![]() Jackson on the hunt for a presumed Jigsaw copycat killer. This is the first time we’ve seen the plot in action, sending Chris Rock and Samuel L. Pre-order The Fractured Mirror, my next book, a massive, 650 page exploration of the long and distinguished history of American movies about the film industry at Ĭheck out The Joy of Trash: Flaming Garbage Fire Extended Edition at and get a free, signed "Weird Al” Yankovic-themed coloring book for free! Just 18.75, shipping and taxes included! Or, for just 25 dollars, you can get a hardcover “Joy of Positivity 3: Can’t Stop Won’t Stop” edition signed (by Felipe and myself) and numbered (to 50) copy with a hand-written recommendation from me within its pages.Lionsgate has just released a brand new trailer for the Darren Bousman-directed Spiral: From the Book of Saw, starring Chris Rock and Samuel L. Help choose the movies I write about here (including this one!) by becoming a paid subscriber at or by pledging the site’s Patreon page at Rock’s starring role lends an element of novelty but it’s not enough to make this anything more than a failed, weirdly unsatisfying experiment combining horror and laughs in a way that’s not particularly scary or funny. Spiral travels an unusual route to mediocrity but it’s mediocre and forgettable all the same. But you must accomplish that within fifteen seconds or you’ll die. You can survive by ripping out your spine and using it to poke out your eyes. Now you will only be allowed to keep 15 percent of your internal organs. ![]() Some lame-ass Jigsaw wannabe whose cadences reminds me unmistakably of Francis, the bully from Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, pop up on a video screen and taunts, “You only tipped waiters and waitresses 15 percent even when they provided exceptional service. They certainly are not wildly popular because of their exquisite dialogue, wonderful acting or intricate plotting. The Saw movies exist for the traps and the kills. Though John Kramer/Jigsaw is dead, and consequently less likely to torture and kill people for various moral transgressions than when he was living the city is soon afflicted with a wave of Jigsaw-style crime. He’s seen as a snitch and a Nepo Baby, since his old man is a big timer played by Samuel L. Zeke is a good cop who turned in a corrupt partner, earning the eternal bitterness of his colleagues in the process. I can only imagine the other stories contained within the mighty Book of Saw: tales of action and adventure, of patriotism and sacrifice, of love lost and love found, stories for children and stories for everyone. Yet Chris Rock, a performer widely considered one of the greatest stand-up comedians of all time, chose to work behind the scenes and in front of the camera on the ninth film in the Saw series and the first of what I can only hope will be a lengthy series of movies based on yarns from the Book of Saw. Jerry Lewis didn’t insist on being number one on the call sheet on A Nightmare on Elm Street 4. The formerly funny Michael Myers doesn’t pop up alongside the even less funny Michael Myers in the Halloween series. Jim Carrey didn’t leverage his fame and popularity to score a plum role in a latter-day Texas Chainsaw Massacre sequel. There isn’t a Phantasm sequel with Rob Schneider in the lead. Tim Conway didn’t just randomly star in the third Hellraiser movie. I shut off the television immediately after he finished the joke because I had something important to do but I’m guessing it went over well and that Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith were good sports about the mild jape.įamous funny people do not appear in eighth sequels to low-budget horror movies about a sicko and his sadistic games. I still bust a gut thinking of this outrageous one-liner he told at the Academy Awards where he joked that Jada Pinkett-Smith, whose head was shaved because she has Alopecia, was going to star in G.I Jane 2. Rock was a movie star but more importantly he was one of our most respected and important stand-up comedians. Rock wasn’t just too famous for a movie like Spiral he had the wrong kind of fame as well. Chris Rock seemed too big to star in a modestly budgeted Saw spin-off. ![]() When I learned that Chris Rock would be executive producing, script-doctoring and starring in 2021’s Spiral: From the Book of Saw I was surprised. Here the options were Spiral or Jigsaw and y’all chose Spiral. YOU can help determine what I write about for this column by voting in polls at this site’s Patreon page at or by becoming a paid Subscriber for my Substack newsletter Nathan Rabin’s Bad Ideas here. Welcome to the latest entry in The Great Catch-Up, a new feature where I go back and write about the many fascinating, important, great and wonderfully terrible films that have come out since this site was launched back in 2017 that I somehow never got around to writing about. ![]()
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