Search - Saw V (Unrated Collector's Edition) on DVD

Hoffman continues as the killer.

James McDonald | Southern California | 10/30/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I will not tell all the surprises in this film.
It is very important that you have seen SAW 2, SAW 3 and SAW 4 to understand what is going on here. If you missed SAW 4, you might pick up on what is going on in SAW 5, but then again, you don't know about the "death" of Jigsaw John and how and why the "games" and traps continue.
Returning for another go around is Tobin Bell as "Jigsaw John" who you will see in new footage of "flashbacks".
Also returning is Costas Mandylor as "Hoffman" who we met in SAW 3 as "Forensic Hoffman" and SAW 4 as "Detective Hoffman".
Scott Patterson returns as "Agent Strahm" from SAW 4 and Besty Russell returns as "Jill" whom we met in SAW 3 and SAW 4.
Mike Realba returns as "Detective Fisk".
Also in new footage of "flashbacks" is Mike Butters of the first SAW (2004) and Tim Burd as "Obi" and Tony Nappo as "Gus" from SAW 2 (2005).
Bill Vilbert returns as a cop.
Niamh Wilson returns as the little girl "Corbett".

In archive footage: Danny Glover, Shawnee Smith, Donnie Wahlberg, Lyriq Bent, Angus Macfadyen, Bahar Soomekh, Athena Karkanis, Justin Lovis.

When we last left SAW 4 (2007), we discovered that Detective Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) was the new killer taking the place of Jigsaw John (Tobin Bell) and he had survived the trap that killed Officer Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg).
The story continues as we see a man, Seth, (Joris Jarsky) strapped to a table with a pendulum swinging back and forth getting closer and closer to his naked, chiseled stomach. He must reach into these hand vises to try to stop the pendulum, but his hands become cut and crushed. He is running out of time. The pain too great. He fails the game and the pendulum cuts him deeply to his death. Just before he dies, he sees an eye looking at him from a hole.
We will soon find out who it was.
Now beginning with the same night as Saw 3 and SAW 4, Agent Strahm (Scott Patterson) is on this case and is getting closer to finding out who the killer is, but everyone believes it was Jigsaw John.
The movie viewers know that Jigsaw John is dead as we saw for our selves in SAW 3 and SAW 4. We know Hoffman is the killer.
Agent Strahm is investigating the rooms where the murders took place. He winds up back at the Gideon warehouse in the room where Jeff (Angus Macfadyen) who he accidently killed in self-defense, Lynn (Bahar Soomekh), who we found out is Jeff's wife, Amanda (Shawnee Smith) and Jigsaw John have died.
To the left, he sees the tiled wall with drawings hung up. He suddenly kicks the wall and a door opens up in to a secret passageway.
Agent Strahm goes into this passageway and is assaulted by someone dressed in the pig's mask.
Strahm finds himself in a trap. A glass cube is fixed around his head with lights inside. It fills up with a liquid. Frantic to get loose and to breath, he reaches for a sharp object in his pocket and stabs his own throat to continue breathing. He manages to survive the trap and is helped by a back-up unit. Jeff and Lynn's little girl has been saved.
Also helped by back-up is Detective Hoffman (Costas Mandylor), but the police department does not know yet, he is the killer.
Erickson (Mark Rolston) takes Agent Strahm off the case and is put on medical leave, however, that is not going to stop Strahm from getting more clues.
Strahm is still tracing the footsteps of the killer off-duty and goes through the department's files. He is hot on the trail, but Erickson catches him in the station and is getting suspicious.
Meanwhile, there are 5 people who are in a room (Laura gordon, Megan Good, Greg Bryk, Julie Benz, Carlo Rota). They are all wearing a neck collar device cabled to a wall, but behind each of them is a locker space with very sharp blades that could behead them. On the other side of the room are the keys in a glass case they need to be set free. The more that someone pulls on a cable, the others are put back further to the blades. There is also a jar of explosive nails ready to kill them all, so they must work together and fast. The timer is going.
As in SAW 2, each room has a trap.
This film shows less of the traps and victims and less gore. Most of the plot is the cat-and-mouse chase between Strahm and Hoffman.
Along the way in this film, we will see brand new footage of "flashbacks" that are missing pieces to the first SAW, SAW 2, SAW 3 and SAW 4.
Also there is a very nice surprise for all of us SAW fans.

