Tweet
Released by: Universal
Released on: 9/25/2011
Director: Alister Grierson
Cast: Richard Roxburgh, Rhys Wakefield, Ioan Gruffudd, Alice Parkinson
Year: 2011
Purchase from Amazon
The Movie:
Wealthy explorer Carl Hurley (Ioan Gruffudd, Fantastic Four) brings his girlfriend Victoria (Alice Parkinson, X-Men Origins: Wolverine) to a cave exploring operation he has going on in the largest and most inaccessible hole in the ground on the planet. This particular cave has underground waterways that are believed to empty out in the ocean and the goal of the project is to find that waterway. His chief employee on the job is Frank McGuire (Richard Roxburgh, Van Helsing), a no-nonsense man who does what he has to do in order to survive the dangerous conditions he willingly goes into. Also en tow with Hurley and his girly is Frank's teenage snot-nosed son Josh (Rhys Wakefield, the Australian TV show “Home and Awayâ€), a son of which Frank hasn't been a very good father to, causing their relationship to be strained.
A diving accident resulting in a death puts an even bigger split in the father-son battle and so the boy decides to leave the site with some others back to the surface, but they don't get far. A freak storm rolls in up top and dumps tons and tons of water into the hole, causing the way out to be no more. Now its up to the survivors of the cave-in, which includes the four main characters and some disposable ones, to find an alternate way out, hopefully by finding the as-yet undiscovered passage to the ocean.
It's pretty simple to see where the story is going once things start to move along. Loosely based on an incident in the late 1980s, any realistic characters are tossed out the window to make room for mainstream movie characters that aren't all that likeable. The conceited rich asshole, a whiney female who refuses to make smart choices, a pissy kid whose emotions are all over the place…the only character not totally unlikable is the gruff Frank who makes tough decisions and knows that to survive you can't give up, nor can you let people slow you down. And the story turns into a family-healing affair rather than focusing on the story of the trapped spelunkers, following all kinds of cliché twists, turns, and gasps.
The film was made using 3-D technology so maybe the movie plays out better in 3-D, but in 2-D some things just don't look all that great. Some of the green screen work for example, looks cheaply done and is quite distracting. But then some of the effects look really good. The inconsistency is very noticeable. Most of the performances are decent, but no one really stands out as putting forward anything memorable. Even the character that goes nuts, and you knew it was going to happen to someone in the story eventually, isn't impressive.
The show moves along at an okay pace though, and there are some interesting sequences. There's plenty of moments that play on the fear of drowning or claustrophobia pretty effectively. It's just that the film has no teeth and is so amazingly predictable that it really isn't worth a whole lot of attention. It would have been much more interesting if the story was more like the actual events that took place, rather than the more generic direction it ended up going.
Video/Audio/Extras:
1080p, AVC encoded, with a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Before the story goes under the earth, things look quite nice. The colors really stand out, the detail is sharp, and the image looks really pleasing. But when they go underground, things sometimes look a bit different. Black levels lack consistency for one thing, and colors look less vibrant. As mentioned, some of the green screen work looks clunky and at times it's impossible not to be distracted by it. That may not bode well with some viewers who expect a better image from a big budget film. The audio is an English language DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. It delivers plenty of big sounds effects, like rushing water for example, with clarity and uses all the speakers nicely. The balance seems perfect between the dialogue and music, the later of which isn't overpowering at all. No issues to report. The track does a great job.
The extras are a-plenty. First is a commentary with the director, one if the producers and survivor of the incident the film is loosely based on (Andrew Wight), plus actor Rhys Wakefield. It's not the most exciting track, but it brings to the table the typical things you can expect from the commentary. They divulge some interesting stuff and it's a decent track if you dig commentaries. Next is an HD 45-minute featurette called “Sanctum: The Real Story†which follows the film's development and production, as well as the true story behind the made-up one. It's an well done, informative and definitely worth the watch.
Also well worth the watch (and more so than the feature) is “Nullarbor Dreamingâ€, a documentary assembled by Andrew Wight right after the incident he was involved in occurred. They were diving in an underwater network of tunnels and caves in Australia, the Pannikin Plain Cave, when a freak storm came in and sent something like a year's worth of rain into the cave all at once. Real footage of trapped members of the party along with the rescue effort. Great stuff. It runs about 45 minutes. Lastly you'll find about nine minutes worth of deleted scenes. Meh. Nothing great there.
The Final Word:
A pretty lame story really takes away from what could have been a lot better, if made more like a docu-drama rather than like a billion other movies. The story its inspired by is far more fascinating. If you feel you must watch this one, rent it first.
