yonidesmet
Such a great movie!to be honest, I never expected this! I just thought it wasn't going to be a good movie... at all. But when the movie began to play, i just got drowned into this! The way everything is filmed and brought up, I never saw that coming...David Cameron, along with his crew, did a great job here!I also liked the actors and the relations, the drama...The somehow strange relation between Frank and Carl, as well as the way Carl is acting towards everyone, just amazing...Everyone's strength and willingness to secure the lives of those around them, so special, so emotional...Great job guys
Python Hyena
Sanctum (2011): Dir: Alister Grierson / Cast: Richard Roxburgh, Rhys Wakefield, Ioan Gruffudd, Alice Parkinson, Daniel Wyllie: Overbearing and increasingly horrid cave diving film that uses the 3D gimmick to exhausted failure. It stars a host of little known actors who are introduced quickly before diving into the largest cave in the world. From there the place floods with a storm being no help to their quest. What is truly unfortunate is how this film claims to be inspired by true events yet it relies on stupid thriller clichés that mount towards one survivor. Director Alister Grierson does his best with the watery visuals and an overlong tunnel of caves but the cast do little more than shout over loud noise and die in accidents that might have been prevented had an common sense been used. Among the cast is Richard Roxburgh as the experienced explorer whom spends much time being right and fending off arguments. Rhys Wakefield plays his son who is an experienced climber. He spends much of the film arguing with his father and having to prove himself. This bickering is not half as entertaining as an episode of Jerry Springer. Ioan Gruffudd plays some outsider who takes video and pictures but how the screenplay handles his fate is total thriller bullshit. This all feels staged and phony from a narrative standpoint. Other characters are about as dull as the folks narrating their activities on fishing shows. Then there is the huge marketing regarding James Cameron as executive producer. It isn't like he directed it. Had he directed it then perhaps it might not have turned out to be the total toilet waste fiasco that it is. Score: 2 / 10
StuOz
People are trapped in a cave.A disaster movie made in this century that is not totally swamped with CGI. Could it be? Yes...that makes this film a bit different and very welcome.This all seems rather human and well done. I was fine with all the actors involved. There were times when I was reminded of some 1970s disaster movie I saw decades ago.Filmed on a studio set rather than a real cave...but it fooled me. Perhaps this film will get the younger crowd running to DVDs stores wanting to see how the disaster movie genre first started in the 1970s. And that can only be a good thing.PS Most of the cast are in fact Australian
Spikeopath
Much was made during the publicity and promotion for Sanctum of James Cameron's name being attached, understandably so. Sanctum is what it is, a glossy exercise in 3D film making, a disaster movie awash with clichés and contrivances, a picture that's narrative drive comes from following a well worn formula in this particular sphere of genre film making. Is it fun? Thrilling? Oh absolutely! The effects work is super at times, the scenery equally so, whilst some of the set pieces are dynamite. If you can get past the cheese and cliché buffet bar then there's a whole bunch of tasty treats to be sampled down in those dark and dingy cave formations
It's directed by Alister Grierson but in truth this is a Cameron movie, and with that comes the fact that it's the best and worst of Cameron. Take that as you will
6.5/10
AD
