waking into a dream journal 01.12.08

this morning's reason to be scared (but for entirely different reasons than the filmmakers intend...)
are you scared
director: someone who apparently doesn't know better // 2006
cinema 4 rating: 3

as down as i have been on the saw series thus far (i am not one of those taken with it at all, though the first one was a tad refreshing when i first, ahem, saw it), if this film is any indication of the declination of inspiration, i now wish the series had never gotten off the ground to begin with -- combines two of my least favorite modern things: torture porn and reality shows (which i actually consider to be one and the same), and then spews the result up in a chunder so completely (and expectedly) dull-witted as to make one wish they were actually in the drill-bit scene within the film to make the pain go away -- here's an idea: instead of enlisting generic teenie bimbos and himbos for one of these maniacal displays, how about having the killer put out a call for producers and torture porn movies and reality shows, make them show up in a secluded location, and then give them a dose of the same crap they've been foisting upon us for the past decade or so -- how about when you make a film where one mad genius or stalker or slasher is torturing a whole building of people slowly and methodically, that you give us some sense of the sweat this guy is building up trying to intimidate these people back and forth -- i can multitask with the best of them, but if more than two people walk into my office, i need to have someone take a number -- if six people are all trying to escape a building, the other five don't just stand around and wait for the first one to be killed before the next one gives it a shot -- but, no, this cheeseball has time to slowly talk to each victim and describe the little games he has set up, which aren't really games at all, but assured death scenarios -- at least jigsaw gives his victims a slight chance of survival -- his are puzzles built on moral dilemmas, a point the writer/director of this film (and saw copycat) seems to have missed -- not surprising though, since he also doesn't give the audience a chance at entertainment either... outside of the people who are exactly like him -- avoid at all costs, please -- at least turistas had titties...