and again. But with films like the Saw franchise, where images are so graphic and the violence and mayhem is so patently unappealing, it really raises some serious questions as to what is going on in peoples' heads that they willingly subject themselves to these nightmare visions. So take this review with the requisite amount of salt (just don't get it in any gaping flesh wounds, it will most likely sting). Obviously, I am not just immune to the allure of these films, I find their very existence troubling and disturbing, far beyond their "mere" content. Saw: The Final Chapter has, for those of us who don't cotton to this type of sadistic fare, one small saving grace, and that's a fitful sense of humor about its own genre. Amid the over the top gore and grisliness, there are occasional flashes of at least minimal wit, as in one of the first traps, where two guys are strapped together on a movable saw, above which their shared girlfriend lies dangling, suspended. Jigsaw's puppet (if you have to ask, don't) informs the trio that they have a choice—the guys can either fight each other, pushing the saw into the other one, or they can allow the girl to be lowered onto the saw, killing her. The punch line: the guys hadn't previously known the girl was seeing both of them. And lest it go unmentioned, the trio is doing this all in a mall shop window, to the delight and/or consternation of a slew of people who gather, snapping pictures of the event on their cell phones. This one sequence has a nice mixture of giddiness and horror and actually has a couple of laugh out loud lines along the way. Unfortunately, the rest of the film rarely if ever rises to even this level. The wonderful sitcom Modern Family just recently had a great episode where the "middle family" of Phil and Claire revealed that they have a love of schlocky movies, especially franchises that get above a third sequel. "Around five or so, you usually get a new cast," Phil states with delight. Saw of course is well past the five mark, but this Final Chapter attempts to tie up several plot strands that have been woven through the previous installments, including bringing back several characters that were either thought to have perished or whose ultimate fates were never clearly delineated (I'll try not to "spoil" anything for those of you who may indeed care about these supposed surprises). The problem with the Saw franchise is it's so insanely twisted (in every sense of those words) by this time, that unless you've been a fan from the first film, you're probably going to be hopelessly lost a lot of the time in this (hopefully) final outing. That said, if you have followed the series all along, or at least have a passing knowledge of the history of various main characters, writers Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan do a more than serviceable job of serving up various backstories and even a twist or two that some fans will probably find enjoyable, and the ending makes for a nice bookend with the first film. It's fairly pointless to talk about performances in a series like this. People scream, moan and terrorize. That's it. Scares don't come from anything other than the horror of seeing people with grappling hooks through their shoulders, bear traps on their heads or saws churning through ragged flesh. If this isn't "torture horror," I really don't know what to call it. I suppose that within the confines of something as distasteful as a film like this, director Kevin Greutert stages things fairly effectively, but how much ingenuity does it really take to plop a camera down in front of a prosthetic body that's about to be sliced and diced into smithereens? This Saw garnered what little interest it generated from being a 3D feature (and my colleague Martin Liebman will have his review of the 3D Blu-ray up soon), and several of the horror segments were obviously filmed with three dimensions in mind. The problem with something like Saw: The Final Chapter is, no matter what high tech devices are employed in its filming, it's still resolutely a two dimensional experience, and unfortunately neither of those dimensions is very appealing. If you're a Saw fan, you're probably wondering what my problem is, and I guess I can't blame you, though of course I'm (jokingly) wondering what your problem is. For you fans of the franchise, this will be a wonderful Blu-ray you will undoubtedly "enjoy," for what that's worth. For the rest of us, this is about as distasteful a film as I can remember, and not just because of the gratuitous violence and gore. The first couple of Saw films at least seemed relatively fresh, even if they were extremely disturbing. Now it's just same old, same old, and even the twists and turns of this supposedly final chapter can't alleviate the slog this film is. For those of you who are more prone to my point of view, let's hope The Final Chapter lives up to its title. [CSW] -3- Although the acting was poor there was a certain amount of suspense waiting to see if anyone would survive a trap. There were also tons of blood, guts, and gore. This may have been the goriest of all the Saw movies. Although some reviewers gave the theater 3D a poor rating the 3D Blu-ray review said "Saw 3D delivers a dazzling 3D experience". As the Blu-ray review also said "It's all anything fans could want in a Blu-ray 3D release, and it's easily the best among the albeit limited crop of ready-to-buy live action 3D titles on the market; it's a shame that the movie's grisly content is going to limit those who might otherwise buy it." So I am considering getting the Blu-ray 3D version even though I have no idea of why I would want to watch it again. [V4.0-A4.5] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box. Cast Notes: Tobin Bell (Jigsaw / John Kramer), Costas Mandylor (Det. Mark Hoffman), Betsy Russell (Jill Tuck), Cary Elwes (Dr. Lawrence Gordon), Sean Patrick Flanery (Bobby Dagen), Chad Donella (Det. Matt Gibson), Gina Holden (Joyce Dagen), Laurence Anthony (Det. Rogers), Dean Armstrong (Cale), Naomi Snieckus (Nina), Rebecca Marshall (Suzanne), James Van Patten (Dr. Heffner), Sebastian Pigott (Brad), Jon Cor (Ryan), Anne Lee Greene (Dina [as Anne Greene]). IMDb Rating (04/05/15): 5.6/10 from 58,933 users IMDb Rating (03/28/11): 5.7/10 from 34,853 users
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