by Sun Meilan

Created on: June 03, 2009   Last Updated: April 23, 2011

Detective Mark Hoffman and Agent Peter Strahm are at odds over murders that have Jigsaw's influence all over them, although Jigsaw is supposedly dead. After the death of fellow officers and his own near-death experience, Strahm suspects that Hoffman is an accomplice of Jigsaw. Hoffman, recently commended for having apprehended Jigsaw, realises that Strahm may be catching up with him and knows that he has to do something about it. Meanwhile five seemingly random strangers wake up with shackles around their necks. They realise that they have a series of tests to complete, with the completion of each stage necessary before the next one becomes available. But each are life-threatening and none of the five trust each other. Will any of them escape with their lives? And will Strahm manage to convince his superiors that Hoffman is Jigsaw's next in line?

Agent Peter Strahm is played by Scott Patterson, and to be honest, is not the best of actors. He is wooden and although he is supposed to be the hero of the piece, manages to fall completely flat. On top of that, he looks too similar to the actor that plays Mark Hoffman; so much so that I was constantly confused as to who was on screen. There are plenty of opportunities for Patterson to make something of the role; I just wish he had. Costas Mandylor is marginally better as Mark Hoffman. I wasn't bowled over by his performance, but he does at least have a screen presence and it is easy to see how he could persuade others of his innocence. Tobin Bell does appear briefly as Jigsaw, mainly giving advice to Hoffman - now he is a creepy character, and it's a shame that Hoffman doesn't really compare.

The rest of the cast are fairly unimportant. The five people forced to undergo a series of tests are nondescript; so much so, that I didn't really catch any of their names. This makes it hard to care what happens to them, especially when they all have past sins. Greg Bryk is probably the best of the lot - he is incredibly annoying to begin with, but when the time comes for him to show real pain, he does really well - all a bit too convincing really. The performance wasn't good enough to be memorable though.

What really lets the film down is the story. There are the two main threads: Strahm and Hoffman's rivalry and the game that Jigsaw plays with the five strangers. However, the two parts don't really seem to gel together - it is almost like watching two completely different films. That, coupled with the fact that none of the

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