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		List Price: $39.99		Label: Lions Gate Salesrank: 8726 Released: January 20, 2009
		Our Price: $10.35
		Used Price: $8.33
		MPAA Rating: Unrated Media: Blu-ray

Editorial Review:
Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 01/20/2009 Run time: 96 minutes Rating: Ur

Description of Saw V [Blu-ray]:
How do you keep a horror franchise going when your villain has been unquestionably and irrevocably killed off? That's a conundrum any number of genre series have tackled--to varying degrees of success--and the problem facing the sadistic Saw films in its latest entry, Saw V. The filmmakers' answer--faithful henchmen--is at first blush a savvy idea, as it allows the mayhem of original bad guy Jigsaw to continue unabated, despite the fact that he was dissected on a morgue slab in the previous film. Saw V extends the premise by having disgraced detective Hoffman (Costas Mandylor from the previous two films) don the pig mask to unleash horrific tortures on another group of seemingly unconnected strangers. Scott Patterson (Aliens in America) also returns as Hoffman's Javert, a dogged fellow agent who escapes death in the fourth film and an ugly fate in this entry to continue his pursuit. All the elements that have made the Saw series popular with horror fans--the elaborate killing machines, the trompe l'oeil plotting, and the sociopathic judgments handed down by Jigsaw--are intact in Saw V, which is a positive for its most faithful followers, but a negative for just about everyone else. Saw V covers no new ground, expands no part of the mythology of the series and seems perfectly content to present a lifeless retread of Saw III and IV. It also suffers from the absence of Tobin Bell as Jigsaw, who despite his top billing, is glimpsed only in brief flashbacks. Bell, who could be unsettling even in the stillest moments, gave the series a gravity that kept its least plausible moments in check, and Mandylor, though game, simply cannot provide the same. What's left is dreary and relentlessly downbeat, and to make matters worse, ends on an open note that clearly indicates that a sixth film is in the works, no matter how obvious that the diabolical ingenuity of the original Saw has been worn to the bone by its sequels. Only diehard Saw fans need to sign up for this round of Jigsaw's games. -- Paul Gaita

Beyond Saw V on DVD

Saw 1-4 (Amazon.com Exclusive) on DVD

Saw V the Soundtrack

Saw V [Blu-ray] Reviews:
Not as bad as everyone said
2009-11-18 - This is the first Saw movie that I purchased on Blu-ray and it was also the first Saw movie that I did not go to the theater to see first. After all the negative reviews I read from critics and fans alike, I was hesitant to purchase it. But I now have a Blu-ray player and I wanted to keep my Saw DVD collection up to date so I decided to shell out the extra bucks for the Blu-ray. Although it's not up-to-snuff with the previous films (especially 1 and 2), I don't think it is nearly as bad as everyone said. Maybe it wasn't worth the extra bucks for the Blu-ray but overall I found the film interesting, full of good Jigsaw traps, and I found it fun to watch. I heard the "Saw 6" is much better but I most likely won't see it until the Saw 6 Blu-ray comes out next year. Bottom line: maybe just purchase the regular DVD of "Saw 6".

The curse continues...
2009-11-12 - There is a curse throughout horror movie franchises (or franchises in general) condemning the fifth episode to mediocrity at best, or unfocused, mundane nonsense at worst. The fifth episodes of the following franchises: Friday the 13th pt. 5 (the "Jason imposter" episode), Halloween 5 (that corny man in black gimmick), Star Trek 5 (the lame Shatner directed ep), Leprechaun (okay, that series sucked to begin with), Hellraiser 5 (Craig Scheffer as a debauched cop, while Pinhead is over on the sideline), Return of the Living Dead, Nightmare on Elm Street... the list goes on and on.

Saw V is no exception to this rule. After a cool opening involving an fbi agent ingeniously beating a jigsaw trap, we get scene after scene of Scott Patterson walking around with an angry look on his face, Costas Mandalor in an exceptionally stoic offering as Jigsaw's apparent heir, flashbacks that make no sense (the chronology of the Jigsaw/ Hoffman link is especially convoluted), drab photography that lacks the flair of the Wan/ Bousman directed offerings, and an ending that is telegraphed from pretty much the opening scene.

Even the relevance of the "game" is not explained until Kevin Greutert's superb Saw VI. As it stands, the subplot comes completely out of left field. People looking for ingenious traps better stick to the other sequels as Saw V hasn't a single interesting gadget throughout its running time. And if you're a Saw fan the plot developments are not so germane that subsequent films would be confusing if you haven't seen this one.

