Saw V

The fifth entry in a franchise that ran out of gas after the second film, Saw V boasts the trademark ingenuously designed, sadistic death-dealing devices, but fails to present a comprehensible or compelling story thanks to willy-nilly flashbacks and unsympathetic characters. The killer known as Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) is dead, but his cunning manipulations have produced a protégé in detective Mark Hoffman (beefy Costas Mandylor, practically sleepwalking through his paces), who continues his mentor's reign of terror on a parade of colorless victims (including Julie Benz and Meagan Good). In an unsuccessful attempt to pad the thin and shopworn story out to feature length, the screenwriters introduce Jigsaw's ex-wife (Betsy Russell), who rather portentously takes possession of a locked chest that turns out to be a red herring. As always, blood and gore are amply supplied here, but brains and heart are nowhere to be found. Not recommended. [Note: DVD extras include two audio commentaries (one with director David Hackl and first assistant director Steve Webb; the second with producers Oren Koules and Mark Burg and executive producers Peter Block and Jason Constantine), production featurettes on “The Fatal Five” (12 min.), “The Pendulum Trap” (6 min.), “The Cube Trap” (5 min.), “Slicing the Cube: Editing the Cube Trap” (5 min.), and “The Coffin Trap” (5 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a decent extras package for an exhausted fifth entry in a steadily worsening series.] (E. Hulse)