Movie Review: Saw VI
Tenley Woodman - Boston Herald
Oct 26, 2009
'Saw' Loses its Edge
Saw VI: D
Mr. Jigsaw goes to Washington in "Saw VI."
The demented serial killer stumps for health-care reform in this odd political turn by the torture franchise.
John Kramer (Tobin Bell), the Jigsaw killer, slipped this mortal coil in "Saw III," yet he continues to gobble up screen time.
In flashbacks, Kramer reveals that a battle with Umbrella Insurance over his cancer treatment is what created his blood lust.
There is something darkly comical about placing this hot-button issue at the center of a slasher film. And, in a twisted way, it works.
Jigsaw also has some anger toward greedy loan officers. The film starts with one of the bloodiest, most debauched scenarios yet. Two loan officers are asked to carve their own flesh to free themselves from a contraption designed to crush their skulls.
It is simply too horrific to watch.
Per Jigsaw's instructions, turncoat Detective Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) shepherds the insurance company nitwits to their demise.
The abuse ranges from bone crushing, a Jigsaw favorite, to scalding and a game of Russian roulette.
While the body count rises, the police are uncomfortably close to fingering Hoffman as Jigsaw's last living accomplice.
To the filmmaker's credit, the story line is intricate, but ultimately unsettling. In each film, a new piece of Kramer's psychology is revealed. The writers and Bell attempt to make this wacko's obsession with justice via torture endearing.
But it is the depraved acts and gore that make these films objectionable.
Watching a human's innards splay across the floor or listening to someone saw through their own arm is not entertainment. Exercise your public option and skip this.
Rated R.
("Saw VI" contains excessive gore, violence and adult language.)
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