Sanctum 2011

Critics score:
30 / 100

Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: The rambling, staggering story line toggles clumsily between depictions of natural disasters and human error and/or treachery without ever hitting anything like a stride... Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: The director Alister Grierson, not grasping that bad dialogue is sometimes best delivered quietly, encourages his actors to shout and thrash about, and so they do, like fish out of water and performers out of their depth. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: No film in recent memory has been so strenuously at war with itself, although for me, a self-confessed sucker for the IMAX brand of eye candy, the images narrowly-as well as widely-carry the day. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Predictable. But the chills and thrills work, and it is gorgeous to look at. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: There's no real story here, just a series of gruesome yet weirdly casual deaths, taking place in what looks like the inside of a very big stomach. Read more

Tasha Robinson, AV Club: While Sanctum is frustratingly familiar, it's easy to get caught up in the action. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Really bad acting set against often-stunning cave-wall backdrops and underwater action sequences. Naturally, James Cameron is the executive producer. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: What we get are three-dimensional caves and two-dimensional characters. Read more

Jake Coyle, Associated Press: There's plenty of atmosphere and awe, even if it's in the service of a story that starts rote and finds its sea legs only when half the divers have sunk their bones to Davy Jones. Read more

Amy Nicholson, Boxoffice Magazine: In scuba gear, no one can hear you scream Read more

Andrea Gronvall, Chicago Reader: After a sluggish half hour, this well-crafted adventure kicks into high gear and never lets up. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Here and there an image of spectral beauty, assisted by the 3-D technology, floats into view and captures our imagination. But the script, which really should've been called "Sanctimonium," has a serious case of the bends. Read more

Adam Markovitz, Entertainment Weekly: A lean, clear-headed 3-D thriller that knows exactly where it's headed from the moment its adrenaline junkie explorers dive into the world's biggest cave in Papua New Guinea. Read more

Laremy Legel, Film.com: Released over Super Bowl weekend, it makes perfect sense that Sanctum is horrid. What studio expects anyone to go to the theater on Sunday? Read more

Aaron Hillis, L.A. Weekly: Even the added visual dimension, thankfully used more for spatial recognition than splashing at us, can't compensate for impersonalized characters stuck under rocks. 127 Hours this ain't. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: The action scenes are sometimes horrifying enough to make you gasp aloud. If only the rest of the film were similarly breathtaking. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: Despite 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. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: There's just water, water everywhere - and no one stops to think. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: If you're able to think of characters as just air bubbles to get past, then dive in, the excitement's fine. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: "Sanctum" turns out to be as gripping as plankton. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: With ace underwater photography and scuba-diving stunt doubles, Sanctum doesn't stint on action. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: There's something about an effective "man versus nature" film that gets the blood pumping. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: "Sanctum" tells the story of a terrifying adventure in an incompetent way. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Sometimes the sets look like, well, Styrofoam. So do the actors. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: When it isn't killing off its characters one by one during a cave-diving expedition gone wrong, "Sanctum" resembles a Hemingway short story without the story part. Or an episode of "Flipper" without the dolphin. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: "Sanctum" is a movie that tries to make you feel that there's this cool thing going on that everybody knows about except you. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: If not for the by-the-numbers script, a slim collection of underdeveloped characters and generally flat acting, the film could have had a real punch. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: 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. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: For much of the film, and despite groan-worthy dialogue that often takes you right out of the picture, you'll likely be holding your breath in genuine suspense. Read more

Leah Rozen, TheWrap: Its downfall is its cliche-riddled and fusty script. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: A horror movie without a visible monster, a deep dive into shallow characters who bray at one another in a harsh English-based dialect I'm told is Australian. Read more

Nigel Floyd, Time Out: Even in this dim light, one can see every plot development coming a mile off. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Actually being stuck in a remote waterlogged grotto might be more tolerable than enduring this disaster of an adventure movie. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: A subterranean survival epic that expertly tightens the screws even as one wishes it would keep a tighter mouth-clamp on its increasingly whiny characters. Read more

Mark Jenkins, Washington Post: Forget 127 Hours: "Sanctum" makes sawing off your own arm look like a minor penalty for the crime of spelunking while clueless. Read more

Michael Rechtshaffen, Hollywood Reporter: Soggy theatrics render this gorgeously-shot underwater 3D excursion more shrill than thrilling. Read more