Mac's Movies

UK Release Date:  26 October 2007 Certification:  18 Director:  Darren Lynn Bousman Cast:  Tobin Bell, Lyriq Bent, Louis Ferreira, Athena Karkanis, Costas Mandylor, Scott Patterson, Betsy Russell, Donnie Wahlberg  Rating:   50 % Review:   Favourite sequel of the franchise so far. Saw IV isn't a good film by any means but I enjoyed what I was watching during the vast majority of the runtime. Saw IV takes the series in a whole new direction whilst still delivering the infamous traps.  The best aspect of the film is that it is bold enough to completely change the tone from prior entries. This is a detective story. Saw IV plays like a dramatic serial killer documentary rather than a parody of one. Following Detective Hoffman, Detective Rigg and Agent Strahm all try to achieve the same goal with differing adversities to face building until it reaches the climax - all the clichés of a solid thriller.  Saw IV had to follow up a dire entry in the...

UK Release Date:  27 October 2006 Certification:  18 Director:  Darren Lynn Bousman Cast:  Tobin Bell, Angus Macfadyen, Dina Meyer,  Shawnee Smith, Bahar Soomekh, Donnie Wahlberg Rating:   22 % Review: What a mess of a film. Several abandoned subplots, an incoherent story and a band of incredibly unlikeable characters. This is where I think the franchise will lose my interest.  Other than a few scenes towards the beginning of the film that were slightly unsettling, Saw III isn't scary and a huge departure in quality from the first two. Saw III relies solely on gore in an attempt to scare/shock the audience. But when the traps appear unwinnable and so much blood is shown it becomes desensitised.  Horror films often get a bad rep for having their characters making the worst possible decisions in important situations. I think that's unwarranted but it is certainly the case in Saw III . Jeff (Angus Macfadyen) is the most frustrating character in horr...

UK Release Date:  28 October 2005 Certification:  18 Director:  Darren Lynn Bousman Cast:  Tobin Bell, Franky G, Erik Knudsen, Dina Meyer, Glenn Plummer, Shawnee Smith, Donnie Wahlberg Rating:   45 % Review: The second instalment in the Saw franchise promises to be more gruesome and a lot bloodier than the first. With a larger budget, Saw II ups the stakes, the scale and improves upon the traps but forgets about the terror that made Saw great in the first place. It's by no means as good as the first but the film is still surprisingly entertaining.  Detective Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) and his arc spanning the film's runtime are both interesting to watch on screen. As the film's main protagonist, the audience is meant to root Matthews but by the end of Saw II it's not as clear-cut. His moral ambiguity reveals conflicting emotions. Donnie Wahlberg pulls off the grizzled cop looking to save his son superbly. Tobin Bell expands upon the villai...