Recently I have re-discovered a favorite series of mine in the Saw franchise. And so every day or so I will present a review on the BLU-RAY format of this awesome series to find out if it is worth it to upgrade your DVD you already own, or upgrade your system overall to BLU-RAY.
I love this first sequel in SAW 2, as just like the original Saw it does not fuck around, but rather gets straight to the point. At the beginning John/Jigsaw is chilling out in a warehouse having lunch waiting for an entire SWAT team to show up in total confidence. It looks like he is enjoying a nice bowl of Chinese noodles when the first of several law enforcement officers walk into an electrical cage trap. Now what I noticed right off the bat was a small inconsistency. Jigsaw does not just kill for the hell of it, and these police officers were not guilty of not "living fully", and were given no chance to play a game and win their lives. Maybe it was John's way of saying here is what I'm capable of folks, "don't fuck with me".
The sequel turns up the heat with not only a pissed off crooked cop played by former New Kid Donnie Wahlberg , but an entire house of fun traps and a groups of ex-cons with a wild card or two thrown in. You see one is Amanda played by the beautiful Shawnee Smith of Becker fame returning, and Wahlberg's son thrown in the mix. Like Saw the plots has various twists and turns and many opportunities to spoil this film which I won't do. Think of CBS's hit show Big Brother in Hell, fun as a barrel of crack head clowns in rehab! And let's face it; everyone would like to throw someone in a hypodermic needle pit once in a while, a boss, and meter reader, whatever!!!
The storyline is awesome with its good times all the way through to the end with a bad cop getting his comeuppance, and lots of gore and mayhem done in a MacGyver fashion the whole family will love.
Let's talk Blu-Ray
Video: 3 out of 5
Unremarkable up conversion of this Blu-Ray 1080p release. Comparing my DVD with the BLU-Ray I could see a few improvements but nothing to scream about. This film was much more colorful than the original; so much could have been sharpened up. Average release, but not worth re-buying if you already own this DVD as your blu-ray player will upconvert to 1080i. Yawn.
Audio: 3 of 5
Average. Average. Average. Audio editing class on campus. Did Lion's Gate hire free interns on this one? Nothing spectacular here, 5.1 with limited use of rear channels, Strong dialogue center channel work which saves this from a 2 out of 5.
Overall: If you don't own this already pick up the Blu-Ray for 7 bucks at the local Wal-Mart, but if not keep your good old DVD. You won't see much of a difference.
Guten Tag my beloved infernal legions!
