Format: DVD from Sycamore Public Library on The New Portable.
I liked the first Saw movie, I found the second one passable, and I disliked the third one. I didn’t bother with the rest of them. So why the hell did I bother with Spiral, you may ask. That’s a fair question. I saw the DVD on the new acquisitions shelf of a local library, saw that it starred Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson, and didn’t notice until I got home that it was also called Saw: From the Book of Saw. Well, in for a penny, in for a pound, so here we go.
Spiral is going to be a movie of two halves, or rather two sides. There are things here that I like and things that I do not. I’m not entirely sure where this leaves me on the movie in general; I’m still working that out, and perhaps by the time I get to the end, I’ll have an answer as far as that goes. Bluntly, there are plot elements here that work really well. What doesn’t work as well is the reliance on gore. The Saw movies have always been at least a little bloody, but this one dives in to that end of the pool with gusto and without real necessity.
