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26 thoughts on “John Reviews Saw 3”

  2. saw the 3rd instalment of saw :)
    then saw your review (i prefer always doing it that way round)

    & for once, i wondered if we had seen the same film …

    i won’t say i was impressed profusely, but i thought it worked nicely, it was certainly a step up from saw ii, just as ii was from the 1st, when i have talked to people about saw in the past, i’ve always mentioned that though its considered horror, its not quite that.

    call me crazy, but i kinda compare it to the vigilante flicks like daredeil or the punisher, what if the punisher went a bit nuts with the whole justice thing, then you’d get this …

    though not quite ethical to the normal person, jigsaw does have a code, a set of rules to govern & i don’t think he’s broken that, i would say no. iii actually backs up what he stood for ..

    as for somebody mentioned it screws up the chronolgy of the other 2, i thought that too at first, but then again, not necessarily – it does seem forced in that we didnt see amanda at all in the game stage of the first flick & now we see her presence within it, but there’s nothing really there to suggest she wasn’t there either .. *shrug*

    & john, i too initially read this as 3.5 out of 10 …
    so 5 is a tolerable score by comparison ;) i’d give it 6.5

    + you ended ur review saying you hope they will fix their error in saw iv .. are you serious?? another one planned?? or is that speculation/hope/despair/pie?

    hmm pie…
    ok i’m done with the rant ..

  3. Yup, perfect review exactly my thoughts. Brutal as hell, but with no scares. I said exactly the same thing to my friend as we left the theater: the general idea behind the story is a good one, it just didn’t quite work for some reason.

    And to Mero: Why do you keep coming back here and starting flame wars if you hate this place so much? Go away. We’re a peaceful people who like things the way they are.

    ~Drewbacca
    MoviePatron.com

  5. Mero, you’re such a fucking idiot. You just defeated your own logic. Well done –

    Mero – “The Marine seems to be right up the alley of Campea’s taste. Explosions, action, fighting, the stuff adolescents dream about. Why didn’t he cover that? why didn’t he review that movie? or talk about it on Audio edition?”
    Obivously because he wasn’t interested in it and didn’t care about it. You just proved that you know shit. Way to go.

    Mero – “And I still want to see a box office prediction for every weekend”
    Who the fuck cares what you want? Since when was this your site? How about this smart guy. You seem to think you know everything. You go start a site and see how many people come to read your stuff. Yeah, I didn’t think so.

    Mero – “Campea ignores way too much of what premiers each weekend”
    Exactly what part of my last comment did you not understand? “This is the guys blog, not fucking CNN Entertainment. If he’s not interested in Grudge 2, The Marine or Guardian then why should he write about them?” Where is it writen that he has to write about anything? He writes about the stuff that interests him at the movies. Where is the law that says he has to do anything otherwise? This is a BLOG jackass. Not a corporate entertainment news site.

    Mero – “Think of Campea as one of those pundits on cable news. Even he compared himself to a “pundit””
    Pundits pick specific topics and subjects and items they want to talk about. They don’t sit there and talk about everything going on in the world. Campea talks about the movies he’s interested in. It’s a BLOG. What part of this are you still not getting?

    Mero – “this pathetic site”
    You need to get laid man, because it looks like you have so much time on your hands that you hang around web sites that you don’t even like. Get a life. At least I’m here because I like the site. Guess to compensate for the lack of sex in your life you just like to troll at sites you don’t like and bitch. Mission accomplished.

  6. Okay I skiped the last five posts or so because people are getting stupid. Any who mero’s first post is right. John should do more reviews for more kinds of movies. That is if he has the time energy an effort.

  7. hey Sean,

    Oh i’m sorry, i’m not one of the 10 people who has read the “about” page. You FUCKING idiot! How is this not a NEWS site? Sure yes it’s a blog, but it’s also partly a news site. People come on here and see news items and Campea’s commentary. Think of Campea as one of those pundits on cable news. Even he compared himself to a “pundit”, and this is his forum to express his commentary. When I say “coverage”, this is what i mean, his punditry/commentary about movies, i don’t mean all the news in the entertainment industry on this pathetic site. The Movie Blog while yes it is a blog and Campea does have a choice about what to put on here, Campea ignores way too much of what premiers each weekend. He ignores them and treats them as though they don’t exist. I think it’s a fair criticism.

    For example, The Marine seems to be right up the alley of Campea’s taste. Explosions, action, fighting, the stuff adolescents dream about. Why didn’t he cover that? why didn’t he review that movie? or talk about it on Audio edition?

    And I still want to see a box office prediction for every weekend. Make it a regular thing too. I mean considering how important the box office is for you, a movie business pundit should put up box office predictions.

