CinemaNow - Saw IV

Saw IV was not screened for critics, who had to stand in line for tickets just like everyone else last weekend. Their reviews turned out to be what the studio must have expected. "The franchise is getting long in the tooth," commented Kyle Smith in the New York Post, adding that the movie might have been called "Saw It Be-IV." Critics, unable and/or unwilling to write a conventional review of the movie, were reduced to writing recommendations like this one from Elizabeth Weitzman in the New York Daily News. "If an hour and a half of so-called 'torture porn' sounds like fun, you'll find Saw IV situated somewhere between the first in the cycle (a solid original with plenty of energy in it) and the last (a gasping copycat willing to do anything to stay alive)." But Scott Schueller in the Chicago Tribune dispensed this advice: "If you like your films disgusting, deplorable and demoralizing rather than smart, scary and suspenseful, go ahead and feed the coffers of Saw IV's makers. If you don't, please don't give the studio a reason to make Saw V. Please."