VOD Review: Jigsaw (2017)

"And you thought "The Final Chapter" meant it was over. Ha!"

(aka Part 8.)
Release Date: January 23rd (Blu-ray)
Country: USA.
Rating: R.
Written by: Pete Goldfinger and Josh Stolberg.
Directed by: The Spierig Brothers.
Starring: Tobin Bell, Callum Keith Rennie, Laura Vandervoort, Matt Passmore, Brittany Allen, and Hannah Emily Anderson.

It's been 7 years since Saw 3D "ended" the franchise that probably should have ended with part 4, if not part 3. People love Jigsaw and his traps though, so you knew that Twisted Pictures and Lionsgate would milk it for all its worth. It's a billion dollar franchise, so someone out there will always want more.

The Spierig Brothers have a small but impressive body of work to their credit including Undead (review HERE), Daybreakers (review HERE), and Predestination (review HERE), and so with them at the helm, we had a reasonable amount of hope that they could breathe some life back into the franchise with Jigsaw, or at the very least, make it a "better than the last 4 " kind of entry.

And they did a pretty decent job.

5 people wake up in a room with buckets chained to their heads, and out of nowhere, Jigsaw's voice tells them that they're all evil fuckers that have to pay for their sins. That payment involves saw blades embedded in doors, which is pretty cute, because the series is called Saw.

HERE WE GO AGAIN.

After the initial game, the 4 remaining survivors realize what's going on, and they are forced to play Jigsaw's games, to atone for the shady shit that they did which caused harm to other people. One of them, Anna, seems up to the task of beating Jigsaw at his own game, which makes us wonder just who in the hell she really is.

HMM...

All the while, detectives Halloran and Hunt are finding bodies all over town that seem to suggest that The Jigsaw Killer is still alive and well, and is starting up his social rehabilitation program for social deviants again. With the help of a a pair of doctors (one of whom is a smoking hot redhead who looks like trouble), they race against time to find Jigsaw, and stop his newest game before another group of scumbags is killed in clever, and fairly fitting ways.

THAT'S GONNA HURT.

I've got to admit that I liked Jigsaw way more than I thought I would. It's not without its flaws,. but the heart of its series has always been the punishment that bad people receive via Jigsaw's judgment, which is played out via a series of brutal and painfully relevant games, and this movie has no shortage of that.

The Saw movies have always been great because Jigsaw, and his motivations, have always been intriguing as hell, and it was nice to see Tobin Bell back in action. There's something compelling about him as an actor, and as Jigsaw, you can't help but like the guy, what he does, and why he does it, because he's got a point.

You know what you're getting with the average Saw movie: bloody, creative traps; and a silly plot that makes you think "Hey, I could write movies!", but that's alright, because sometimes we're in it for the visceral thrill, and on that level, Jigsaw delivers.

READ THE DOOR, DUMMY!

This movie needed more Jigsaw, because at 75-years-old, Tobin Bell still plays a hell of a villain.

WE WOULDN'T MIND A RETURN IN SOME FORM OF AMANDA, EITHER.

The real problem with these movies after lets say, Part 3, is that their plots get so over-complicated and unbelievable, that they make us roll our eyes. It's like they kept coming up with implausible and very convenient ways to keep the series going long after its titular villain had been killed, and that irks us a bit.

Jigsaw is no different in that way, stretching our limits of believability and giving us two twists that existed only to allow another Saw movie to be made, albeit in a way that made sense.

NEVER TRUST A SEXY GIRL WITH AN ARM SLEEVE!

Lots of bloody goodness throughout this one, courtesy of Jigsaw's new traps. The bike trap and the laser were our faves.

THAT ONE WAS PRETTY GOOD TOO.

No such luck.

FOR SHAME.

The first Saw movie is one of the best Horror films of the new millennium, and even though Jigsaw, the 8th installment in the series, comes nowhere near the original in terms of quality, it keeps the spirit of the series alive and well, and gives fans another dose of the mayhem that they've come to expect from the films.

If you like the Saw series for what it is, then Jigsaw will most likely make you happy.

C+

Jigsaw is available now on Blu-ray, DVD, and VOD.

Hannah, Laura, and Brittany: the lovely victims of Jigsaw.

VOD Review: Happy Death Day (2017)

"There's something fun about this movie, even if it is a bit tame."

When it comes to the movies that Blumhouse Pictures churns out on the regular, it's safe to say that many of them are a mixed bag.

