Saw III - Review

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Length: 107 min

Rated: R

Distributor: Lionsgate

Release Date: 2006-10-27

Starring: Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith, Angus Macfadyen, Bahar Soomekh, Dina Meyer

Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman

Produced by Mark Burg and Oren Koules

Written by Leigh Whannell

Visit the movie's Official Site!

Reviewed by Jason Morgan : 2006-10-27 22:38:08

The latest gut-wrenching, nausea-inducing, headache-producing entry into the Saw series has arrived right on cue. Yet, it’s not the blood and entrails that causes these physical aliments. Instead, its director Darren Lynn Bousman’s fetish for over-exposed, unfocused compositions kept constantly in motion. Like a home video recorded by a five year-old who doesn’t know how to work the zoom, Saw III spins through its list of disemboweling traps with little concern for continuity or common sense.

The film opens where the second left off and the first began. Detective Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) is chained up in the infamous bathroom with a handsaw and a choice. After Matthews cleverly “solves” his problem, the title screen flashes and the story leaves Matthews in favor of several vignettes of horrible deaths that are of little consequence to the plot, which doesn’t take shape until 30 minutes into the film. In a nutshell, Jigsaw’s on his death bed and his apprentice Amanda (Shawnee Smith), kidnaps a brain surgeon forces him to keep Jigsaw alive to watch his latest game. The script then dances between Jigsaw’s struggle to live, his latest victim’s progress through his funhouse and flashbacks which attempt to fill in the last two films’ plot holes.

Let’s face it, the Saw series has never been about making sense, and has instead been based on creative constructions of death. But Saw III loses sight of what made the first Saw successful, in spite of the original's bad cast and hole-filled storyline. It was the simplicity of chaining two people in a room with only a handsaw and the tension produced from wondering if they will, in fact, cut through their own legs for a greater good. Originally, Jigsaw’s (Tobin Bell) lesson-driven murders where a nice aside to the brutality; yet as the Saw series continues, Jigsaw’s lessons have become just as empty as his violent exploits.

While the first Saw had the potential to provide both visceral chills and a thematic conscience worthy of exploration, Saw III under-estimates its audience in favor of grind house blood-letting. As if in admission of having an unintelligible plot, the film explains its final twist not once, but twice – the first with Jigsaw dialogue and second, as the film cuts through the past five minutes’ events in a one-minute, MTV-style montage. When you consider the movie's dizzying cinematography and tendency towards “where-are-they-in-the-series-now” flashbacks, a recap every five minutes might not be such a bad idea.

Saw III continues the tradition of nearly every horror sequel in the genre. It forgoes an attempt at decent storytelling to increase the body count. And like any true horror sequel, it leaves an opening for another follow up featuring a villain who just won’t die. As the television previews proclaim, “If it’s Halloween, it has to be Saw.” Fortunately, that doesn’t mean that it has to be seen.

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This is pointless
October 28, 2008 at 19:01

Most of you are just wasting your time ranting and banshing this movie. It's an hour and a half long, a new villian is taking over from where jigsaw leaves off. The time alotted does not leave for a logical explination, not metion they must stick with the theme of survival, killing slashing gore etc etc etc. the movie is more of transition than anything and if you can't see it I not so humbly suggest you watching it again.

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Henry Willis
October 21, 2007 at 17:06

I really enjoyed the first film, the second film was not as good but watchable (it just didnt have the class / clever-ness of the first) and the third is another unforntated step down and I would quite like the hour and a half back that this film took from me. Plot line was pretty ill-developed, really was pointless violence for 30mins until the film actualy "started". Ending was pretty poor, they tried to create a clever storyline, which was glaringly obvious, and then at the end the writers/directors decided to pat themselves on the back thinking they were clever and explained everything step by step, but twice! At best this is a just a random gore-film that has no place being compared to the first.

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Wake Up People
April 15, 2007 at 13:11

How do you people not realize the the entire surprise ending of this movie was contingent entirely on an early scene that made no sense? Early in the movie the surgeons chick's lover say's he wants a "divorce", implying to anyone with a brain that he was her husband. Obviously a lover to an already married woman would never say he wants a divorce, because that makes absolutely NO sense at all. Without that completely nonsensical scene everyone would have guessed early on that Jeff was the surgeon's wife and there would have been NO surprise ending. When you need to throw something into a movie that makes no sense in order to attempt a surprise ending, then you are obviously dealing with pathetic writers that are counting on their audience being even more mindless than they are. Saw I was decent. Saw II was less decent, but entertaining. The plot of Saw III was just an outright insult to the viewer's intelligence. If you have the basic ability to recognize contradiction, then Saw III was a waste of an hour and a half of your life.

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In the Shadows.
February 27, 2007 at 01:31

i loved Saw 3 i haven't seen the first and second though but im planning on seeing them. oh by the way, has anyone tried eating lasagne while watching the part where the surgeon(i cant remember her name) was doing the surgery on Jigsaw? cuz i hav, but surprisingly i didnt gag. that happens alot people i know saying im creepy, i probably am. well anyway to get back to the topic. blood, gore and guts all in one! i love that! i think Amanda is a bitch in movie 3, but of course she starts the killing in movie 2 after Jigsaw gives her a job. but shes fucking evil. i hate her. and the ending where Jeff showed up in the room where his wife and Amanda and Jigsaw were, he couldnt have been more stupid. rrr, he pissed me off, i actually thought he was gonna forgive Jigsaw but than he had to go and saw at Jigsaw's throat! well, it wasnt the best movie ive seen but the fact that all my favourite stuff was in it made me really happy.

