Ranking the 'Saw' Movies

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with the horror genre. Psycho from 1960 is my favorite film of all-time and I love all of the old classics Dracula(1931), Frankenstein(1931), The Mummy (1932) The Wolf Man(1941), Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), etc. However, I don't get into a lot of modern horror flicks and when I do it's usually some low-budget, direct to video, schlock I come across on Amazon Prime Video or Netflix that I can get a few laughs out of. That's what makes the Saw series unique for me. It's a modern horror franchise that, for the most part, I enjoy. I wouldn't call any of the films great, but most of them are good enough. So, here is how I rank the Saw films:


#8 Jigsaw (2017)

This one is pretty bad. I watched all of the films in the franchise in the theater and this is the only one that I seriously considered walking out on.

#7 Saw 3D (2010)
I like the 'Saw' films, but this is one of the weakest ones in the franchise. The Jigsaw traps aren't very clever and the plot feels lazy.

#6 Saw VI (2009)
This one isn't awful, it's just kind of forgettable.

#5 Saw V (2008)
This is entertaining enough to watch at least once. However, it is a weaker entry in the Saw series 

#4 Saw II (2005)
It's a pretty good follow-up to the original. Having 8 people involved in one Jigsaw game was an interesting idea, but it wasn't as unnerving as some of the individualized ones from other films in the series. 

#3 Saw III (2006)
This isn't my favorite but it's a solid entry in the series. It's an intense movie with an ending I really like, so I can excuse the overuse of flashbacks.

#2 Saw IV (2007)
I think this is one of the most entertaining in the series and I prefer it over Saw II or III.

#1 Saw (2004)
This is one of those movies that I've seen a number of times and my eyes are still glued to the screen every time I watch it. I enjoy the entire Saw series, but this first one is definitely my favorite. 

Bleed

It's October, so I figured I would start the month off with a horror movie.

Unfortunately, I decided to start with 2016's Bleed. This film is a mess. 

Sarah (played by Chelsey Crisp) and her husband Matt (played by Michael Steger) have decided to have some friends over to celebrate their new home and soon-to-be-born baby. Then Sarah's ghost hunting, deadbeat, brother Eric shows up with his girlfriend. Eric gets into a discussion about ghost hunting and suggests that everyone go check out an abandoned nearby prison, that is supposedly haunted. The setup isn't terrible and I thought there was some potential here, but the film falls apart once the gang heads to the old prison. 

Overall, this one was a bit of a letdown. I'd score this one a zero but, I did get a few chuckles from some unintentionally funny moments.

 1 out of 5. I'd recommend skipping this one.

Today's Movie: Milk

                                   

                                  

Milk is a 2008 biopic about the politician/gay rights activist Harvey Milk. The film stars a pretty solid cast featuring Josh Brolin, James Franco, Allison Pill, Emile Hirsch, Diego Luna, and Sean Penn as Harvey Milk. Taking place on the 1970's, the movie focuses on Milk's numerous attempts and eventual success in being the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California. I wasn't alive in the 1970's and I've never done any extensive research on the life of Harvey Milk, so I'm going assume most of the film accurately depicts the real life events. It's well directed, well acted (Sean Penn even won an Oscar for his role in the film), and features a solid musical score by Danny Elfman. However, despite the interesting subject matter, I find the film a little on the boring side and drags a bit at times. It's a 2-hour movie that feels like 3-hours. 

Is it one of the best biopics of all-time? I don't think so, but it's a good movie.

3.5 out of 5.

Close Range

Close Range is a 2016 film with some slightly deceptive box-art.

In the film, Stanly Winters (played by Henry Douthwaite) is a former soldier that accidently shot and killed a young boy during a raid. Haunted by this experience, Stanley has since retired to the French Alps where he cares for his blind mother. Some years later, the boy's sister sets out to find her brother's killer and get revenge.

Now, based on the premise and a quick look at the Blu-ray cover made me think this was going to be an action B-movie set in a snowy environment, with some bad puns and maybe a snow-mobile chase thrown in for good measure. However, If you go into this one hoping for an action flick, then this will be a pretty big let down. On the flip side, if you just want to take a gamble on some random film that you never heard of then this might be a pleasant surprise. The movie isn't great, but it is good. It's a quiet and slowly-paced film for the most part, which helps to emphasis the wintry solitude. The acting overall is decent and it's pretty well written. 

I give this one a solid 3 out of 5

Western Wednesday: Days of Jesse James

Today's movie is the 1939 film Days of Jesse James and it stars two legends of the Western genre, Roy Rogers and George "Gabby" Hayes. The movie hits the ground running by starting off with Jesse James and his gang robbing a train. This event is enough to convince one of the train's passengers, Gabby Whittaker (played by Hayes), to start putting his money into the bank. Unfortunately for him, the bank he puts all his money in is robbed shortly afterwards. Of course everyone assumes that Jesse James is also responsible for the bank robbery, so Roy and Gabby set out to find the James gang. However, the two soon discover the truth and, Spoiler Alert (if you're actually worried about spoilers for a movie that was released nearly 80 years ago), it turns out the bank manager is the one who actually stole the money.

 Overall, this is a decent flick. The plot is straight forward and to the point, and although it's probably not one of Roy Rogers best, I think it's enjoyable. 

2.5 out of 5

Today's Movie: Broken City

2013's Broken City is one of those films that falls into the "good enough" category. It has a decent cast and some pretty good cinematography, but suffers from a formulaic plot. 

The film is about a former cop-turned-private investigator, named Billy Taggart (played by Mark Wahlberg) who has been hired by the mayor of New York City to follow his wife and collect evidence of an affair. Of course this is all part of an elaborate setup, and a much bigger government corruption scheme. If you're even a moderate fan of political thrillers or crime dramas you'll probably be able to predict every twist this movie throws at you 10 minutes before it happens.

With that being said, I still think it's entertaining. Russell Crowe plays Mayor Nicholas Hostetler and Catherine Zeta-Jones plays his wife and are both solid. The movie does lack a bit of tension, and there's a whole thing about Billy's girlfriend being an aspiring actress which felt, at least to me, like unnecessary subplot thrown in to pad the runtime. 

Overall, Broken City is a mixed-bag. If you like Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe, and films about corruption then definitely check it out. Otherwise you're not missing anything if you skip this one. It's fine and I wasn't bored but, I'm also going to probably forget I even watched it in a few days.

2.5 out of 5

Today's Movie: Zipper

Released in 2015, Zipper is a political-thriller starring Patrick Wilson and Lena Headey. 

The film is about a federal prosecutor named Sam Ellis (played by Wilson) who, in addition to being a lawyer, also has political aspirations. One night, whether it be from the pressures of his stressful life or just his own curiosity (the film never explicitly says), Sam contacts an escort service and cheats on his wife. Unfortunately for Sam, this soon leads to him becoming addicted to prostitutes. From there bulk of the film is about Sam's struggle to balance work and his new obsession, all while trying to keep his indiscretions hidden from his wife, the FBI, and the press. 

There are couple of things I like about this movie; Patrick Wilson's performance is good and Richard Dreyfuss has a small part in the film. That being said, I wouldn't call this a good film overall. It's not particularly well written or directed, and it hard to empathize with any of the characters. If the plot sounds interesting to you, then you might want to check it out. I don't recommend this one but, it's only about 1hr 40mins long and there are far worse movies out there.

1.5 out of 5.