This 3-D cave-diving adventure plays on a lot of fears, so avoid it if you have an aversion to claustrophobia, drowning or really bad acting.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 31, 2023

Its downfall is its clich-riddled and fusty script.

| Oct 7, 2011

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.

| Feb 25, 2011

It's ruthless, claustrophobic and rather less fun than the 1959 version of Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

| Feb 7, 2011

Sometimes the sets look like, well, Styrofoam. So do the actors.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Feb 5, 2011

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.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Feb 4, 2011

After a sluggish half hour, this well-crafted adventure kicks into high gear and never lets up.

| Feb 4, 2011

Workmanlike suspenser, with plenty of cold water but sparse chills. When it comes to James Cameron scuba thrillers, The Abyss still has the edge.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 4, 2011

There's a good story buried within it but it would have been better had any of the leading characters not been made of cardboard.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 4, 2011

Released over Super Bowl weekend, it makes perfect sense that Sanctum is horrid. What studio expects anyone to go to the theater on Sunday?

| Original Score: F | Feb 4, 2011

For scene after scene, in defiance of all intellectualism, I sat there thinking: Holy Crap, what would I do?

Full Review | Original Score: B | Feb 4, 2011

If you're able to think of characters as just air bubbles to get past, then dive in, the excitement's fine.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 4, 2011

"Sanctum" is a movie that tries to make you feel that there's this cool thing going on that everybody knows about except you.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Feb 4, 2011

"Sanctum" turns out to be as gripping as plankton.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Feb 4, 2011

This might sound like a line from a movie review on The Onion, but: I would have thought "executive produced by James Cameron" meant something.

| Original Score: F | Feb 4, 2011

The stunningly beautiful cave scenes are breathtakingly realistic...The plot and characters, not so much.

| Original Score: C | Feb 3, 2011

It wants to be an adventure film and a drama, but only succeeds with one. Which one's the winner? Here's a hint; if Sanctum were a silent film, it'd be quite good.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 3, 2011

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.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Feb 3, 2011

Sanctum aims for a kind of stern-jawed, gobsmacking action adventure, but gets hopelessly tangled in its own silliness and ineptitude instead.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 3, 2011

Forget 127 Hours: "Sanctum" makes sawing off your own arm look like a minor penalty for the crime of spelunking while clueless.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Feb 3, 2011