  8. My friends took me to this crappy movie yesterday. What a waste of time and money and popcorn, which wasn’t bad by the way. Massive plot holes, it breaks the continuity of the first 2 films, and jigsaw breaks all of his own rules. Waste of a movie. Waste of a sequel. Waste of time. Avoid this one. And the plot twist sucks in this one, it had way too many holes in it. Boring is the polite word for this movie.

  9. Mero, you just don’t get it. Ok, so you said – “And I still stand by my claim that The Movie Blog doesn’t have strong coverage of the entertainment industry.”

    Read the “About” page. It clearly says this isn’t a news website – “The Movie Blog is (are you ready for this?) a blog about movies. In 2001 I began blogging (keeping a web based journal where I would share my experiences, thoughts, opinions and interesting links with people). I realized that more and more I was posting thoughts about film… so in 2003 I started up The Movie Blog. It’s just that simple. This is not a news site”

    Saying the movie blog isn’t providing “strong coverage of the entertainment industry” is like critizing George Bush for not being a good surfer.

    This is the guys blog, not fucking CNN Entertainment. If he’s not interested in Grudge 2, The Marine or Guardian then why should he write about them? This site is about his opinion. And if he’s not interested in certain movies, why should he waste time talking about them? Read the title of this site again. B…L…O…G

    You sound like a guy walking into an airport and complaining that they don’t sell tickets for a cruise ship. Wrong place.

    Why don’t you shoot on over to starwars.com and complain that they don’t talk enough about star trek. It would make about as much sense.

  10. Bobby, did you really enjoy “Saw 3”? Or are you just taking the piss!! Personally, I think you are having a laugh at this pointless debate and getting a boner from the responses to your comment.

  11. Hey John,

    Good review but I think you were wrong in that you couldn’t put yourself into the character like you could in the first two. Being a father I don’t know how I would react if I was put into the same situation as Jeff was coming face to face with the ability to save or condemn the people he came up against but I found it interesting the way he handled it. I also disagree that the series has always been brainless fun. One of the draws of the series for me has been the character of Jigsaw and his intricate, well though out “games” that always had a lesson to teach the victim. Live or die, you make the choice? Can you sacrifice what is necessary to continue to live or will you lay down to die? I totally agree that Saw III was lacking the fright quotient though, while the first two films did a great job of providing tension, the fact that the “twist” could be seen figured out in the first 15 minutes took away from the tension in the film and while the story was interesting it just didn’t feel tense or “scary” or whatever term you want to use. Anyway I still enjoyed the film and look forward to the new direction the franchise will be taking with Saw IV and V.

  12. Charlton, did you mean ‘dumb’ not ‘numb’?

    and to Sean,

    I didn’t just say that Campea posts just about blockbuster sci-fi. I said “scifi, horror, action, and comedies”. And the list of titles you mentioned are of the very few times that Campea, Sharon, or whoever posted about things that aren’t in those catagories i mentioned.
    as for generic entertainment news vs movie business, they are pretty much the same thing. movie business news does fall into the category of entertainment news because it is about that business industry. Even if it’s more about the numbers and not whoever is dating who. And for me, all ‘entertainment news’ is sort of a joke. i’m surprised anyone intelligent can care about it so passionately because afterall it is just the movies. this isn’t politics or anything important that would effect us deeply in our lives.

    Also Sean, Of those movies you mentioned, how many of them have been discussed on the audio edition? Sure campea posts about those movies (excluding Grindhouse of course) once in a while, but his true passion is in sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and shit essentially.

    And I still stand by my claim that The Movie Blog doesn’t have strong coverage of the entertainment industry. Even if The Movie Blog does focus on scifi/action/comedy movies, it doesn’t do a good job at it. You totally avoided Grudge 2, Marine, Guardian, etc. etc. Even the big blockbuster movies you don’t review, look at Poseidon, Mission Impossible III. Those movies came and went away, and we have no idea if you’ve seen it and what you thought about them.

  13. awww so now im the jackass . to bad you guys didnt get it either. movie blog fanboys . those movies are way better than you guys say. there more than just a thriller if you guys would actually look more into it than just a thriller movie. think about it. and to the “hobo” post i have know idea what you mean . you sound like a movie blog puppet that has no life,female or anything other than movies. sorry but you guys are totally wrong IN MY OPINION.

