SAW

Saw this one last night and it has me thinking about a few things.

First of all, let’s just get it out of the way: this is a bad movie. It’s got very little character definition, what there is is shallow and stereotypical (Glover is the “cop whose partner was killed and is now obsessed with the murderer character” while the guy who was the prince in Princess Bride is the “has it all but is still bored with his life and is thinking is cheating on his wife” guy). The dialogue gets pretty cheesy at times and a some background information is straight up spit out at us in an awkward way.

So it’s not going to win any awards.

However, it was pretty entertaining despite all that. The writers put some pretty decent puzzles together (or traps) and it really gets you interested in watching. Think of it as a dumber, B-version of Seven.

The ending was fantastic. I probably wouldn’t even call this salvageable if it wasn’t for the ending. I never saw that coming, not even close.

One thing I really liked was the way it started. I have a lot of trouble just starting a story without putting in some sort of disclaimer that says, “OK, this may not make sense, but here’s why it’s happening.” The movie just starts out with two guys waking up in a nasty bathroom, chained to some pipes, with no memory of how they got there. That’s the way to start a movie.

Yeah, it ain’t great, but who cares. Sometimes you just want to be entertained. I already have Saw II on my Queue.