For every Hush, Sleight, or Viral that we get, we also have to endure the underwhelming mediocrity of titles like The Gallows, Exeter, or The Veil.

Then there's the next level down, where movies like Mockingbird, The Darkness, or Unfriended exist... and that is truly shit-filled level.

As Teen Terror flicks go, Happy Death Day is a step up for Blumhouse, although it feels fairly sanitized and tame, which holds it back from being great.

Tree (yes, that's actually what people call her) wakes up on her birthday, on Monday, September 18th, in some guys dorm room, where she ended up after a night of hard partying. She does her walk of shame and sets about her day, which involves her being a catty mean girl, and making us fine with the fact that she's about to be murdered over and over again.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MEAN GIRL!

You see, as her birthday draws to a close, she's murdered by a masked killer. Then she wakes up and it's the same day again, only she's still alive. So she sets out on her day again, experiencing a huge case of deja-vu at every turn, until she realizes that for some reason, she's reliving the same day over and over again, which includes dying in a new, painful way each time at the hands of her killer.

ARE WE SUPPOSED TO ROOT FOR HIM OR HER?

Pissed off at dying repeatedly, Tree, with the help of her nice guy love interest, tries to figure out who's killing her, and why.

Lots of things ensue over and over again.

AH, ROMANCE.

Everyone who has seen Happy Death Day has already said that it's basically Groundhog Day gone the Slasher route, and it bears repeating, because that's exactly what it is. It's pretty sad that there's no Bill Murray in this one though, because he's the goods.

HDD is a fun movie. It's an inventive movie too. It would have played much better though had they not restrained the material so much. Director Christopher Landon's last feature, Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (review HERE), laid on the gore and crude humor, which made us love it. HDD feels neutered by comparison, and that hurts its enjoyment factor.

Maybe that's because as clever as the script was, we found it to be just as weak: what is causing the time loop?; why so many fake endings?; why was the reveal of the killer so random, and why did it feel like it made no sense? When a script is weak, visceral thrills tend to gloss over such weaknesses, and this movie needed those extra touches.

"PEEK-A-BOO!"

Plenty of inventive, and even fun, kill scenes throughout this one, although most of them are not very heavy on the blood.

THE MASCARA FLOWS FREELY THOUGH.

No such luck.

SUCH POTENTIAL.

This movie knows what it is, and that's cool, but it's short on likable characters, and some of its plot points feel stretched in order for them to make sense, but hey, this movie is about its gimmick, and it's at least a good one.

Just wish it had contained more R-rated elements. And answers.

C+

Happy Death Day is available now on VOD, and hits Blu-ray & DVD now.

Happy Hottie Day.

Blu-ray Review: IT (2017)

"It's even better the 2nd time around on Blu-ray."

(aka The Loser's Club.)
Release Date: September 8th.
Country: USA.
Rating: R.
Written by: Chase Palmer and Cary Fukunaga.
Directed by: Anthony Muschietti.
Starring: Jaeden Lieberher, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Jack Dylan Grazer, Chosen Jacobs, Wyatt Oleff, and Bill Skarsgard.

There have been some great movies this year, but as we approach the 4th quarter of 2017, none of them has made us feel like the remake of IT did.

In direct contrast to the 1990 mini-series, it's not even Pennywise that made this remake so great, but the story of the kids. IT definitely has a Stranger Things vibe about it, but watching The Loser's Club run around Derry, Maine brought to mind movies like The Goonies or The Monster Squad, probably because we're old, and those movies came way before the hit Netflix show did.

Point is, it reminded us of a time when our friends were all we had, and we stuck together through whatever came our way.

It might sound crazy, but this new take on the world of IT is so captivating that I really wish that they would have gone the TV route with it. Season 1 could have been 8 episodes of the kid's story, and Season 2 could have switched gears to the adults, and finished things off.

As it stands though, the IT remake is a great piece of work that made us wish we were kids again... just not in Derry, where a killer clown from the nth dimension would be trying to eat us.

On a rainy day in 1988, stuttering Bill Denbrough makes a paper boat for his little brother Georgie, so that he can go outside and sail it in the gutters. The boat washes into a storm drain that is occupied by a clown who introduces himself as Pennywise the Dancing Clown before biting the kid's arm off, and dragging him into the sewers.

JUST LET THE BOAT GO, GEORGIE.

9 months later, and the list of missing kids is growing. While Bill and his friends, The Loser's Club, spend their days being terrorized by the sadistic Henry Bowers and his gang of thugs, they all start having horrific run-ins with a clown, who tries to kill each of them in ways suited to their worst fears. Mainly because Pennywise feeds on fear.

