Friday 20 January 2012

Sanctum

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Year:2011
Country of origin:USA / Australia
Director:Alister Grierson
Genre:Trapped in a cave!
Starring:Richard Roxburgh, Richard Roxburgh, Richard Roxburgh
Rating:3/5
IMDB link:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0881320/
Tagline:The only way out is down
Favourite line:"What could possibly go wrong diving in caves?!?"

You know when you get the urge to do something really adventurous? It strikes from time to time, when the grim reality of my own pointless existence hits home and I think I need to do something, anything just to spice things up a little.
Well, here's my advice: Don't go fucking caving.

The plot:
With a cyclone closing in fast, a group of cave explorers find themselves trapped in the bowels of the Papua New Guinean Earth, their only hope for survival being to find a way through the unexplored section of the cave system in the hope of locating an exit. With a father and son in the team who really don't like each other too much, and the same father and his boss who seem to like each other even less, expect plenty of emotional over-wroughtness and testosterone fulled rantings.
And the only question is not whether they will survive, but how many of them will die along the way.

Essentially, this is after all a movie about a bunch of people wandering around in a cave, so you may feel that it will struggle for legs but the energy of the on screen action keeps the momentum flowing just nicely. Whilst the characterisations are a tad on the thin side, the writers at least have a go and are partially successful, as the leader of the expedition is massively engaging; brash, abrasive, utterly focused on what needs to be done, an automaton in a wetsuit, whilst his boss is perhaps one of the most dislikable characters in movie history; handsome, successful, confident, physically fit.
Seriously, he made me want to puke.
James Cameron's name tag remains something of a mystery, save for the obvious financial gain such a label will bring, and the 3D is utterly redundant but, those issues aside, this is an efficient enough 'will they escape the calamity' movie in the mould of The Poseidon Adventure.
Not as bad as many would have you believe.

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