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Saw IV 2007 ★★½
The first entry in the Hoffman-saga looked better than I expected.
In spite of the monotonous nature of torture porn - work out the trap and move on - the pace did not lag all that much or often throughout the movie's runtime. Costas Mandaylor and Lyriq Bent make for a decent villain and a solid hero.
The convoluted soap opera-esque plot is both the charm and the flaw of this franchise. On the one hand, it's nice to spot the callbacks to part 3 and the elements hinting towards part five. On the other hand, it sometimes makes the story so convoluted it's not even funny.
But... we came for the kills and they were as gory, brutal and mean spirited as you would expect with the demise of Eric Matthews as the "icing on the cake". And a well executed (but in hindsight predeictable) reveal in the end.
In short, Saw is like Pringles: once you pop...
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