{"id":425,"date":"2011-02-05T04:13:55","date_gmt":"2011-02-04T21:13:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dvdpinson.com\/?p=425"},"modified":"2011-02-05T04:13:55","modified_gmt":"2011-02-04T21:13:55","slug":"sanctum-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=425","title":{"rendered":"Sanctum Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Sanctum<\/h2>\n

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\nDeep in an isolated region of Papua New Guinea there is a gaping hole in the Earth that serves as an entrance to ESA-ALA, the largest uncharted cave system in the world. Expert diver-master, Frank McGuire (Richard Roxburgh) and his team have been exploring the recesses of the caves for over a month now trying to find a route through the labyrinthine chambers that connects to the nearby ocean. Among the members of McGuire\u2019s rag-tag band of spelunking fools are Carl (Ioan Gruffudd) the billionaire funding the project, Carl\u2019s girlfriend Victoria (Alice Parkinson) and Frank\u2019s unwilling son, Josh (Rhys Wakefield).<\/p>\n

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While still in the caves, a violent tropical storm pasts through causing the caverns to flood and trapping McGuire and his inexperienced crew. Now they are forced to find that alternate way out by any means necessary if they are to survive. But as members of the pack begin to meet their doom in terrible and claustrophobia-inducing ways, it becomes quite clear that the chance of survival is slim.
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\nSanctum is one of those films that boast the often-misleading claim that it is \u201cbased a true story\u201d and from what I was able to find, the filmmakers did use the term loosely. Turns out that one of the film\u2019s screenwriters, Andrew Wight, was indeed trapped in a cave due to flooding and it took all of five hours for him and the others in his group to find their way out alive. Not exactly the same chain of events that we are introduced to in the finished product. Here we are presented with a man versus nature film sprinkled with some male bonding that takes place between McGuire and son. And people die horribly. I\u2019m glad nobody died in the real world so that we could have a cheap thrill in a multiplexes but the producers would have been better off presenting Sanctum as what it is: a work of fiction.
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\nThe acting is mostly fine as Roxburgh gruffs his way through the action believably. The cast and crew are mostly Australian and the end result almost feels like foreign film. Carl and Victoria speak in an overdone American accent that makes the performers seem as if they where overdubbed like in an Italian horror film. The underwater cave diving photography is impressive and there are long sequences that play like a nature film with curse words thrown in for good measure. The film was executive produced by the King of the World, James Cameron and that comes as no surprise. After Titanic\u2019s huge success Cameron spent years underwater crafting deep-sea documentaries (Ghosts of the Abyss, Aliens of the Deep) and here he is right at home with the extensive underwater footage, shot in 3D no less.<\/p>\n

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Bluntly, Sanctum is ho-hum. There are a handful of thrills and the images are beautiful but the violence is too over the top and doesn\u2019t fit with the rest of film. What the film lacks, and what is utmost important with outings like these, is any sense of tension. Without tension, Sanctum plays like an unsuccessful horror film that spends its time plucking off one character after another until there is only the \u201chero\u201d left. What I think this film truly is at the core is an excuse for Jim and his friends to play around underwater with his expensive toys. Must me nice.
\nhttp:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-sPMSiyLRDk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sanctum Deep in an isolated region of Papua New Guinea there is a gaping hole in the Earth that serves as an entrance to ESA-ALA, the largest uncharted cave system in the world. Expert diver-master, Frank McGuire (Richard Roxburgh) and his team have been exploring the recesses of the caves for over a month now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}