Saw VI

Although you should hack off your own arm rather than contribute any more money to the undeservedly long-lived Saw franchise, it must be admitted that this fifth sequel is less bad than the fourth. Kevin Greutert, taking up the directorial reins after editing all the previous 'Saw' movies, keeps the action driving forward – even when it doesn't make any sense. Major problems remain, however. First, the series died when Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) expired; second, the nominal thriller element of the plot - whether Agent Erickson and the mysteriously resurrected Agent Peres will work out what we already know, that Detective Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) has inherited Jigsaw's blood-stained mantle - is now entirely divorced from the brutal morality of the torture-testing scenes.

For completists, there are two minor innovations. Given Obama's recent proclamations on health insurance, the plot is right on message with a theme about cynical health insurance employees who find loopholes in their sick clients' legitimate claims. Also there is more emphasis this time on cruel games that pit the victims against one another, forcing them to make real, rather than administrative, life-or-death decisions about the fate of their fellow captives. Otherwise, as the exploitative tabloid journalist pithily puts it, it's just the usual Conundrum of Carnage. For the record, this instalment's ingenious games of death include one that demands a literal 'pound of flesh', a booby-trapped maze rigged with scalding jets of  steam, and a boring carousel of death.

The real-time unfolding of events generates no suspense whatever, while the rushed ending is both predictable and disappointing. But it's the care-worn Hoffman who sums up the tedium best, when he asks Jigsaw, during one of the myriad flashbacks: 'How many next times are there going to be?'