MOVIE REVIEW

By pandering to populist anger, the latest in the franchise sinks lower than ever.

By Robert Abele

Boy, six installments into a crunch-and-splatter series like "Saw," and you think you know a guy. Jigsaw, the Tupac Shakur of franchise monsters -- dead, but still releasing work -- seemed pretty clear-cut by now, almost cocktail-chatter boring. Yeah, yeah, he likes torture -- er, I mean, "games," has some mad engineering chops, is fascinated by the "will to live," and has obviously bought mini-cassette recorders in bulk. But hey, it turns out he was once turned down by an insurance company for a medical procedure. Jigsaw wants healthcare reform!

In what might be the shrewdest, most politically tinged move for this reprehensibly gory, obnoxiously cynical and incompetently directed (this time by original "Saw" editor Kevin Greutert) series, the "Saw VI" writers have given Jigsaw (Tobin Bell, the Hoarse Whisperer) a target for his death-and-dismemberment contraptions that average movie audiences -- well, the ones who like this stuff -- might actually feel some real-life vengeance toward: slick, heartless, coverage-denying bureaucrats.

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But, really, do reformers and victims of callous health insurers really want a guy with a penchant for elaborately constructed death panels of his own to be their advocate? Elsewhere, the usual critiques apply: terrible acting, zero suspense, laughable logic and the promise of another one next year. How can we get this policy canceled?

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