Saw V is about the only entry in the franchise I don't like, and further proof that the number "5" should be omitted from the franchise index.

Emtombing the ones you Loathe.
2009-11-09 - The games have just begun - that was the credo that empowered the Jigsaw killer and it is also the truth that keeps onkeeping on. Even after what happened to Jigsaw during the last test he gave to a former employee (or partner, or whatever you want to call her), Jigsaw still has a voice and hands to do his dirty deeds. He also has a thing about police officers that has been explained to us in vivid detail, and we find out why this is - if we haven't already pieced that together. There is another game being played as well, one that talks about working together and one that the team of people placed inside this horror don't seem to get, and that is the lovely part about so many of these things. People are such bad listeners - just play the tape and take the game seriously, because this is their lives. The traps here are nasty little things, too, and they are loveingly deceptive because they al;low people to see what they should do but give them the freedom to choose. It is perhaps there, in that freedom of choice, that people mmake their worse mistakes.
As Jigsaw would say, let the games begin.

I've taken to the movies well because I thought they were all done really well, overcoming things like budgetary confines by utilizing Tobin Bell and the saw puppet as things that make the flesh quiver. They also have traps that have duality stamped into their very being, and this duality allows the games to become things that seem to be one thing when they are, in fact, tests that measure other items. I always liked that, enjoying the fact that people are challenged to see the world in different ways, and that some people really do have the means to their liberation. And the ones that do not seem fair, almost unfairly doing things to people with no way out, we see exactly how that happens. And the answers to that are brutal, and unfair on so many levels. Combine with that the acting prowess of some of the individuals involved (I think it takes a lot to become a victim and sell it to an audience), the impact of lighting and music and tools like flashbacks, and the underlying terror that has to be there when you find yourself listening to a tape recorder or a doll that holds the keys to your survival and you have a game unlike anything I would ever want to play. and seeing the places where all of these games have taken place and the extent to which planning goes into everything and it is impressive. Even the first kill, one that happens because someone really doesn't listen, is good stuff. And i love it - i love it a lot.

If you watch Saw, watch them in order. They stack together well, and the plot that expands through-out the series is one to keep track of. Seeing how the helpers become involved, seeing the different type of handywork, and seeing why tests are given oftentime build over time. Even some of the people who fail are added into newer tests, so you count anything out. I personally like all of that, and i like how Jigsaw has some of the greatest lines in this new realm of horror movies. Even the 5th installment, which would normally be bad in any other series, is great here.
I love them all.

You Wont Belive How It Ends?....Naw, Yeah You Will
2009-10-20 - Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2YTJGHC589C7Y

I No Longer "Want To Play A Game"
2009-09-30 - In 2004, the original "Saw" film breathed new life into the horror movie genre. Though enticing viewers with some of the most graphic horror scenes in cinematic history, the real "hook" of the film was its morality-play plotline. Using a tact rarely taken in the annals of horror movies, Saw actually created doubt in the viewers' minds as to whether the "victims" were exactly that. Though perverse, the demented Jigsaw killer was doling out justice in a seminal way that everyone can relate to (even if it horrifies their "good side").

With each subsequent film, however, that magic has been lost, little by little. While Saw II just fed off the hype of the original and didn't mess with the formula and Saw III was interesting for the "dying Jigsaw" plotline, the two most recent installments have failed to recapture that spark of the "original trilogy". Saw IV was just outright confusing, while this film suffers from two major maladies:

First, the departure from the tried-and-true formula of regular citizens being tested in their weakest area. Like I said, the strength of the first few Saw movies was the writers' abilities to make audiences think about the morality of what was reality transpiring. This film, however, doesn't really take that tact and instead just focuses on clearing up all the loose ends from the fourth release. Though perhaps a noble cause for hard-core Saw fans, this line of storytelling only served to irritate me, as Saw IV was where I saw the series begin going downhill and thus didn't want to go in that direction again.

The other notable departure is a moving away from the Jigsaw character. To me, Jigsaw is at the very heart of what the Saw franchise is all about, and the series really isn't active unless he is in it. The flashbacks in IV were interesting, but Jigsaw's presence in V just seemed to be an excuse to bring back Tobin Bell, not to advance the plot in any meaningful way.

Thus, I see the Saw franchise as being at a paradox right now. One direction would be to continue on with the "Jigsaw lineage" and further dilute the original material (the likely path in order to please the die-hard scrutinizers), while the other, more inventive approach would be to come up with something new. Perhaps someone subjecting one of these psychopaths to their own devices?! At any rate, Saw VI will likely be the measuring stone of the "Saw future" considering the failure of this installment.