  14. I haven’t seen the latest installment of this franchise, but the reviewer reffered to the first films as “brainless fun”. It would be very interesting to back up those arguments in comparison with other movies without being fantasy or sci-fi, more near reality scenarios.
    I find that review kind of numb for lack of development it is mostly pointed towards gore. What happened in the first movies was that the gore was justified from the arc stories and the characters direct actions, if that is to happen in this movie then the reviewer has a very low attention span to details only focusing in the final obvious aftermath.
    Without seeing the movie, I would give that review a temporary 3 out of 10, mostly because:
    – the opinion wasn’t backed up;
    – the 3rd movie follows the same universe doesn’t need to copy the details of the others;
    – since the details differed that wasn’t very well focused on the review;
    – the saw universe is more about characters judging other characters rather than presenting traps, that is were the twists come from, redirecting the thrill and the understanding of the storyline from the audience;
    – have you found many movies that are able to build excitement and work over it without a fantasy plot evasion even in sequels?
    – 5 out of 10 from a flawed grading system?

  15. Holy shit, this movie sucked total ass. Since when does Jigsaw (this might be a spoiler) kill other people who aren’t being tested?

    According to S2 Jigsaw got Amanda AFTER she went back to jail the second time. This movie was totally fucked and boring as hell. John is 100% right, that it’s just gore. There was no “thrill”, there was no fear. Bobby’s a jackass, this movie was no more a thriller than a Discovery Channel nature show with a lion eating a gazel (sp?)

    5 out ot 10 was way too generous John. Why so high?

  16. Hm, bobby…

    That has to be some sort of clever look-at-me-I-can-write-like-they-do-on-the-lindsay-lohan-boards-on-imdb.com irony. If not, I’m not sure what to say. You know, the whole point with a review is the reviewer expressing his/her opinion. If you don’t agree with that opinion? Fine…but try and leave out the name-calling. And maybe try and come up with a counter argument? Though it would be sweet to do some name-calling just this second. Seeing greater meaning in the SAW-franchise? That’s funny stuff.

  17. wow what a jack ass . simple horror? i dont think so these movies make you think about whos behind it the whole time. saw 3 was a great movie. its a thriller movie you idiot. saw 1 was all about what you would do to survive . saw 2 was about impowerment. saw 3 was about beating your emotions. if your going to watch this movie to be scared then dont cause its not and all the saw’s have never been scary ……there not supposed to . your review sucks and you probably one of those haters cause you didnt get it.

  20. Mero, do you know the differnce between generic entertainment news and talking about the movie business? And all this bullshit about campea only posting about blockbuster sci-fi films is just getting tired. I copied and pasted this from a post last week. But here are some posts just i the last couple of weeks that have nothing to do with big blockbuster sci-fi

    Altered
    Flags Of Our Fathers
    An Inconvienient Truth
    Catch A Fire
    The Host
    13 Tzameti
    Bon Cop Bad Cop
    Plane Dead
    Grindhouse
    Ramones Biopic
    The Ministers
    Blood Diamond
    Deep Throat
    Studio Ghibli
    Death Of A President
    3:10 to Uma
    Shortbus
    Toronto After Dark Film Festival
    Keeping Mum
    Lake Of Fire
    The Last King of Scotland

    And that’s just on a quick look.

    Now, I will agree with Mero though that I’d like to see more actual reviews, just because I think you’re great at them, and the fact that you do them in that fast 3 minute video format is pretty unique for the web, you should take advantage of that and do them more often.

  21. i agree with alfredo. i wish you’d do reviews for every single movie released each weekend. Because when you are doing reviews, you are actually discussing the movies themselves and not just entertainment news, gossip, box office numbers, and heresay. and i’ve told you before, people want to hear you talk ABOUT the movies, we want to hear what you have to say. despite being called the Movie Blog, it feels more like Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood than a real true movie discussion blog. You talked so enthusiastically about Battlestar Galactica, why can’t you do the same for the movies you watch.

    And Campea, you need to watch every single movie released each weekend and then afterwards give your take on them. And not just the sci-fi, horror, action, and comedies. I’ve criticized you before about this. Just look at the top 10 movies, you didn’t talk about Flags of Our Father, The Prestige, Flicka, Grudge 2, Marie Antoinette, Running with Scissors. and outside the top 10, The Guardian, The Marine, Catch a Fire, Employee of The Month. So even though you focus your attention on scifi, fantasy, you don’t even cover all the movies that are in wide release.

    Also Campea, you need to for every weekend on a thursday or friday, post what your box office predictions are. And then discuss the true results on the next Monday.

  22. Totally agree with you John. I loved the first two but was very disappointed with the lack of fear in this installment. Where was the feeling of entrapment or confinement? This movie was defintely lacking that aspect…

  24. i thought the movie was awesome……… as a thriller.the franchise has never been “scary” to me, just very interesting.

    for a sec i thought u rated it a 3.5 out of 10…….lol
    5 is still pretty low though, compare it to the shit movies nowadays..lol

  25. Thanks for the great review, I really hope you start doing more of these. 2 or 3 a week, which I guess would be almost every wide relase movie, would be amazing.

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