College Downtime Movie Review
Written by Raffman - December 10th, 2004

Saw (2004) Watch Trailer

Starring: Cary Elwes, Leigh Whannell, Danny Glover, Monica Potter
Director: James Wan
Rated: R
Rating: * * * *

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If you had three minutes to take a reversed bear trap off your face before it ripped your jaw off onto the floor, would you be able to do it? How about if the trap was locked, and you had to find the key? What if the key was hidden somewhere in your coworker's intestines? How far would you go to save your own life? Saw will pull you in right from the start, and it won't let go until it reveals quite possibly the coolest movie twist since The Sixth Sense or Se7en. I take that back, this plot twist blows both those movies away without a doubt. Saw opens up with two men chained and locked in an old, moldy bathoom that looks almost like a torture chamber. In a nice change of pace from the average slasher horror movie, Saw takes an awesome approach that will really make you smile. Instead of just killing people, the killer instead simply puts his victims in situations and scenarios where they end up killing themselves. All the situations are timed, which just add to the anxiety and pressure. You see, just killing people just isn't what it used to be. Saw will make you think, cringe, and scream before you even finish your overpriced bag of popcorn. To sum this movie up, Saw will scare the living shit out of you.

It seems everyone I've talked with that has seen Saw (yes, I said seen Saw) either hates the movie or is absolutely in love with it. It really comes down to two different issues that will pull you one way or the other. On the one hand is the issue of downright horrible acting, most noticeably from Cary Elwes, who plays Dr. Lawrence Gordon. I really don't know how else to put it, this guy is one of the worst actors I have ever seen. Was James Wan, the director, high when he picked this guy for one of the lead characters? Wow. Then there's Danny Glover, who I personally like, who plays basically the same cop role that Morgan Freeman played in Se7en. Monica Potter, Leigh Whannell also did a decent job overall in their respective roles. It really comes down to if you can get past Elwes' acting, if you can, then you'll love this movie. If not, then you definately will not. The second issue deals directly with the story and the insane twist James Wan is serving up. If you liked Se7en, you'll love this movie. I loved Se7en, and thought it was one of the coolest stories and twists I had seen in a horror film. Until I saw Saw, that is. Stop laughing, I know I just said "saw" twice. Eat me. Back to my point, this story will engulf you like no other movie I'm sure has ever done. It will absolutely blow you away.

Not only will the plot blow you away, but as I calmly stated above in eloquent French - Saw will scare the living shit out of you. The blurb above about the reversed bear trap is just one of the horrific situations that the victims encounter throughout Saw, and depending on your taste it may just be the least horrific of the bunch. While I don't want to ruin the whole movie for those of you who haven't seen Saw, (ha, look Ma' I did it again!) let me mention a few of the other situations just so you can salivate. One situation pits a man in a room wearing nothing but boxers and surrounded by razor-wire. If he moves one inch in the wrong direction he'll lose a leg. He has three minutes to escape the room before the door shuts forever, leaving him trapped until he either goes mad or literally impales himself trying to navigate the impossible razor-wire maze. Sounds wonderful, doesn't it? Ok, one more quick one. Remember the bathroom situation I mentioned at the beginning? You are chained by your leg to a wall of a bathroom with another person chained to the other side of the bathroom. Both of you are given two handsaws, both aren't strong enough to cut through the chains but strong enough to effectively cut through flesh and bone. You have a variety of options: Do you refuse to cut your foot off to get free only with the possibility that there may actually be no way out of the bathroom, or do you cut your foot off only to find the same result? What if you are secretly told you could go if you killed the other person in the room? Would you do it? As disturbing as these situations are, they are reality to the characters of Saw. How far would you go?

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