Sanctum (2011)
Average Rating: 4.5/10
Reviews Counted: 160
Fresh: 48 | Rotten: 112
Sanctum is beautifully photographed, and it makes better use of 3-D technology than most, but that doesn't make up for its ham-handed script and lifeless cast.
Average Rating: 4.5/10
Critic Reviews: 33
Fresh: 9 | Rotten: 24
Sanctum is beautifully photographed, and it makes better use of 3-D technology than most, but that doesn't make up for its ham-handed script and lifeless cast.
liked it
Average Rating: 2.9/5
User Ratings: 37,204
My Rating
Movie Info
The 3-D action-thriller Sanctum, from executive producer James Cameron, follows a team of underwater cave divers on a treacherous expedition to the largest, most beautiful and least accessible cave system on Earth. When a tropical storm forces them deep into the caverns, they must fight raging water, deadly terrain and creeping panic as they search for an unknown escape route to the sea. Master diver Frank McGuire (Richard Roxburgh) has explored the South Pacific's Esa-ala Caves for months. But
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Cast
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Richard Roxburgh
Frank McGuire -
Rhys Wakefield
Josh McGuire -
Ioan Gruffudd
Carl Hurley -
Alice Parkinson
Victoria -
Daniel Wyllie
Crazy George -
Christopher Baker
J.D. -
Nicole Downes
Liz -
Allison Cratchley
Judes -
Cramer Cain
Luko -
Andrew Hansen
Dex -
John Garvin
Jim Sergeant -
Sean Dennehy
Chopper Pilot -
Nea Diap
Kastrom Shaman
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Sanctum Trailer & Photos
All Critics (160) | Top Critics (33) | Fresh (48) | Rotten (113) | DVD (6)
Its downfall is its cliché-riddled and fusty script.
Top CriticDespite the millions clearly poured into it, the film feels cheap and amateurish. See it on IMAX if you wish, but the flaws will only look bigger.
Sometimes the sets look like, well, Styrofoam. So do the actors.
Stick that camera down an aquatic cave, wrap a paper-thin plot around it, slap the whole thing up on an IMAX screen and call it a movie. More truth in advertising: Call it a lame movie.
After a sluggish half hour, this well-crafted adventure kicks into high gear and never lets up.
There's just water, water everywhere - and no one stops to think.
Mixed in with flat characters and tense action is an incredible 3D visual component - which is where Cameron's involvement in the project is most apparent.
It's a continuing clash between laughably poor acting and ultra-serious brow-furrowing that renders Sanctum unintentionally hilarious, thereby deflating it completely.
The film's lack of a decent story, character development, and performances, as well as its emotional hollowness, make it not worth the time in any format.
Often feels like James Cameron just playing around with some very expensive bathtub toys -- and treading water until his Avatar sequel comes out next year.
Seriously, you'll find yourself more emotionally and viscerally involved by sticking some Lego men in a water filled blender and watching them go round and round.
The tension is difficult to be felt with such flat characters.
Some insanity might've jolted this exceedingly uninspired picture awake, giving Grierson more to do than arrange flavorless arguments and humdrum action.
...a well-intentioned yet utterly misguided underwater thriller.
Lacks the Titanic appeal of a James Cameron "event" movie
The script is pretty lackluster.
Too bad this film, executive produced by Cameron, is rated R for profanity and gruesome makeup effects. I'm betting it's every 13-year-old's dream escape.
You'll care about as much as you do when someone gets torn apart in a Saw sequel.
Despite its three-dimensional imagery, the film remains resolutely two-dimensional.
A great survival action movie where none of the cast should've been allowed to talk. The script is cliched. Roxburgh is essentially playing Bob Hawke underwater while Ioan Gruffud is inexplicably channeling De Niro.
Its flaws are initially off-putting, but stick with it and Sanctum does do a good job of establishing tension and comes with some well-staged set pieces.
For the best part, the actors shut their mouths and the story becomes far more action based.
Audience Reviews for Sanctum
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Frank McGuire: There's no god down here. This place doesn't give a rat's ass about you or me or any of us. We're bits of dust passing through.
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- Victoria: Hot bath and a brandy and I'll be fine.
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- Victoria: [rejecting ill-fitting diving suit] I'd rather be cold and alive than warm and dead.
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- Frank McGuire: He fizzed up!
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- Carl Hurley: You are not going to set any records without me.
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- Carl Hurley: I have control. [laughs]
Discussion Forum
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Latest News on Sanctum
February 4, 2011:
Critics Consensus: Sanctum Is All WetThis week at the movies, we've got undersea terror (Sanctum, starring Ioan Gruffudd and Richard...
February 3, 2011:
February 4: Worst New Release Date Ever?It's no secret that the first two months of the year tend to be pretty grim at your local theater....
February 3, 2011:
Don't Go Near the Water: Film Beneath the WavesIn honor of this weekend's watery thriller "Sanctum," here's a list of films that made us think...
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Foreign Titles
- Sanctum: An IMAX 3D Experience (DE)
- James Cameron Presents Sanctum (UK)