The Unrated Director's Cut (Widescreen) runs 95 min.

DVD container is wrapped in tight plastic, but please be careful, there is a protective coverslip that lifts off that you need to save. Notice the security seals still on your container. You can carefully peel these or cut them. I prefer to leave them intacted. The DVD itself has blue printing.

There are some problems with the disc from the Unrated Director's Cut. The picture will freeze once it is on the Option Menu or will freeze up and skip after playing the preview of My Bloody Valentine 3-D (2009).
After about 3 plays, the DVD would start to work better.
if the Option Menu freezes on you. keep trying to load in the DVD. If it skips and plays, wait for the little black dot to appear by "Play", and press "Enter" on your remote control. The movie will play fine.

Special features: 2 audio commentaries. The first audio commentary with Director David Hackl and First Assistant Director Steve Webb is very informative. They are oh so careful not to reveal secrets of the upcoming SAW VI (2009). But they almost did.
The Penduluim Trap ( Approx.5 min.), The Cube Trap ( Approx.5 min.), The Coffin Trap ( Approx. 5 min.), The Fatal Trap (Approx. 11 min.), Slicing the Cube: Editing the Cube Trap (Approx. 5 min.), Theatrical Trailer.

***Update: SAW IV was released October 23, 2009. What is in the box?

SAW VII 3-D will be released October 29, 2010. It will be the last film of the series."

It's a good police drama

Ben J. Ohmart | Boalsburg, PA | 01/20/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I'm a big fan of the series, especially 2 and 3. I think Saw 2 is one of the best horror films ever made. Beautifully done, excellent script, and 2 main surprises at the end. I first became disappointed with the series at seeing Saw 4, not necessarily because Jigsaw is dead, though he IS the dominating force and needs to come back. (If I had written #4, I would've started it at the end of 3, making the father save Jigsaw with a transfusion so he could find out where his daughter is; plus, his wife was a nurse, so he would conceivably know CPR, etc.) Anyway, I found little clever about the end of #4, and far less at the end of #5. 4 was written as a horror movie, not a hybrid mystery/horror movie, which is what brought me into the series in the first place. And #5 is more like a TV police drama than anything else. As one who doesn't watch any TV, I guess I'm more sensitive to how Saw 5 plays than an audience full of people who don't go to the movies as often as I do. It's too bad. But I'm Still looking forward to #6 of course. And will keep watching the series, hoping the cleverness of 2 and 3 will return."

Game in Overtime

Tim Brough | Springfield, PA United States | 10/27/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

""I want to play a game." Well, we all knew that. But with Jigsaw dead, how does the Saw series keep the game from becoming overtly predictable? The answer is not revealed in "Saw V," which shows the series becoming an utterly predictable Halloween event.

Jigsaw (Tobin Bell, weirdly malevolent as ever) is still dead. That minor fact, however, does not negate his being in "Saw V" in various states of criminal commission, with or without Detective Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) as his accomplice. Still hot on the case FBI Agent Pete Strahm (Scott Patterson) is on Hoffman's trail, and there are five hapless but interconnected folks now secured in one of Jigsaw's traps.

The traps are, as usual, freaky. The FBI cops are trying to figure out who dunnit. Mrs. Jigsaw discovers she has inherited a mysterious box from her dearly departed, but we aren't allowed to see the contents after she peeks in (hmmm, preview of the plot for "Saw VI"?). What is missing is any sense of newness to the film, or a real hard twist at the end. For a film with a tagline of "You won't believe how it ends," that's only partway true. I was really expecting more.

