Movie Review Sanctum

Sanctum (2011) 

Directed by Alister Grierson 

Written by Andrew Wright

Starring Richard Roxburgh, Rhys Wakefield, Ioan Gruffudd

Release Date February 4th, 2011 

Published February 4th, 2011

A group of angry, bitter and hateful characters stock the foreground of “Sanctum,” the James Cameron produced 3D thriller about cave diving that while visually impressive is too ugly and stupid in character and plot to succeed in any way even if the visuals are stunning and inventive.

Richard Roxburgh is Frank, the driven and angry leader of a cave diving team somewhere in New Guinea. With his benefactor, Carl (Ioan Gruffaud) soon to arrive, Frank has a new discovery to show off, a possible link between an ancient cave and the ocean, a sight no one may have ever seen before.

Unfortunately, Carl's arrival is met with the accidental death of one of the divers. With a storm coming and  a body that needs to be moved, the exploration should be on hold but Frank refuses. Carl is his willing accomplice, admonishing any worry warts that with speed the expedition can be done before the storm arrives.

Oh, how wrong he was. Carl, with his new girlfriend Victoria (Alice Parkinson) and Frank's son Josh (Rhys Wakefield) arrives in the cave just in time for the storm to hit, stranding them all thousands of feet below the surface. With the caves filling with rain water, the only escape may be Frank's theoretical passage to the ocean but to get there will require remarkable diving skills, something Victoria does not have.

Naturally, the crew is as short on supplies as Frank is short on patience. They move forward into the water but not before idiot characters make idiot decisions based on stupid notions. I don't want to spoil things for those determined to see “Sanctum” but one character makes a decision so wholly idiotic that the groans from the audience lasted almost until the character's inevitable fate. 

”Sanctum” is based on the real life experience of producer and co-writer Andrew Wight, a protégée of James Cameron and an experienced diver and underwater filmmaker who had a very similar experience trapped in an underwater cave during a storm. Wight and his party survived and he felt there was a good idea for a movie in the experience. 

Wight is right, there is a good movie to be made of his experience but “Sanctum” is not it. Rather, this plodding exercise in thriller genre clichés reveals the true intent behind “Sanctum” which is merely an excuse to show off the 3D technology that Cameron has been pushing as the future of movies.

Stupid, ugly, moronic characters with vague and even moronic motivations stumble through “Sanctum” merely as clotheslines to carry us from one awesome visual to the next. Unfortunately, so execrable and irritating are these characters that even the stunning 3D technology on display cannot distract wholly from how awful they are.

The only reason “Sanctum” is not a documentary featuring real divers exploring real caves in search of visuals never before seen is that the viewing public tends to see such documentaries as boring or too much like going to school. A documentary simply doesn't draw an audience the way any boring old mainstream thriller does.

James Cameron was looking for a way to demonstrate his technology and its potential outside his own work and a documentary playing on the IMAX screen simply wouldn't cut it. He needed to show 3D working in a genre movie to demonstrate how it could be the future of movies going as he sees it.

Boy, did he hook his wagon to the wrong horse. “Sanctum” may be a triumph of 3D technology but the thriller stuff, the characters, they are so bad that this reviewer, and indeed many others simply cannot recommend it. Better luck next time King of the World.

Movie Review Playing it Cool

Playing it Cool (2015) 

Directed by Justin Reardon 

Written by Chris Shafer, Paul Vicknair

Starring Chris Evans, Michelle Monaghan, Anthony Mackie, Aubrey Plaza, Ioan Gruffudd, Topher Grace

Release Date May 14th, 2015 

Published June 25th, 2015

For years Chris Evans made bad movie after bad movie. He was seemingly settled into being a handsome, bland, leading man, who would take any role that a star with better taste had passed on. Then he became Captain America and things changed. Something about Steve Rogers brought Evans to a place of comfort with his work.

With “Snowpiercer” a more serious and focused Chris Evans emerged and myself as a critic I saw the actor in a very different light. Now, with the charming romantic comedy “Playing it Cool,” Chris Evans seems fully formed as a performer. Is the movie great? No, but it’s not terrible. More importantly, as a vehicle for its star it is a fine showcase for his seemingly increasing talent.

In “Playing it Cool” Chris Evans plays a screenwriter who does not believe in love. Traumatized by his mother leaving him at a young age, Evans is left with an inability to connect with women. He does however, have an active fantasy life. He envisions his heart as living outside his body in the form of a sad, romantic, character in the range of Bogart in “Casablanca.”

Evans also has the tendency to project himself into other people’s stories. When friends played by an all star supporting cast including Topher Grace, Luke Wilson, Aubrey Plaza and Martin Starr, tell stories, Evans projects himself as the lead in the story regardless of the gender of the lead character. This imaginative device becomes important after Evans meets Michelle Monaghan and for the first time falls in love. Suddenly, she is the co-lead in all of these fantasies.

“Playing it Cool” is strange in a number of ways. The first comes in the fact that Evans and Monaghan’s character don’t have names. In the IMDB credits Evans is referred to as Narrator and Monaghan as Her. This is, I think, meant to comment on how the clichés of romantic comedies play out, the characters don’t really matter as much as character beats and human type people. The structure of “Playing it Cool” has Evans struggling to write a romantic comedy screenplay because he doesn’t believe in love and is well aware of the common tropes of the genre as they begin to play out in his real life.

The meta aspects of “Playing it Cool” play alright but the heart of the film is Evans and his interplay with the cast. I enjoyed the camaraderie of Evans and his small band of fellow artists. There is a real sense of friendship, history, and fun among this group and the interplay is strong enough that it doesn’t matter so much that each individual character is really only a sketch of a person.

Then there is the central romance. Michelle Monaghan is incredibly beautiful. Truly, I am not sure I can objectively assess her performance as I was thunderstruck by how photogenic she is, the camera truly loves her. Monaghan is something of a male fantasy as she is endlessly accepting and she gets all of Evans’ jokes and seems to like the things he likes, and she even has his commitment issues.

There is nothing particularly surprising about the way “Playing it Cool” plays out but I don’t think there is meant to be. This is a romantic comedy where the end is pretty well telegraphed. The key is then how to find interesting and funny things to do on the way to the predictable finish and what “Playing it Cool” has is a charming lead performance and strong supporting ensemble whose sense of fun that makes the predictable palatable.

The maturation of Chris Evans as an actor is likely that of a performer becoming more confident. “Captain America” has given Evans the star power to relax a little and be more than just a handsome face. In “Snowpiercer” the new found confidence led to a dark, violent thriller with an incredible resonance. In “Playing it Cool” that confidence emerges in a heretofore unseen charm and playfulness that seemed forced in previous performances.