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In the Shadows.
February 27, 2007 at 01:31

oh for my last comment sorry for the cursing. i didnt intend to say that i just continued typing and wasnt paying any attention to it.

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kglaser
February 5, 2007 at 07:35

I am a big fan of the first 2 movies, and I liked the cool twist ending (as with the other 2), but for me this franchise has finally gone too far with the naked cruelty. I've been really disturbed by a couple of scenes from this movie (and no, I don't mean the surgery, that didn't bother me at all--more like the guy with the arms/legs/neck thing, yeesh). I don't know what it is--I really enjoyed Hostel too, and stuff like this doesn't usually bother me, I know I can still hang, but I've officially reached my threshold for this sort of thing with this movie.

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poop
January 29, 2007 at 14:07

onedaywhen i was walking down the street I SAWED MY FOOT OFF GET A LIFE

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Joe
January 20, 2007 at 08:02

u no wat, im a big fan of saw... the first one kinda sucked... the second one was better then the first one. BUT part three was honestly one of the best thrillers ive ever watched.. yes it was confusing at the end.. like for example, when did the guys son die? and why did the father ask to the daughter after he was giving her shit, "what would mommy do right now?" like was the mother kidnapped.. SEE its these kind of things that boggle my mind... what happened to detective matthews after he beat the fuck out of the pyscotic bitch amanda? What was in that envalope that amanda read in part three? what happened to detective matthews son in part two? whats going to happen to that man jeffs daughter? THERE BETTER BE A PART FOUR O CLARIFY ALL THIS SHIT UP. and if there is, who is gonna take over the part of the villain? If n e one can clarify, maybe there was some things i missed.. i donno

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Maboy
January 13, 2007 at 02:47

This movie sucks, they just put personal vendetta over whatever fellings they ma have..... self survival... if you have another daughter you think about her.... not saving yourself..... if you have to save a fucker who is going to die soon anyways.. is not worth it..... someone tells you you can kill her with an axe.... ill do it.... im gonna die anyways so what the fuck.... oh my god i have save a freezing girl who happens to be a witness to my sons death... duh!!! they have a shotgun shells device around my neck if the fucker dies... ill be in heaven and he is gonna be someplace else... why to try to save him?... they have to put some BETTER COLLATERAL for this movie!!!!!! it sickens to think that people could get to think that way.... rational or irrational way!!

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maboy
January 13, 2007 at 02:47

ps: i did not even bothered to look at it whole, it f...ng bored me to sleep... and for the previous reply... pardon my french

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shadows
December 16, 2006 at 01:00

I think people who complaint about saw3 should see all three movies then commant. I have seen all 3 movies and i have really enjoyed..

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cxred32
November 16, 2006 at 13:54

I think that this movie is thebest ever i love it so much I could see it agin and agin and agin!!!!! Its so awsome if you havent seen it I recomend that you do see it

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iuru
November 12, 2006 at 00:47

Anthony Dufresne I dig you. The movies is crap. Genius? I can't believe how media has brainwashed us. Man oh man. I think that I have wasted 1.5 hours of my life on this movie more than on anything else. Is there really a thought or a point in this movie? God damn ! But I learned something. I really learned that I should use my time wisely! Oh yes!

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zack
November 8, 2006 at 00:26

well, i have to counter with: maybe the saw siries wasn't best in the world but it was great. And the people that think it was boring or lacking in plot or storyline, obviously didn't understand it.

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Batista
November 6, 2006 at 19:07

Was pretty awsome, the traps in all the movies are well thought of. The tape at the end was pretty cool too, sorta left a weird feelinglingering

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Sam Evans
November 6, 2006 at 15:54

The film was awesome. it tied all stories together yet telling another!
all saws are clevery made and kept me on the edge of my seat.
i love saw! x

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Anthony Dufresne
November 4, 2006 at 13:02

Anyone who feels that this movies was "genius" is just ignorant to the fact that is was an awfully constructed film with little thought. Some people are just such big fans of the first two that you could put a jar of mayonaisse in front of them and they would think such a film was "genius." The director tries to complicate and surprise the audience too much, and it all falls through the floor.

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me
November 3, 2006 at 02:01

this movie was boring , i never saw the first 2 parts but this movie was so dumb . I expected more from a horror movie 6/10

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cats
November 2, 2006 at 16:16

When I was watch the Saw III, I again in thinking... you have no chance to survive make your time.
I know true that somebody set up us the bomb with Saw III.

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TeMo
November 1, 2006 at 18:01

The series of film saw is a very exciting and I think the saw3 is succeed.

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frisby
November 1, 2006 at 03:39

I really enjoyed the movie...even the really long and graphic surgery. I am really partial to 2.

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Ã‰milie
October 30, 2006 at 01:23

I thought all three were genius.

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