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Print"You have seen the errors in your policy," Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) hisses in the latest "Saw" movie. And, kids, he's hissing a pun at Big Insurance when he does, the profiteers who determine "who lives and who dies."
- Starring: Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Peter Outerbridge, Shawnee Smith.
- Rating: Rating: R for sequences of grisly bloody violence and torture, and language.
- Web site: www.apple.com/trailers
As Jigsaw tortures the actuarial menace who sentenced him and other cancer patients to death, forcing Not-Evil-Just-Officious Will (Peter Outerbridge) to save or let die his Umbrella Insurance colleagues, Will is reminded that "your decisions [are] symbolized by the blood on your hands."
You just don't expect that from a "Saw" movie? "But "Saw VI," which begins by making two "predatory lenders" carve off hunks of their flesh, dump it on a scale and see which one can lose the most weight the quickest, is surfing the zeitgeist, and how.
It's still torture porn, more excruciating than scary. It's still all about the elaborate and gory "games" the victims must win in order to survive Jigsaw's test of character, redemption and humanity. Body parts are lost, guts spill and sharp objects pierce to the sound of screams in the night. But this script, by Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton, has a more lyrical bent, and a more satiric bite, than any of the other "Saw" sequels.
That's a bit like saying "You're fully covered, until you make that first claim," but hey, "Saw" movies make you grasp at straws.
The acting is perfunctory, though Outerbridge brings a measure of pathos to his claims adjuster. I like to think Tobin Bell, more a voice and reptilian presence than an actor, has bought an island somewhere on his "Saw"-gotten gains. He'll make at least one more payment on it if he has. Yes, there will be a "Saw VII" even though "Paranormal Activity" snuffed this one out at the box office.
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