AND HE ALSO INSPIRES FEAR QUITE WELL.

When they finally realize that Pennywise is a very real threat and has been eating children every 27 years for centuries, they band together to put an end to him once and for all.

INTO THE GLORY HOLE OF DOOM THEY GO.

IT is the kind of Horror movie that we desperately need. Not only is it scary as hell, but the coming-of-age story that anchors most of the movie is genuinely heartfelt, and it sucked us in and made us want to be a part of The Loser's Club. As scary as it is, and it is scary, it's filled with plenty of humor and humanity, and it captures the perils of being an outcast child fantastically.

The casting of the kids is just about perfect. Watching Sophia Lillis as Beverly, I said to myself "This girl is going to win an Oscar someday." Sounds crazy, but the girl displays the type of nuance that separates good actors from the great, and she played the part as if she'd been born to do so. It was an absolute star-making turn. The rest of the kids were great too, with Finn Wolfhard's Richie being our fave; the kid made us laugh, and he brought some much needed levity to the dark proceedings.

As for Bill Skarsgard's take on Pennywise... Look, say what you will about the 1990 mini-series, but Tim Curry was brilliant as Pennywise, and his performance will stand as one of the Horror greats forever. So what can we really expect from someone else trying to follow that kind of lead, you know? Skarsgard makes for a terrifying clown, and he gives the film plenty of menace, but it just wasn't as good as Curry's turn. And it didn't have to be.

• The Lego turtle was a nice nod.
• As was the doll of Tim Curry's Pennywise.
• The bathroom scene was a huge improvement over the one from the mini-series, and it was one of the best bits in the movie.
• The rock fight rocked.

THIS GIRL STOLE THE SHOW.

As with any remake, or adaptation of a novel, there are going to be changes. Here, they made Georgie go missing instead of his body being found early on; the way that Bev makes it into the sewers at the end is different, and not as good; what exactly was Henry Bower's fate? Who will take the rap for the child murders? It was a bummer that Patrick Hockstetter's creepy story wasn't delved into a bit more too. And what about The Wolfman? The giant bird? The Paul Bunyan statue that comes to life? And why did they change Mike's character so much? And a bolt gun instead of the slingshot?

They obviously made these changes to appeal to the modern audience, and make things scarier. These are minor gripes, as we get that not everything from the book could possibly make the movie, but we miss certain elements.

THE HOUSE ON NIEBOLT STREET.

IT ended, and we wanted more. Also, production on the 2nd part of IT (which is not a sequel, but the back-half of the story) hasn't even begun production yet!

GIVE US MORE!

The bathroom scene with Beverly is literally soaked in blood, and it is glorious.

THOSE TAMPONS SURE ARE GOING TO COME IN HANDY NOW.

Not that kind of movie at all.

INSTEAD, IT'S THIS KIND OF MOVIE.

IT looks and sounds great in 1080p (and we imagine it must look even better on 4K), and it made our return trip to Derry, Maine a technically impressive one. I personally loved the Pennywise Lives! and Loser's Club featurettes, and the look behind the scenes that they gave us.

The only bad thing about this disc is that in a few months there will be an Extended Director's Cut released, so it feels like buying this one is a bit of a pre-double dip. I needed to own it, and to watch it again now, but for people who aren't a big fan of double-dipping, you may want to wait until that DC is released.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Pennywise Lives! – Discover how Bill Skarsgård prepared to portray the primordial creature known as Pennywise the Dancing Clown
• The Losers' Club – Get up close and personal with the teenage stars of "IT" as they bond together during the production,
• Author of Fear – Stephen King reveals the roots of his best-selling novel, the nature of childhood fear and how he created his most famous monster, Pennywise
• Deleted Scenes – Eleven deleted or extended scenes from the film
• Languages: English, Latin Spanish, Canadian French, Brazilian Portuguese
• Subtitles: English, Latin Spanish, Parisian French, Canadian French, Brazilian Portuguese

HE'S A SCARY DUDE.

The bottom line is this: IT is a great remake, a great film in its own right, and it should be seen by all. It has a special, nostalgic quality about it, it's terrifying (at least for those who fear clowns), and for us, it more than lived up to its massive pre-release hype.

Read the book, watch the original mini-series, and then grab the disc and enjoy.

A+

IT is available now on Blu-ray, DVD, and VOD.

Some shots of Pennywise, because who doesn't need a few more nightmares in their life?