Saw IV

SAW IV (2007) - Oct. 26, 2007
Though the Saw films have been getting progressively worse, this is the first one that's outright bad. It probably doesn't help that aside from Tobin Bell's Jigsaw, there isn't a single decent character in the bunch -- they're all underdeveloped and uninteresting, and a couple of them look pretty similar, making things even more confusing than they have to be. Then there's the film's plot, which gets more and more convoluted as it goes along, and by the end... so, that guy on the chair was in on it all along? Is he the new Jigsaw? Why? I don't get it. Did the projectionist miss a reel, or what? Plus, Darren Lynn Bousman's direction is as mediocre as ever, and the whole film has a really flat, unpleasant look to it. Even the sequences with Jigsaw's traps weren't that great; they were starting to get old two movies ago, and now they've definitely lost whatever impact they might have once had. Boo-urns. *1/2