Tuesday, February 1, 2005
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Inside you'll find our DVD review for Lions Gate Home Entertainment's upcoming DVD release of Saw (review #1, #2, #3, #4), which hits stores on February 15th. The film, which grossed over $55 million at the box office, was directed by James Wan (interviews #1, #2), written by Leigh Whannell and stars Cary Elwes, Danny Glover, Leigh Whannell, Dina Meyer, Monica Potter, Shawnee Smith and Tobin Bell. With a dead body lying between them, two men (Whannell and Elwes) wake up in the secure lair of a serial killer who's been nicknamed "Jigsaw" by the police because of his unusual calling card. Read on for the review...
Saw DVD Review from Lions Gate Home Entertainment
Buy it here.
Some DVDs are a b-tch to review, because you have to take into account where the movie came from and how much planning went into the DVD itself. Not only that, but you have to figure out just exactly who the DVD is good for.
I can't give Lions Gate Home Entertainment's DVD for Saw a rating because there is no way to give it a fair number. For fans of James Wan and Leigh Whannel's movie, the DVD is going to be one of the better buys of the year, for people who haven’t seen the movie, it's worth picking up just to see the film and for people who have seen it and kind of liked it or hated it, this DVD is a piece of junk you can use as a coaster. I guess you can argue that about a lot of movies, but this one in particular strikes nerves with many people...
If you've read my review for the film here, you'd know that I absolutely loved the film. Sure Carey Elwes performance is a laughable one, but the movie still kicks ass. After watching the 'Saw' DVD with the commentary track on, I love it even more.
Shot in only 18 days, there were a lot of obstacles to overcome- like Leigh's Australian accent- and the commentary details many of these facts. We learn about the "moving hand" incident at Sundance 2004, which is an interesting story about how they were forced to re-cut the film for theatrical release. I love how sometime commentary tracks make a movie even better. James explains that when he shot Leigh for the film, he used a hand held cam to match "Adam's" personality- he did the same for Carey Elwes as he used a stationed cam.
The highlight of the DVD is when Leigh says something along the lines, "Elwes is so British that if I slapped him across his face he'd say, 'that was quite rude, please don't do that again!'"
The commentary track is pretty much the only selling point of this DVD, besides the movie. Also included is a 3 minute long behind the scenes feature, which is thankfully better than the silent 'House of 1000 Corpses' extra. There are two versions of the cheesy ass Fear Factory video, one rated and one unrated- and a making of featurette for the video. There is also a poster gallery so you can remember till the end of time how f'n cool their promotions were for the film.
But as I said, this DVD can't be rated fairly. If I were rating it for an extreme 'Saw' fan, I'd give it an 3 out of 5. For someone who hasn't seen the film yet I'd give it a 1.5 out of 5 and someone who hates the film I'd give it a 0.5 out of 5.
But to be fair, the movie is the selling point. A movie so brilliant, so phenomenally shot and so original doesn't need extra features because the entertainment lies on the film- Van Helsing can pack as much **** as they want on the DVD and it still sucks.
Pick this sucker up on February 15th.
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