Movie review: Sanctum

"Sanctum" is an intermittently exciting, but ultimately forgettable action adventure movie that stakes a very strong claim on the title of "second-best trapped-in-a-cave movie of the last six months." If you feel "127 Hours" would have been a better film if James Franco had had five or six other people bickering in the cave with him, "Sanctum" is for you.

Executive-produced by James Cameron, "Sanctum" was directed by Alister Grierson and stars Richard Roxburgh, Ioan Gruffudd, Alice Parkinson, Dan Wyllie, and Rhys Wakefield. The film, based on a true story experienced by co-writer Andrew Wight, concerns a group of adventurers exploring an underwater cave in Papua New Guinea.

When the cave is flooded, they are trapped and must find creative ways to get out to safety—and get along with each other in the process. Roxburgh (the bad guy in "Moulin Rouge") is veteran cave explorer Frank, while Wakefield is his estranged teenaged son, Josh. Gruffudd is a rich guy who bankrolled the dive, and Parkinson is his girlfriend.

Other than the father/son struggle/bonding, the plot doesn't have a whole lot going for it, mostly because the characters are so paper-thin.  It's also hard to take Wakefield seriously as the movie's hero, because in some scenes, especially when underwater, he strongly resembles an androgynous glam rocker from the 1970s. A lot of the scenes are harrowing; if you have any type of claustrophobia or fear of drowning, this is a movie you should probably avoid.

"Sanctum" is also lacking in gravitas—it's another of those movies in which people die frequently, but characters seem to have forgotten about the deaths two or three minutes later. There's some truly dazzling 3D work early on, especially during a helicopter ride in the movie's standout, pre-dive first act (the movie was shot in Australia). But once the characters are in the cave, the 3D disappears for long periods of time, and is never all that impressive even when it does appear.

The movie also does a poor job of explaining the geography of the cave and where the characters are at any given time—we see a computer simulation of it, but that bears little to no relation to what we see later. "Sanctum" has some things going for it, but ultimately you'll forget you even saw it by the next morning.

"Sanctum"

Directed by: Alister Grierson

Starring: Richard Roxburgh, Ioan Gruffudd, Alice Parkinson, Dan Wyllie, and Rhys Wakefield

Rated: R

Length: 1 hour 43 minutes

Rating: 2 stars (out of 5)

Playing at:

Regal Cinemas Oaks Stadium 24

11:55am, 2:35pm, 5:10pm, 7:35pm, 10:05pm

United Artists King of Prussia Stadium 16 & IMAX

1:45pm, 4:45pm, 7:50pm, 10:30pm