Overall Rating
 Awesome: 17.89%
Worth A Look: 34.96%
Average: 9.76%
Pretty Bad: 13.82%
Total Crap: 23.58%
10 reviews, 63 user ratings
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| Saw 2 |
by Scott Weinberg
"'Saw 2' praise from a guy who also digs 'Halloween 2,' 'Jaws 2' and 'F13 2'"
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I admit it freely and with no shame or fear of mockery: I dig the "Saw" movies. Some people have a thing for those boring 'occult thrillers' while others groove on the J-horror remake vibe. Others stick with the classic Universal monsters and, apparently, millions of people love warmed-up, pointless remakes of "House of Wax" and "The Fog." Hell, some people line up for the next Rob Zombie flick. As a lifelong horror bum, I love a little bit of all of it, but I particularly dig both of these new "Saw" stories. For all their obvious attempts at shock value and their structural missteps, both movies accomplish something that very few horror flicks can do anymore: They give me something to think about -- and that something is kinda scary.I wouldn't go as far as to call Saw 2 a cerebral experience, but there's just something devilishly appealing about horror material that works in your brain and not just in your gut. Throughout both of these rusty little Saw movies, I'm posed with the question of "What would you do if you had to saw your own foot off / dig through a corpse's innards for a key / remand another person to death so that I might survive?" Saw 2 is the horror equivalent of that "Book of Questions" that we all bought and broke out at parties. Much of the movie is also your standard slasher stew mixed with some half-decent police procedural stuff -- but when Saw 2 gets rolling with those gruesome, gritty puzzles, I just think it's the coolest thing this side of Clive Barker's early short stories.
The sequel doesn't slavishly follow up with the precise ending of Part 1, but it's close enough to keep the fans entertained. Suffice to say that sick old Jigsaw is up to his nasty tricks again: Our prologue delivers a sequence in which one unfortunate guy gets his head squashed inside of a metallic venus-fly-trap mask. In this sequence, some see pointlessly ugly desperation and gore for gore's sake. I see a kinetic and enjoyably intense inner struggle that ends with a crimson thwack.
In come the police, and this time they have very little trouble apprehending the creative kook. Mason (Donnie Wahlberg) and Kerry (Dina Meyer) are on the case; he's got a short temper and an estranged son ... she's got a lot of exposition to unload and a pretty face. So over the course of one extended interrogation, Jigsaw reveals that not only does he have eight people trapped inside a house filled with poison gas and horrible deathtraps, but also that we can all watch the sinful spectacle via live video!
Imagine Mason's concern when he realizes that his teenage son is in among the poisoned captives.
And back and forth we go. For a little while we stick with Mason and Jigsaw as they throw dialogue at each other, most of which has to do with threats of violence or ruminations on the nature of human mortality. Some of this material gets a bit redundant as the running time wears on, but Saw 2 moves at such a brisk clip that you'll just begin to notice the strain as the Act III insanity starts to kick in.
When we're not dealing with Mason and Jiggy, we're trapped in the death-house with eight of the most desperate whiners you ever will meet. True that there's a good reason for this crew's collective crankiness, but aside from Mason's son Daniel (Eric Knudsen) and veteran Saw-avoider Amanda (Shawnee Smith) there's not much offered on the character menu. The soon-to-be corpse crewmembers are given perhaps one solid personality trait apiece, usually just prior to their truly icky demise.
Perhaps it's just the dormant Nine Inch Nails freak in me that loves the Saw flicks' cold and gruesome exteriors ... but mainly I'm just sick to death of the ridiculously lame and consistently worthless deluge of PG-13 "horror" movies that offer nothing but formulaic garbage, moronic dialogue, and photogenic TV actors way out of their element. Maybe it's just that I've been so starved for horror flicks that don't skimp on the grand guignol nastiness that I enjoy so much that I'm left over-praising movies like Saw, May, Cabin Fever, High Tension, and, yes, Saw 2. But I don't think I'm overcompensating when I say that Saw 2 is one of the better horror movies I've seen this year -- which is a compliment to the sequel-makers, but is mainly an indictment of the current state of the horror genre in general.
This might have been a bang-out-the-screenplay & get it in theaters quick sort of sequel (and it so totally was), but there seems to be a real commitment here to pleasing the hardcore horror fans. Saw 2 is certainly not a flawless effort, but it's good, gory entertainment all the same, and just because I appreciate the effort, Saw 2 gets an extra half-star.I've read and respected several unflattering opinions on both "Saw" movies, and I can readily acknowledge the films' flaws, but they absolutely work for me, warts and all, and I've absolutely no problem recommending this sequel to those who adored the first entry, or anyone else just looking for a cold blast of unfiltered horror nastiness. Plus the fact that this sequel doesn't simply "suck" is reason enough for celebration. That it's actually pretty damn entertaining is, to be honest, only one of the most enjoyable shocks.
 del.icio.us 
link directly to this review at http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=13441&reviewer=128
originally posted: 10/28/05 15:57:14
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USA
28-Oct-2005 (R)
DVD: 24-Oct-2006
UK
N/A
Australia
17-Nov-2005
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