Hey folks, Harry here with another report on SAW, that also praises it as a genuine work of killer horror glee. In addition, Foggy here, comments a bit upon the RETURN OF THE KING Expanded Edition. Thanks for another great report Foggy!
Hell's Bell's AICN folks, you actually used my "Sky Captain" report. I guess that is enough of a prompt to write another but some early spoilers ARE included.
While wandering around the 500,000 square feet of floor space (I didn't research it, I just am throing out a big number for effect) I passed a Lion's Gate Films booth and they had free "SAW" passes. "What the hell, thought I, that would be a fun time." It was a midnight screening and I supposed that my endurance of tired feet might be better than some (mostly due to the fact that I wear comfortable shoes while others are in costumes with 6-inch heels or no shoes and just Spidey tights) and despite the fact that they were handing out as many "ADMIT ONE" passes as they could, I went hoping to score a seat. I do have friends at the Con but they thought me mad and decided to sleep instead of watch. Lazy bastards!
Just for some drooling atmosphere, San Diego at night is CHALK FULL of half-naked hot chics, all of which ignored me as I got out of the cab, walked in the theater and flashed my pass to the lone employee in the building who barely seemed to care. I hear there was a line around the corner, but I wasn't about to stop to investigate. Anyway, turns out there was a popcorn counter upstairs with another worker, so I grabbed a root beer and some kearnals and settled in. (Oh and by the way, there was a fella there who looked EXACTLY like George Lucas 20 years ago. Did the Starfather invent a time machine?)
Every seat was taken and since there wasn't anybody around to say not to, people plopped down in the isles of the stadium seating as well, which would have freaked out a fire marshall. I offered to share popcorn wtih two cute genre chics, but they declined and sat on a stair somewhere behind me. It was weird that nobody introduced the film, nobody thanked us for coming, nobody said "BOO" to you if you took all 150 posters sitting by the door and nobody cared if we passed around a bong. Incidently, nobody had one to pass.
SORRY! Anyway, this "SAW" film is good! I don't love slasher/horror movies but the trailer with the jaw opening device was pretty smart and a lot more horrifying than uh...Chucky for instance so I went in hoping to like it. To clarify, I like "The Ring" but I am not much for "Sorrority Slaughter Six". I enjoyed "The Sixth Sense" but not so much Jason or hockey masks. (Although I was given a Jason air freshener today at the Con, pine scented of course, and I sure liked that.)
Our Princess Bride buddy Cary Elwes and Leigh Whannell (according to IMDB, I wouldn't know him from a severed limb) wake up chained in a room together, at opposite corners with a body lying between them, its blood all over the floor and a suicide head wound. Adam (not Elwes) is actually in a bath tub and he doesn't handle the stress al that well. They don't know each other and they don't know how they got there and they especially don't know how the hell to get out.
Adam has a mini-tape stuffed and water proofed in his pocket that he discovers with the words "play me" on it, although the pair doesn't have a player of any kind between them. They can't reach the gun, the can't reach each other and they are, as you might imagine a little freaked out. Adam describes the room as a "shit hole" and it lives up to the hype as bathroom of some kind with a toilet directly from "Trainspotting" and industrial florescent lighting and grungy tile and your basic filthy conditions.
Naturally the two talk a bit, trying to discover what is going on, who the other person chained in a room with them is and what they might possibly do to escape. The film flashes back a few times with each of the characters to start unraveling the mystery. Elwes has a bit of an idea that a serial killer might be responsible since he was indeed asked questions about it when it was felt he might be responsible, it seems a personal item of his was found at the scene.
We are also treated to some previous murders from the serial killer as revealed by Lawrence (Elwes), all as nutty as my defecation after eating an almond rocca. (Aren't movie lines great!?) So the two guys are in a real pickle and then the stakes are raised when Lawrence is told to kill Adam to save himself and if he doesn't, Mrs. Lawrence and cute little daughter Lawrence will also be killed and then to intensify things, there is a deadline given.
I just refuse to spoil this bitching horror thriller any further by giving away plot points but I will say I enjoyed this film a lot. This will not contend for academy awards, but it was effective and intense. I felt that towards the very end the acting fell apart a little bit but there was enough cool to sustain it. The villian presented (jigsaw-man if I recall), although not present on screen all that much, is creepy and loony and unpredictible and intelligent and mysterious and effective. This is good genre cinema that I wouldn't care a lot for in the Spring but is a perfect pre-Halloween treat and I suspect it will catch on an make some bank for Lion's Gate.
The horror elements are scary and there is some glorious gore (although flashed with came quick-cuts and strobe flashes and I can't decide if I like that or not) what makes it enjoyable is the mental puzzle the two characters are given. It has its scares but for me it worked best in its contemplative moments when the two main characters sit across each other in a room, chained like dogs with life and death decisions weighing on them. This is when the audience thinks, "What would I do?" and for me THAT is why the film worked.
Monica Potter (who is secretly Julia Roberts playing blonde and I know I can't be alone in seeing this) is there and Danny Glover is there but he fortunately never says, "I am getting too old for this shit," although he is a cop and he has a partner. His part isn't handled all that well causing, I think, a little bit of a loss of focus. He was too much plot device and too little character. Still, I had fun at the movies.
My body requires that I go lay down and sleep but I must comment just a bit more. For the record, from the "Sky Captain" talkback, I do NOT dislike or despise talkbackers. I celebrate the humor and quirky humor that we talkbackers do and I poke fun at us because we are funny. I DO despise a FEW talkbackers who hit the internet solely to despise and elevate self with hating.
Lastly, Peter FREAKING Jackson sent a reel to Comic-Con along with David Wenham and Billy Boyd and producer Rick P. and DVD produceer guy with long hair and New Line publicity girl and IT WAS AMAZING! AMAZING! AMAZING!
They showed a montage that answered most of the questions Ring people have been asking about the Return of the King extended edition and I am pleased to say that all the questions I had were answered in the affirmative. If you think it REALLY needs to be in there, it seems to be in there. Christopher Lee's voice started the thing and I had a jolt of "hot damn!" course through my veins and so on and so forth. Despite the orgasmic fangirl screams whenever Billy Boyd rubbed his ear, Wenham and Pippin were delightful and funny and genuine. They also showed actual CLIP! CLIPS I tell you. There was a love clip with Wenham post Houses of Healing and there additional Paths of the Dead footage with showed not a pile of skulls falling towards our three heros but a tidal wave of them, threatening to wash them away. It smacked of Jackson's Zombie days I tell you! Further, there was a Boyd/Wenham clip where they reassure each other regarding their own worth. Nice.
There was also a clip, and I crap you not, of Dominic Monaghan telling a story against green screen of Viggo Mortenson's private Oscar Party. Apparently he held an Oscar jello party and made people hit him with Oscar shaped gelatin moulds while saying, "You ARE the King," "You ARE the King." "You ARE the King." Damn funny stuff which apparently will never be on the DVD.
Now, don't get in fights and go study those books boys and girl.
Yours,
Franklin "Foggy" Nelson