While I still think Saw II is the best of the series, "Saw V" comes off as little else than a cop caper with some of that old time gore tossed in for squeamish factor. Saw IV was definitely more squirm inducing, which makes you wonder why they didn't spend a little more time trimming the fat and adding a bit more slashing. As a cop chase flick with a side plot of torture, "Saw V" comes off as just an average flick. Of course, I'll be back next Halloween."

It could have been better

kboy2008 | 10/27/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"DON'T READ THIS UNLESS YOU SAW THE MOVIE!

I am not normaly a horor fan, most horor movies bore me with lame plots and bad charecters, but the Saw mvoies have made me a horor fan. I have to say thou the last 2 saw movies (4,5) have really let me down. My first and biggist problem I had with this saw movie was in the very end they never said "game over" The biggest trade mark of all the movies and for what ever reason was never said, that bothered me. The second thing that really bothered me was I want to know what Hoffman worte in that letter to Amanda, and why did it make her cry. I have some guesses but I really want them to answer that one before they throw out to many other questions.

This movie seemed to be a rewrite of Saw II but with different traps and different charecters, with nothing very new or orginal. In Saw II there was a large group of missing people in one house together with traps set all for all of them. If they had all worked together they all would have survived but they truned on eachother and aside from amanda they all died. In this movie there was another large group of people traped in a warehouse with traps in each room, and if they had worked together more than 2 would have lived. Also in Saw II the police were hot on Jigsaw's tail and if it weren't for his ability to decive the cops he would have been arrested. If it weren't for Hoffmans able to pin all the evidence on the other guy in this movie he would have ended up in jail. I really don't think Saw V is anything orginal rather they took the second movie and changed the people and the traps and reasled it.

the traps of this movie were totaly lame there was only one that really stuck out at me and that was the fake jigsaw trap. this move also had the stupidist trap of all 5 movies yet. The drowning trap lacked major deatil. First there was no tape at all to explain the rules of the trap or how to win. Jigsaws profile was all about carefuly explaing why they are in the trap, how the trap will kill the person and how to win the trap. This trap had none of theses. Jigsaw was rolling over in his grave over that trap.

There has only been two Saw movies where I never saw the ending coming and that was the first and third. The second one I called as soon as I saw Amanda there, and I wasn't sure who the killer was in the 5th movie but I guessed he was involved in the trap somewhere. This movie ending was totaly stupid, and again if you haven't seen the movie I plan to give it away here so stop reading if you haven't seen the movie. In the Saw movies everytime someone gets a tape there put into Jigsaw's game and most of the time there dead at the end of the movie, sometimes not but most of the time yes. As soon as he took the tape and played it in the begining of the movie I knew he'd be dead by the end of the movie. Jigsaw plays off your flaws and his flaw was he never knew when to stop. So having the big twist killing him in a room where the walls closed in around you, was totaly stupid. That trap is one of the oldist in the books.

I am going to call how I think Saw VI will go. I think Jigsaw's ex-wife is going to join up with Hoffman and work with him in what ever trap they set for there next set of people, and I think she'll be the twist at the end of the movie. I think this because after she opened the box she seemed to change, she seemed to want to help hoffman. Also it was her that when to the FBI and lied to them about being followed to help put evidence on the other guy. Also in the 4th movie she wasn't too excited about answering questions, she didn't seem to support what Jigsaw was doing but she wasn't to willing to expose him either. The last reason I think she'll join Hoffman is because if she had any plans at exposing Hoffman, Hoffman would have gotten rid of her to insure his identiy as the new jigsaw was kept, he didn't. I wouldn't be suprised if she is in a trap to throw everyone off the track but I really think shes going to join Hoffman.

All and all Saw V wasn't too bad, theres nothing here orginal, I think that after Saw 3 it's all been rewrting old scripts and new traps, but I have high hopes for Saw VI for the reason that are new Jigsaw got away and is on hiw own for the first time and they have a really good chance to create some new twist."