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Saw V: Unrated Directors Cut
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Lionsgate Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Jeremiah Chin (17th May 2009). |
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The Film
 In the film industry, numbers are incredibly important. Of course it’s easy to point out that financially the numbers are central to the whole industry, like how much a film grosses or produces, but even the number of a movie can be a make or break situation. In horror there have been plenty of movies with ridiculously numbered titles, few of which have worked with “Se7en” (1996) being the only film I can think of off the top of my head. When working with a franchise series though, the number in the title can tell you all you need to know about the greatness or potential of the film, most notably shown through the “Star Trek” (1979-2002) franchise of films. Every even numbered “Star Trek” film (with one notable exception) have been great, with “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn” (1982) and “Star Trek: First Contact” (1996) serving as the cream of the very crop. So now that we have an epic horror series with numbers in the title, it seems to follow the same formula as “Star Trek,” at least in terms of the numbers. “Saw II” (2005) was great, probably the best, “Saw IV” (2007) also very good. The odd numbers don’t fare as well. Unfortunatley with “Saw V” (2008), the only parallel you can draw to "Trek" is to "Star Trek: The Final Frontier" (1989) AKA ‘The One that Shatner Did.’ AKA ‘The Worst One.’ Fortunately “Saw V” is no “Final Frontier,” but it doesn’t quite rise above the tradition of the odd numbered curse. It’s hard to see where the film could have gone wrong from the first scene, as it hits every note you need in the beginning of a “Saw” movie. An unnamed man is trapped in what is apparently one of Jigsaw’s traps, chained to a table beneath a slowly descending pendulum that will slice him in half if he does not crush his hands in time. Awesome. After this anonymous figure goes down, we jump right back in to the plotline of “Saw IV” (2007), as Agent Strahm (Scott Patterson) kills Jeff (Angus Macfadyen) in Jigsaw’s makeshift hospital room where Jeff has just finished killing Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) and Amanda (Shawnee Smith). Strahm quickly kills Jeff and finds himself locked in the room with only a hidden, glow in the dark lit passage to escape, where he is sedated by Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) and put inside a trap that will slowly drown him, with no chance of escape. Despite the enaging and quick evens of these first ten minutes of the film, the rest of it devolves into police procedural, as Strahm attempts to prove that Hoffman was/is in cahoots with Jigsaw. At the same time though 5 people are trapped in a sewer in a series of rooms that they must fight to escape. Before all else in the “Saw” series, the traps come first. The guillotine/pendulum trap that kicks off the movie brought a lot of excitement and energy in the best way that “Saw” knows: ridiculous use of blood and gore. While this trap was amazing the next series of traps in the film were much more lackluster and seemingly disconnected from the film itself. The traps with the 5 people in the separate rooms all emphasize teamwork and cooperation as apart of the trap, but unfortunately too many of them end with simple explosions rather than real payoff, though the final trap involving loosing ten pints of blood in order to escape was pretty good as well. In all the traps feel almost lackluster for a “Saw” movie, not quite adding up with the ridiculous amount of precision and timing that has to go into each Jigsaw trap. The rest of the plot, story and acting sort of hinge on the enticement and genious of the traps put together in the film, and when the traps are a little lackluster, the film’s plot doesn’t quite go the way it should. I was upset by the procedural turns in this movie as so much of the police scenes with Strahm were frustrating because I hated his character, which would make for an effective characterization unless he was the core driving force of the main plotline of the film. Mandylor does a good job again as Hoffman, though doesn’t command like Bell and so the extensive use of flashbacks work to bring in actors like Bell who have now died in the length of the series but need to be there to keep things going. Julie Benz was a nice addition to the cast and she does a nice job, but her plotline is fairly minor with an excuse to thrown in traps. I’m not fully convinced on David Hackl’s ability to really bring a “Saw” movie together like Darren Lynn Bousman. Though he acted as production designer and second unit director on all of Bousman’s installments, he doesn’t quite have the same flare though he adds some good touches on his own. I’d like to see him do more, but considering that he didn’t get signed for “Saw VI” (2009), it’s hard to say what will happen next with his career (hopefully he still does production design as it’s obviously been great on the "Saw" series). Overall, “Saw V” isn’t as bad as it’s parallel series twin “The Final Frontier” would make you think. The continuity of the “Saw” series has always been one of it’s strong points in bringing the extended series together, almost turning it into a hugely successful miniseries that just happens to release new episodes every year and make insane amounts of money in the process. Some traps are good, others are less good and the plot is just okay. It’s not as impressive as the previous three efforts in the “Saw” series, but it’s enough to get me back into the theatre on opening night for this year’s “Saw VI.” What’s in the Box?
