2008 Woodie Awards
Saw 3: Brutal and brutally boring
*1/2 (of 4), 107 Minutes, R
Roger Priddy
Issue date: 11/7/06 Section: Arts & Entertainment
Sadists and masochists rejoice: Jigsaw is back. And in Saw 3 (which proclaims to be the goriest, bloodiest, most disturbing Saw yet), Jigsaw continues playing his stomach-slaughtering "games" - games where humans are his pawns and he is a god-like Satan, providing his pawns tortuous, tormenting, ubiquitous-blood-spitting tests and quests that would make Pinhead from Hellraiser blush.
Here, Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) is on his deathbed, mercifully (for his movie and movie theater audience victims) dying. Amanda (Shawnee Smith, who yes, was that ditzy girl from the TV series "Becker"), from the previous movies, has joined his team. An expert doctor is brought in, her game to keep Jigsaw alive, or die. Meanwhile, the skull-crushing games continue, this time with a man possessed with avenging the death of his son. Let the tortures begin.
Is it scary? Hardly. Is it gory? Guh, is it. Saw 3 is rough. It's a very, very, very hard "R." I had to close my eyes or turn my head a number of times. There's enough blood splattering here to make your eyes red coming out of the theater without any need of a close-up camera shot. The film was sent to the MPAA ratings board seven times before obtaining the "R" rating, receiving the "NC-17" rating every previous time. I'm honestly not sure how it got through the seventh time; I can only hypothesize the ratings board had seen all they ever wanted to see of this and relented. Again, it's not that scary, it's just blood-spewing, morbidly repulsive.
I can't let a good pun go by. If you've saw the first two movies, you've probably saw this one too. The only thing you're missing is the series' inglorious, almost laughable conclusion. If you liked the first two films, you'll probably like this. You'll probably find it not quite as satisfying as its predecessors, but a fitting ending. If you didn't like the first two, I doubt you'll like this one, especially since knowledge of the first two films will help makes things a little less confusing and a little more coherent.
Saw 3 just wasn't my thing. It started off okay, but then it bogged down and sort of trapped itself in its own self-indulgence and died. But I can see how fans of the genre might think otherwise. There certainly is enough gratuitous gore and haunting visual images (notably one with some grotesque hogs) to satisfy the bloodthirsty core. Saw 3 is one of those movies that's critic-proof. It's all about your own personal tastes. You know if this movie is your sort of thing or if it isn't. Go with how you feel.
I personally found the movie not only bad, but sickening. Furthermore, I could really go deep here and say that I find that Saw 3, and the host of other enormously popular flood-blood fests that have been recently released are a part of, if not the problem, with modern cinema in general. Heck, I could probably even take a step further and ponder if stuff like this isn't a part of the problem with modern society in general, but I won't go there. I'll just say Saw 3 is disturbing and I find it disturbing how many people have just eaten this movie alive. Beyond the yuck scenes, the attraction, which I found distasteful, I found the movie itself to be poorly written, quite unspectacularly acted, disconnected, and at times downright brutally boring. But who am I to say? It made $33.6 million its first weekend, Saw 4, the story of Jigsaw before, has already been announced, and S & M devotees have probably already preordered their Saw 3 "Unrated Edition DVD," with even more limb-hacking and blood-hurling that I'd need a blindfold to endure. It's not my thing, but hey, if it's yours, enjoy. As Pinhead would say, let it "tear your soul apart."
Here, Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) is on his deathbed, mercifully (for his movie and movie theater audience victims) dying. Amanda (Shawnee Smith, who yes, was that ditzy girl from the TV series "Becker"), from the previous movies, has joined his team. An expert doctor is brought in, her game to keep Jigsaw alive, or die. Meanwhile, the skull-crushing games continue, this time with a man possessed with avenging the death of his son. Let the tortures begin.
Is it scary? Hardly. Is it gory? Guh, is it. Saw 3 is rough. It's a very, very, very hard "R." I had to close my eyes or turn my head a number of times. There's enough blood splattering here to make your eyes red coming out of the theater without any need of a close-up camera shot. The film was sent to the MPAA ratings board seven times before obtaining the "R" rating, receiving the "NC-17" rating every previous time. I'm honestly not sure how it got through the seventh time; I can only hypothesize the ratings board had seen all they ever wanted to see of this and relented. Again, it's not that scary, it's just blood-spewing, morbidly repulsive.
I can't let a good pun go by. If you've saw the first two movies, you've probably saw this one too. The only thing you're missing is the series' inglorious, almost laughable conclusion. If you liked the first two films, you'll probably like this. You'll probably find it not quite as satisfying as its predecessors, but a fitting ending. If you didn't like the first two, I doubt you'll like this one, especially since knowledge of the first two films will help makes things a little less confusing and a little more coherent.
Saw 3 just wasn't my thing. It started off okay, but then it bogged down and sort of trapped itself in its own self-indulgence and died. But I can see how fans of the genre might think otherwise. There certainly is enough gratuitous gore and haunting visual images (notably one with some grotesque hogs) to satisfy the bloodthirsty core. Saw 3 is one of those movies that's critic-proof. It's all about your own personal tastes. You know if this movie is your sort of thing or if it isn't. Go with how you feel.
I personally found the movie not only bad, but sickening. Furthermore, I could really go deep here and say that I find that Saw 3, and the host of other enormously popular flood-blood fests that have been recently released are a part of, if not the problem, with modern cinema in general. Heck, I could probably even take a step further and ponder if stuff like this isn't a part of the problem with modern society in general, but I won't go there. I'll just say Saw 3 is disturbing and I find it disturbing how many people have just eaten this movie alive. Beyond the yuck scenes, the attraction, which I found distasteful, I found the movie itself to be poorly written, quite unspectacularly acted, disconnected, and at times downright brutally boring. But who am I to say? It made $33.6 million its first weekend, Saw 4, the story of Jigsaw before, has already been announced, and S & M devotees have probably already preordered their Saw 3 "Unrated Edition DVD," with even more limb-hacking and blood-hurling that I'd need a blindfold to endure. It's not my thing, but hey, if it's yours, enjoy. As Pinhead would say, let it "tear your soul apart."
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