Costas Mandylor:  Det. Mark Hoffman
Betsy Russell:  Jill Tuck
Sean Patrick Flanery:  Bobby Dagen
Chad Donela:  I.A.Det. Mark Gibson
Carey Elwes:  Dr. Lawrence Gordon
Tobin Bell:  John Kramer/Jigsaw

Release Date: October 29, 2010
Studio: Lionsgate
Genre: Horror  / Suspense
Rated: R     1 hr 30 mins

CAST:

SAW 3D

November 4, 2010

Reviewer: Rottenbucher

DIRECTOR:

Kevin Greutert

*Comments:

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This is it!  The Saw saga finally comes full circle (even though that was the tag line for Saw VI).  For those counting, this is actually the seventh Saw film.  And those paying even closer attention will also know this is the concluding Saw film as the producers decided to cash out when profits started sinking and production budgets rose.  But to not totally cheap out, we bid farewell to Jigsaw, Detective Hoffman, Jill Tuck and countless victims in 3D.

At the end of Saw VI, it was clear that Detective Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) had become a homicidal maniac and Jill Tuck (Betsy Russell) was some sort of accomplice to her late husband, Jigsaw.  The cliffhanger of the film showed Jill unsuccessful in her attempt to kill Hoffman. Saw 3D continues the Jill versus Hoffman battle and tosses in even more flashbacks and people to get torn apart.  There also is a Jigsaw-survivor self-help group, the manhunt for Hoffman and the shocking return of Dr. Gordon (Carey Elwes).

If you haven’t invested the time in the previous six films, there is no reason to start now. For those of us who have, Saw 3D should have been a must see.  It closes one of the most profitable and longest-running horror franchises in history. However, instead of going out with a bang, it slams the door with a thud.

Seeing Dr. Gordon was a nice touch as were some of the survivors from previous films. But the surviving self-help guru Bobby Dagen (Sean Patrick Flanery) was soulless, the battle between Jill and Hoffman extremely disappointing, Detective Gibson’s hunt for Hoffman laughable and the trap sequences appeared tossed in to exploit the 3D.  Honestly, it seems that the filmmakers only tried with the gore.  Writers Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan must have run out of ideas on their fourth Saw script while director Kevin Greutert, who did an excellent job on the previous film, focused solely on the traps here.

***The following paragraph contains spoilers interwoven with heaps of complaining.

And that is just a few of the problems. Sitting through even more characters who no one cares about while the main characters from the last five films get about 10-minutes of screen time was just awful. Does anyone honestly care about two competing lovers having to saw apart their cheating girlfriend?  No. Or about Neo-Nazis that are torn apart just to keep the plot limping along? Nope. Or care about a phony self-help guru who everyone with two brain cells to rub together knew would not defeat the traps? Absolutely not! Saw 3D should have concluded the duel between Jill and Hoffman while summing up Jigsaw’s grand scheme from beyond the grave. Except Saw 3D is the antithesis of grand. Jigsaw winds up being an unaccomplished lunatic, actress Russell seems to now be only casts to show off her assets in tight shirts, Mandylor’s impressive and villainous Hoffman is sorely underutilized and Elwes probably commanded a nice sum to show up on screen for 3 minutes and become the fourth and final Jigsaw accomplice. So Is Jigsaw the Sith Emperor of horror?  And seven films and over 666 minutes* of life passed by for that? What a pisser!

***Spoilers and jilted fan gripes end here.

Honestly, Saw 3D is only recommended to those who have seen the previous films in the theater and purchased the unrated director cut DVDs to watch the previous six films in preparation for this event.  That is, rabid fans who grew to love the twisted traps, over-the-top gore and almost incomprehensible plot. Sure, the traps are neat and the gobs of blood and torn flesh being heaved at the screen are fun, the story just stinks. No amount of 3D awesomeness can save this film.  Actually, if the whole story was dropped and Saw 3D was just the torturous trap sequences, this film would be awesome.  Unfortunately it’s not.

In conclusion, Saw 3D is drastically dull.  It drags down the franchise that dominated the box office, did something slightly new with the genre, spawned countless imitators and grasped the attention of a lot of horror fans for seven consecutive Halloween weekends. In the end I would like to thank actor Costas Mandylor for doing a great job in five Saw films, Julie Benz for having some depth in part V and Shawnee Smith, who I originally fell in love with when she appeared in The Blob, for still being hot and sexing up the flashbacks of part VI. That’s saw’ll folks, the game is officially over.

*Seven films multiplied by an average of 95 minutes run-time for each film, rounded up for effect.

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