Video
Presented in 1080p 24/fps with a 1.78:1 aspect ratio and AVC MPEG-4 encoding, the film itself looks technically good, at least in achieving the feel it’s going for. It’s not the crispest transfer, but since the world of “Saw” is incredibly dirty and grimy on it’s own, too much cleanliness would be too jarring for the film. However there’s a fair amount of grain that decreases the crispness of some of the images that just brings down the technical look of the film a little bit.
Audio
The English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround track mixed in 24-bit/48kHz and brings a good sound to the movie, continuing the soundtrack and Charlie Clouser’s scoring that has been a constant throughout the “Saw” franchise. All of the sound effects of the traps come through well and work with the rest of the film, bringing good movement and clarity in the HD format. Optional English, English for the hearing impaired and Spanish subtitles are included.
Extras
The two disc set is a little bit of a red herring itself as the first disc is all the Blu-ray with special features as well as a second disc that’s just the digital copy. As far as extras go, we get two audio commentaries, five featurettes, a theatrical trailer, bonus trailers and an interactive feature. DISC ONE: First up is the first of two audio commentary tracks, the first is with director David Hackl and first assistant director Steve Webb. These two talk about coming in to the "Saw" series and where it has come over the past four films, as well as touching a little bit on “Repo! The Genetic Opera” (2008) and their involvement in it over the course of their hour and a half commentary. The second audio commentary track comes from producers Oren Koules and Mark Burg as well as executive producers Peter Block and Jason Constantine. Again there’s a lot of history and fun facts in the film, like different setups or connections between the "Saw" movies that people have made, as well as connections into “Repo!” that was apparently filmed not only at the same time as “Saw V” but in the same location as well. Next are a series of trap-oriented special features, each featurette covering one of the major traps in the film. “The Pendulum Trap” featurette runs for 5 minutes and 48 seconds, going in to the pendulum trap setup and construction, a very nice look at the production design on the film and how they put together these effects practically rather than simply just put it together in post production digitally. “The Cube Trap” runs for 5 minutes and 13 seconds, this featurette covers some of the same ground as the commentary but with additional comments from set designers and the actor, as well as being able to see how they did the actual drowning scene in terms of safety rigging. “The Coffin Trap” featurette runs for 5 minutes and 44 seconds, covering the final trap of the film, again talking through some of the same material that’s in the commentary tracks, but seeing how they put together the trap itself is again great, bringing in some cool looks at how they put this trap together to match with the conversations that have been had about it. “The Fatal Five” featurette runs for 11 minutes and 55 seconds, dealing with the 5 person adventure trap story that runs on the side of the film, functioning much like the previous three featurettes, but focusing on the connected rooms in their entirety. Again I’m a huge fan of production design and its great seeing them behind the scenes of the film. There are some good interviews and the traps look a lot better from a behind the scenes perspective when you see all of the work that goes into each of the traps from the production level. “Slicing the Cube: Editing the Cube Trap” featurette runs for 5 minutes and 3 seconds, another look at this box trap that David Hackl is obviously pretty proud of, but it’s interesting to look at the editing of a scene that runs far longer than the filming was able to make possible considering that the actor was drowning. This featurette could also even be one of the lead in interviews for Kevin Greutert, editor on all the previous saw films and soon to be director of “Saw VI.” Finally is the theatrical trailer which runs for 50 seconds. Short, but honestly if you’re in with “Saw” you don’t need a trailer to bring you in to the next one. Bonus trailers on the disc are: - “My Bloody Valentine 3-D” runs for 1 minute and 40 seconds. - “The Spirit” runs for 2 minutes and 25 seconds. - “The Midnight Meat Train” runs for 2 minutes and 20 seconds. - “Bangkok Dangerous” runs for 2 minutes and 13 seconds. - “Saw III” runs for 43 seconds. - “Saw IV” runs for 39 seconds. There's a Blu-ray exclusive feature, the "Molog" interactive feature is available allowing online blogging if your Blu-ray player has an internet connection. This is profile 2.0 accessible. DISC TWO: This is simply a digital copy of the film.
Overall
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