Saw (2004)

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James Wan's debut proves that a film can be intellectually stimulating and as freaky as your cat on acid. In Saw, Wan throws two unconscious strangers into a large, dimly-lit industrial bathroom, chains their legs to separate pipes on either side of the room, gives them hacksaws, and waits for the fun to start. The fun, in this case, being a series of sadistic clues which boil down to this: Snooty oncologist Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes, The Cat's Meow) has until a given time to kill "cellmate" Adam (co-writer Leigh Whannell). If he fails the task, Gordon's wife and daughter will be executed. And the only way he can get to Adam is if he saws his own foot off.

We see, through a series of flashbacks, other bizarre and ultimately deadly situations (think of an important "immunity challenge" created by a criminally insane Jeff Probst) plotted and planned by somebody the police call the Jigsaw Killer. Old Jigsaw hasn't actually killed anyone, though. He's clever enough to get his captives to take care of that dirty little business on their own. But is he clever enough to escape the pursuit of the boringly relentless Detective Tapp (Danny "I Can't Get a Cab" Glover)? Probably, but you're going to have to find that out for yourself.

Saw's acting is atrocious, and its scenes involving the police investigation border on being tedious and clichéd. But other than that, I liked Saw a lot. It kept me guessing, and more importantly, it kept me interested, which is more than I can say about most films from this genre. I'm always leery of people comparing films to Se7ven (as they're doing with Saw) because they never live up to that impressive yardstick. I'm not saying Saw does, but it comes damn close. Also recommended for fans of Cube and The Game (you sick little monkeys, you).

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X-RAMR-ID: 38923
X-Language: en
X-RT-ReviewID: 1333095
X-RT-TitleID: 1137385
X-RT-SourceID: 595
X-RT-AuthorID: 1146
X-RT-RatingText: 8/10