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Men In Black 3

It’s not a sequel that needed to be made, but thanks to the charm of its leads and a tone that harks back to the wit and humour of the original, it’s a pretty enjoyable trip.

Bel Ami

The excellent female support cast saves this patchy effort, which is let down by its leading man and a flat screenplay.

The Dictator

A disappointing, often repulsive and mean-spirited mess of a film with seemingly only one real criterion on its agenda: to shock and offend.

The Woman In Black

Packed with atmosphere, this old-fashioned but deftly told ghost story delivers ample chills and thrills.

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Sanctum (Film)

by Jarrod Walker | February 01, 2011 10:14 | Edited February 01, 2011 10:46

While let down by stock characterisations and clichéd scriptwriting, this is still an ambitious and entertaining ride.

Frank (Richard Roxburgh) is an expert cave diver leading an expedition navigating an unchartered cave system in Papua New Guinea. The expedition is funded by Carl, (Ioan Gruffudd) a Billionaire adrenaline junkie who shows up at the cave with his girlfriend Victoria (Alice Parkinson), intent on exploring the caves like they're his personal theme park. Frank's son Josh (Rhys Wakefield) is also dragged along, being the unwilling participant in his father's obsession. A savage storm front hits and floods the underground caves, seeing the group forced to go further into the cave system, in the hope of finding a route to the ocean.

 

A tip of the hat must go to Grierson's direction, which is top notch given this is only his second feature. James Cameron lent his 3-D know-how to the production and his name to the producing credits, which had to have been slightly intimidating for the young filmmaker; the diving sequences in particular are technically superb. It's arguable whether the highly lauded 3-D truly enhances the experience in exactly the way the filmmakers insist that it does but it makes for some vertiginous intensity.

 

The story is apparently based on events experienced by producer/writer Andrew Wight, who became trapped while cave diving in the Nullarbor Plains some years ago. His promising idea has been heavily processed, with any number of stock characterisations, half-arsed conflicts and Poseidon Adventure style ‘who-will-die-in-which-perilous-set-piece' scenarios staple-gunned to it.

 

So while the performances are strong (notably Roxburgh and Wakefield, whose father-son relationship forms the core of the film) the film's major issues are with the script's fusion of a real-life tale with Screenwriting 101 stock dramatics, meaning things get needlessly over the top and clichéd very quickly. It's a shame because at times Sanctum is surprisingly ambitious and refreshingly smart and despite all its flaws, an entertaining yarn.