Saw V

In the V installment in the Saw film series, Detective Hoffman (Mandylor) is seemingly the last person alive to carry on the Jigsaw legacy. However, when his secret is threatened by Agent Strahm's (Patterson) investigation of the apparent continuation of the Jigsaw murders, Hoffman must go on the hunt to eliminate all loose ends. (Gary Reber)

Special features on Disc One include audio commentary with Director David Hackl and First Assistant Director Steve Webb; audio commentary with Producers Mark Burg and Oren Koules and Executive Producers Peter Block and Jason Constantine; five featurettes: The Pendulum Trap (HD 05:48), The Cube Trap (HD 05:13), The Coffin Trap (HD 05:44), The Fatal Five (HD 11:55), and Slicing The Cube: Editing The Cube Trap (HD 05:03); the theatrical trailer; MoLog™, a BD-Live application that allows users to insert and animate shapes, text, audio, and other graphics right into the film to create "blogs" to share with other MoLog users; bookmarks; and up-front previews. Disc Two contains a digital copy of the film.

The 1.78:1 1080p AVC picture is stylized through lighting effects and color enhancements and distortions. Blacks are deep and shadow delineation is remarkably good overall, though, at times crushed, lacking fine detail and depth. However, the entire visual treatment does effectively create a creepy, dangerous situation, which is what jigsaw game killings are all about. Resolution is quite good at times, with fine features revealed in textures and facial expressions. This highly stylized picture is, no doubt, creepy and sure to please fans of the series. This is a reference-quality picture for the series. (Gary Reber)

The DTS-HD Master Audio™ 7.1-channel soundtrack is superb with the additional channels providing a larger holosonic® presence, but...added side channels are positioned to the back sides of the sweet spot listening position, not to the sides as they should be. Thus, unless you switch outputs, the normal surrounds in a 5.1-channel mix will be at the sides, not to the back sides. Unfortunately, the creative community, the studios, and the equipment manufacturers have not dictated a spatial loudspeaker setup standard. Our preferred 7.1-channel setup is a perfect circle, with each full-range loudspeaker location equidistant from the sweet spot and equidistant from each other along the perimeter of the 360-degree circle. In this arrangement, the added mid-left and mid-right surrounds convey added surround envelopment and dimensionally. Unfortunately, some 7.1-channel soundtracks are produced with the added channels not at the sides but behind the sweet spot listening position, which then creates positioning problems for normal 5.1-channel presentations with the surround loudspeakers located to the back sides of the prime listening position, including for surround music reproduction. The sound design is intense, often at system-threatening loud SPL in all channels. Bass extension is deep and solid, extending to well below 25 Hz. The music score is well recorded with a wide and deep soundstage that wraps around into the surrounds. The entire soundfield is often energized with sound effects directionalized. The jigsaw narration is heard effectively in every channel. Dialogue, otherwise, is at times, supported spatially but at other times conventionally produced on location or by way of ADR. This is an intense sonic experience that perfectly complements the horrific storytelling. (Gary Reber)