The
Saw franchise hit its commercial peak with
Saw II and
Saw III, both of which topped $80 million at the box office and established the franchise as one of the horror icons of this early 21st century. However, subsequent installments were less successful. It took 3D (with its higher ticket prices) to give
Saw: The Final Chapter a relative shot in the arm.
The 2D and 3D versions have been reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman and Martin Liebman, respectively. This offers us two differing points of view on the movie itself. On one hand, Jeff gave it a resounding thumbs-down, considering it "about as distasteful a film as I can remember," and wondered "what is going on in peoples' heads that they willingly subject themselves to these nightmare visions." On the other hand, Marty finds a "downright good story" there, "buried behind the copious amounts of gore" and gives the film three stars out of five.
On the opposite end of the demographic and genre spectrum, Disney's underdog sports movie
Secretariat is, as reviewer Kenneth Brown cleverly depicts it, "an underdogged underdog story of triple-crown underdoggedness." Although predictable and formulaic, this racetrack drama is so "earnest and spirited" that it doesn't matter.
As regards catalog titles,
The Color Purple is remembered as another Academy snub for Steven Spielberg, as this adaptation of Alice Walker's Pulitzer Price-winning novel was nominated to eleven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, but excluding Best Director.
In his review of the Warner Blu-ray release of
The Color Purple, Ken finds that "it is an admirable, even noble approximation; a somewhat flawed but altogether moving period drama that almost rivals the strength and substance of its source." The BD debut succeeds with "an excellent video transfer, an impressive DTS-HD Master Audio track and a thorough four-part documentary."