Saw II (2005)

Sorry, this movie sucks

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

The ruthless, manipulative killer is back at it in this twisted horror sequel. Jigsaw's evil is exposed in the first scene where a man must choose between carving out his eye or having a deathmask full of spikes close on his head. The man makes the wrong decision and leaves a crime scene to be investigated by Detective Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg). The body had puzzle pieces carved out of it. His ex-partner Detective Allison Kerry (Dina Meyer) tries to convince Matthews to work with her on the case. He can't help it and figures out a clue that leads to a SWAT team raid on a booby-trapped hideout and the surrender of John Kramer (Tobin Bell). Jigsaw takes the upper hand when he reveals a set of monitors that show a group of people captures including Matthews's son Daniel (Erik Knudsen).The eight people trapped in the factory all wake up with no knowledge of how they got there. Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith) is familiar with how Jigsaw operates having survived the ordeal before. She finds a tape recorder hidden in the wall which plays the tape of Jigsaw rules. They only have two hours after breathing in a deadly nerve agent and must find an antidote by solving the killer's riddle. Xavier Chavez (Franky G) disobey the order and a man has his head blown off as a result. Matthews must watch his son and the other victims explored the house in search of a way out. It is revealed on another tape that Obi Tate (Timothy Burd) kidnapped the others so he has to crawl into a furnace to get an antidote. He's gets burned alive. Check out more of this review and others at swilliky.com

Saw II, the first of the several sequels in the Saw's franchise. Is it any good as the original, well that would unfortunately be false, but does lives up to it's hope, well let find out.Basically after the events of the previous film, the actual Jigsaw Killer have been revealed to the Authorities as former Factory Worker and dying patient John Kramer, and they track him down to his factory/home, but right before they even Apprehend him, Kramer reveals he have already kidnaps 8 more people, all of which are trapped inside of an unknown building, that seems to be an abandon apartment, and Kramer refuses to reveals the Address. One of the newly victims, is just so happened to be the lead Detective's Juvenile Delinquent of a Son, which soon worries him, and making this be more of a bigger business to him. Meanwhile, the 8 victims who are all different from each other based on their Criminal Records, have no choice but to make it out alive together or else the Nerve Agent that Jigsaw puts inside the Building will kills them, and the goal for them is to find the Antidotes they need for their Survival, and while on the way, they comes upon deadly traps based on the Occupations of these Criminally-behaved Victims.This film is in-fact a good flick, but is different compared to it's predecessor. The use of Characters I will considered Mediocre, some of them such as the lead detective is a-bit of a Jerk but that the meaning of the character much like the doctor from the first film (Now by-a-way, if I sound like I'm bringing-up an Spoiler, well I'm not going to as I'm not trying to either, what you just read wouldn't be anymore as I say something bad to this character, but I'll not mentioned how, that you have to see for yourself), but some of the other characters like some of the victims now I kinda understand they should act like this because they're Bad people and all, but they kinda took the roles too far into making them another group of unlikable characters, with the exception however with the Lead Detective's son, Amanda Young (Who returns in this film from the previous one), the African-American Gangster, and Xavier, the Hispanic Drug Dealer. The son of the Lead Detective was I would say an Emotional character, somewhat related to some, and Amanda was nice to see in this, especially as a main character now. The gangster was a-bit emotional to see too, I loved the scene between him and Xavier, just a very powerful speech, and speaking of which, Xavier was great to see as an secondary Antagonist, he was quite menacing to watch by the end of the film so. One last of the Victims, I want to bring-up so is an Pyromaniac named Obi. He didn't do that much in this movie so, only have one scene, and than boom, he finished, but he was a-bit of a cool character to see, quite quiet which builds him up here, and I wished he was shown a-bit more, like I wished they gives a-bit more of a Personality. The one last character I bring up in general, is no other than Jigsaw himself. It was neat to see him as a main character this time too, and Tobin Bell who did a fantastic job like always, just playing a sick, dying old man. The traps are well-done in this one, my favorite when one of the main victims in this movie, opens a door that he not supposed to open because there's a gun that shoots him through the eye, just brutal. There is one complaint I do have however beside some of the characters, which is pretty much the unrealistic use of Nerve Agent, now Nerve Agent was also what Jigsaw gives to one of his victims in the first movie too, which I didn't brought up in my review of that one because I didn't think it was unnecessary, but I'm bringing it up now because it's a big part of this film, just how come through-out the film, it feels these people are in their for 2-3 hours, they should've dies already because of the poisoning. But oh-well, this did sorta overshadowed by what we seen in this film.So over-all Saw II is in my opinion is a fine sequel, just not the best in the series, but it is worth to watched.

This is where it all began. Where all what began, you might ask. The film franchise? No, because obviously that began with SAW, the first movie in the franchise. No, SAW II is where the endless sequels to the SAW movies began, each one virtually similar to the last, except that the various traps and torture devices are more extreme and explicit than before. It marked the beginning of the SAW 'Halloween' event, in which cinemas would turn out the latest sequel for 31st October, year after year. Before I sat down to watch this, I was a bit more in the know about it, because I'd already seen 1, 3 and 4, although 2 had slipped me by. It fills in a lot of the gaps and I'd say these movies MUST be watched in the correct order – if not then you have no chance of understanding the intricacies of the plot.As for the movie itself, it's fairly by-the-by. It's not as original as the first film, but it's fairly well made and with a good pacing. It doesn't seem to be quite as vicious this time around, although that might be because I'd seen some later sequels before this. The eye-watering opening scene is horrific stuff but has nothing to do with the rest of the movie. In essence, this is a film a bit like CUBE; a bunch of people trapped in one location, trying to figure out the clues and work together to escape, although it doesn't hold together as well as that film. The hunt for antidotes just seems a little laughable and not very well thought out and realism is a long way away. Tobin Bell is still creepy, but a returning Shawnee Smith is simply irritating here while others like STARSHIP TROOPERS's Dina Meyer are on the sidelines; she had more to do in her one scene in SAW III! Donnie Wahlberg lends a bit of gravitas as the weary cop investigating the case but, again, he doesn't have much to work with other than a few shouty scenes.What of the horror content? Well, there are a couple of nasty deaths – wow, like you didn't guess – including one horrible bit in a glass box with razor blades – and a nasty scene in a pit filled with syringes. There are a few twists, notably towards the climax, which kept me watching. Fans of the series will enjoy it, but newcomers might well find it's more of a makeweight film, purely designed to bridge the gap between the first movie and the later sequels.

Saw II continues the tale of modern horror's greatest villain: Jigsaw. This time, 8 people are locked in a brutal test while a detective, the father to one of the victims, and the police try to save them. S2 is a rough, brutal ride. It has been treated unfairly by critics because of the bloodshed. That's just what it uses for scares. Some horror movies use jump scares. Some use tension. This uses violence and uses it reasonably well. It's not always enjoyable as it does get pretty unpleasant at times, but it is undeniably effective. Therefore, it's easy to write it off as a nasty gore-fest, but it counterbalances the gore with thought-provoking thematic material on morals, justice and how far one will go to save themselves. It's a nasty film, but it is effective. It's far from a perfect movie admittedly. The characters aside from Jigsaw and the main detective are weak, the drama is somewhat superficial, it's not as tense as the first one and things are a bit sillier this time. That being said, it's a watchable and reasonably thrilling horror film, although for many it will be a bit much. It's worth watching for all the twists and turns, as you will never see them coming.6/10