Friday, March 26, 2010

CROSSTOPIX #3: Part 3 of 3 - CrossACTION

CrossACTION

Before you read this, you can read parts one and two of this week's CrossTopix.


Alright everyone, all answers have been made. It’s time for the part of the week where we pick one person and discuss one of their topics that we agree or disagree on. Remember; be courteous when expressing your opinions!


STVO: Warning: Spoilers for Saw 3 in my rebuttal, if you haven’t seen it and don’t want it spoiled, don’t read the second paragraph. Nick, in response to your comments of Hostel and Saw being “torture porn,” I heavily disagree with you and others that say that. They are both very entertaining movies that have decent to very good storylines (see Saw 3 which I will get to in a bit.) 5 and 6 of the Saw series fall a little more into senseless violence though, they still connect to all the previous stories. Also, I personally don’t find anything wrong with lots of violence in movies, heck take a look at two popular things in the USA right now: Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and the Call of Duty video game franchise. Okay, they’re not as gory as Saw or Hostel, but still, don’t people cheer when Brock Lesnar draws blood from Frank Mir or if you’re playing CoD: Modern Warfare 2, don’t you get a little excited when you take an opponent out by delivering a headshot from your sniper rifle? That’s what happens with me in Hostel/Saw, it gives me a feeling of “Oh my god!! This did not just happen!!!” Plus, these movies are VERY tame in comparison to “I Spit on Your Grave” and “Cannibal Holocaust”, both movies I actually admit go way too far in what they do and am personally not a big fan of either.


Now defending the storylines, I’ll use 3. In Saw 3, the story is about a dad who got kidnapped by Jigsaw and is in a warehouse. He finds out his daughter has been kidnapped as well. Along the way, to complete puzzles, he runs into three people connected to the death of his young son: 1.) a Woman who witnessed his son’s death but didn’t testify in court to bring the killer to justice, 2.) a judge who gives the killer a light sentence for the crime he committed, and 3.) the killer himself, a medical student who was drinking and driving which resulted into him killing the son. With these three people, he has to decide whether they live or not from Jigsaw’s torture situations, but if the dad lets them die, there are consequences for him. In my opinion this movie alone shows that the Saw series isn’t made just to show killing, but has somewhat of a complex in their stories that make you think. I’m not saying your taste in movies are bad, but I highly recommend giving these movies a chance, at least Saw 1-4 and Hostel 1 and 2.



Nick: The first SAW movie is beyond excellent. Perfect indie movie with a great concept. SPOILER FOR SAW 1: Aside from Cary Elwes' acting when he is sawing his own leg off, I really have no complaints about it. Put yourself back to 2004... before the rush of sequels and movies like Turistas, Hostel, etc... this was a whole new experience for audience members. I actually like the SAW series for a couple reasons... first it's something to look forward to every year... like Christmas. The producers have done a great job of satisfying the interest in the series by pumping out a new WELL DONE sequel every year. SAW also has terrific special effects and a "villain" that will be remembered for a long time.

The PROBLEM that I have with the series is this... anybody... ANYBODY... tell me what happens in the fourth movie? Or what's the plot in the fifth? Did the 3rd movie take place before the first movie? Did the second movie take place after the sixth? When did the main antagonist die? What year is it? Jigsaw should have switched careers from a psycho engineer to a stock trader based on his ability to see into the future and predict the exact actions of every single one of his victims.... months and years in advance.

To summarize my issue with with the series... I believe that it's become very confusing, convoluted, formulaic (such as the twist plot being revealed in a brief montage explaining the entire movie at the end), and uninspired. With that said, they are still better than most horror movies produced and will have a long standing seat in all of our hearts.

And STVO... there is about as much substance in Hostel 2 as there is in Troll 2.

Cheers to Wrestlemania this Sunday... and it's been a pleasure. I look forward to continuing the discussions until everybody agrees that I am ALWAYS right.

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Thanks for joining the discussion Nick and with that said, this is the end of week 3 of CrossTopix. Look for Nick Smith to appear in more CrossTopix discussions in the near future as well as the debut of a column he will have here! Please visit his website Insomnia Productions for more details about his movie Storm Life as well as http://www.whatismungerroad.com/ and http://www.mungerroad.com/ for more details on his upcoming movie Munger Road.

Fellow readers, return next Monday as next week's guest is Pat Spry, a sports enthusiast. Yes, we will be discussing the greatest sports movies, our picks for NCAA March Madness, some MLB talk, and much more! Thanks for all who've tuned in and have a great weekend as Saturday night will be UFC 111 and Sunday will be Wrestlemania 26!!

1 comment:

  1. Ugh, I have to talk about Saw....because let's look at the first movie for instance. IF that dude is trying to teach someone a lesson, why is it such a big deal that the guy cheated on his wife? Is it wrong, well yeah, but does he deserve to DIE because of it? It would have been more convincing if it had to do with murder or something. Think of it this way...does anyone remember Hammurabi's Code that we learned about in school? Eye for an Eye? Well....this is NOT eye for an eye - it's like a guy getting his arm cut off for getting his hand caught in the cookie jar! He cheated, BIG WHOOP!

    Also, now, I LIKE violence in films. Zombieland was one of my most favorite films of last year...BUT in THIS case, I just thought they did it to try and "shock" the viewer like "oh my goodness! that guy's cutting off his own leg!" *makes teh oh no fayce* Senseless violence...yeah, violence with little reason other than for the audience which is why it is rare that a film scares me O_o. I sat watching it going "oh i see what the director is doing here" and if you can SEE that, then it's not a good thing, because things are too contrived. Which is what pretty much ALL American horror films are like no matter what. I'll say the same thing about The Hills Have Eyes because that movie was utter crap as well. Since the first movie put me off so badly I was unable to watch the rest of the Saw series and have shunned them all ever since. Six movies? Geez....I don't see how anyone's been duped into watching more than one.

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