Back Seat Producers

Based on a true story, Sanctum tells the tale of a group of underwater cave divers as they attempt to explore one of the largest and least accessible cave settings on the planet, the Esa-ala caves in the South Pacific.  Thanks to an incredible storm coming their way, the team’s exit from the system is cut off, trapping the group of explorers and forcing them to navigate through the rest of the system to find an alternative way out.  The only question is whether they can survive the experience, now being totally cut of from the outside world and with limited supplies.

I actually like the idea of telling this sort of story, without having some sort of personified malevolent force that would be in pursuit of the team through their adventure, thinking of telling it like a dramatized National Geographic adventure.  The idea is cool, the execution on the other hand isn’t.

The main selling points of this movie are that James Cameron served as one of the producers of the film and that it was shot in 3D.  As the story unfolds, it certainly has a feel like a James Cameron film, with it’s stock group of expert characters in an impossible situation.  And if anyone could do 3D right, you’d certainly expect that from something with Cameron’s name on it.

I actually think the 3D is pretty good in the movie.  It’s not of the in-your-face variety, but more in giving real depth to it’s setting, and for the most part, Sanctum does this pretty well.

After that, well things just don’t fare too well.

From what I can tell, this is director Alister Grierson’s first major film, and while he does a nice job of initially setting up a sense of place here, it falls apart after that.  Once the event happens that traps the group, you should get a sense of just how arduous the journey is, not just by what they have to do to survive, but also by where they are and the elapsed time of their journey.  Near the start of the film, we have a nice little section shown as a computer graphic simulation which shows just how big this setting is, and I think it would’ve been nice to have somehow kept that as some sort of running piece that showed where this group was as they’re making their way through.  Instead, we just get things presented as a series of events that just happen, seemingly in real time.  In comparison, a movie like 127 Hours does a terrific job with a similar subject.  In just one setting, you get a portrayal of elapsed time and threat to the trapped Aron Ralston, and it totally captures the viewer, you feel Ralston’s journey.

It also helps that you actually like Ralston in 127 Hours, the characters in Sanctum are just stock one and two-dimensional cyphers for the most part. They run through the traditional motions, in particular with a tired father-son conflict between Frank, the leader of the expedition (he’s like the Cousteau of the cave diving world) and his son Josh, who just doesn’t want that life.  To their credit, I think actors Richard Roxburgh, who plays Frank, and Ioan Gruffudd, who plays his business partner, Carl, do their best to inject whatever life they can into their parts.  They’re just limited by a very ho-hum script.

Rhys Wakefield plays, Frank’s son Josh, and while he looks good, he has very little on-screen charisma.  He’s supposed to be our sympathetic point of view for the movie, but in the end, you just don’t care about him at all.  With a movie like this, you should be in there just rooting for this guy all the way through, much like you do with Aron Ralston in 127 Hours. Alice Parkinson plays Victoria, Carl’s fiancée and supposedly quite the explorer her own self.  As such, you would figure her to be a character with resources. As this script plays out, she devolves to being the  “girl” of this piece who in the end is more trouble than she’s worth.

One other comment about the script, this movie is rated R for language, some violence and disturbing images.  Well, I tend to think that the R Rating is more for language than anything else as this script has the tendency to drop quite a few F-bombs throughout.  Now, I’m not against that at all, and even applaud it when it’s in the hands of such guys like a David Mamet or Quentin Tarantino who know how to write profanity and make it profound in their use.  Here, while the screenwriters might argue that this is the way they really talk during one of these expeditions, it comes off more forced than anything else.  It plays like it’s from an inexperienced screenwriter who’s just wanting to make this material more adult so that he’s taken seriously, when really it’s totally unnecessary.

While it’s 3D is good, the material behind it isn’t and so the 3D is just a selling effect rather than being anything that really helps you in experiencing this journey.  I like the idea of making this sort of adventure movie, but it’s execution left me cold, filled with tedium more than anything that gives you a real sense of the danger that you should have.  I also like the idea of using a cast that’s not exactly household names (Gruffudd is the most famous here, having played Reed Richards in the two Fantastic Four movies), but that cast is wasted thanks to a script that makes the characters nothing more than placeholders rather than real people that you want to experience this journey through.

If you’re expecting a terrific journey here because of having James Cameron’s name on the project, you’re probably going to be better served by watching something like The Abyss again rather than paying the money to see Sanctum in theatres.  Already, we have an early contender for one of the most disappointing movies of 2011.

Arthur Bishop is a hit man and very, very good a what he does, with his preferred way of working making all of his hits look like natural occurrences or else the work of someone else entirely..  He takes out high-level corporate and political targets for a regular employer, one Harry McKenna, who is also his mentor.  Arthur has finished his latest job and enjoys his leisured life until one day he gets a message for a new target to take out, his mentor, Harry McKenna.

McKenna’s partner, Dean, meets face-to-face with Bishop and gives him the reasons why, all of which look indisputable to Bishop.  Bishop takes the job and when he confronts McKenna, McKenna is resigned to his fate, telling Bishop that if someone had to do it, he would have it be Bishop.

After the job is done, bishop visits McKenna’s gravesite and finds his son, Steve, there.  Steve is angry, wanting revenge and guilts Arthur into teaching him the tricks of his trade… and of course hi-jinks follow.

The Mechanic is a remake of a 1972 film with the same name, starring Charles Bronson and Jan Michael-Vincent.  It’s also the latest movie from director Simon West who has previously directed the pilots to such shows as The Cape and The Human Target, as well as feature films like Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Con Air.  In addition, this is the second movie in the last few months from CBS Films, their previous release being the underrated crime thriller Faster with Dwayne Johnson and Billy Bob Thornton.  Between Faster and The Mechanic, CBS Films looks like it has a clear direction on the type of action movies that they want to make, being films that have more of a earnest, noir and grounded quality (though The Mechanic has it’s moments of going over the top, but nowhere ear the flavor of say a Michael Bey movie).

I’ve not seen the original film, so I don’t have that to compare to (though I do know that the original is available through Netflix Instant Play).  Based on it’s own merits though, I had a good time with The Mechanic. It’s lean run time of 98 minutes doesn’t allow for any real padding and things pretty much get to the point in every aspect.  West’s action set-ups are all very nicely constructed and while no one will win any awards for their performances in this, the cast all turn in respectable work.

Jason Statham plays Arthur Bishop and as far as I’m concerned, Statham is money in the bank for a movie like this.  it may not be too different from other parts that he’s played, but he’s good in it, and certainly convincing that he’s a dangerous presence.  Donald Sutherland plays McKenna, and though his appearance here is brief, it does the required job of providing a sure mentor figure to Bishop.  Tony Goldwyn plays Dean, and it’s a pretty two-dimensional villain part.  Goldwyn’s certainly done better in other films, but he does what this one asks of him and doesn’t fall down doing it.

The real standout for me in the cast though is Ben Foster as Steve McKenna.  I’ve been a big fan of Foster’s for a long time now and he always brings something a little special to each part he plays.  Foster carries the right tone as he starts this, being angry and impetuous and by the time he’s gone through his training in Bishop’s ways, he’s nearly Statham’s equal in being able to pull off these jobs.

The Mechanic is a fun little diversionary action film and I had a decent time with it, not necessarily to the same extent CBS Films’ previous release, Faster but a good time nonetheless.  The film is played earnestly for the most part, only getting a touch on the ridiculous side near it’s end, but that ridiculousness more brought a smile to my face than anything else.  Basically, it doesn’t really come out of left field, considering the world these guys are in, it’s just a little more over-the-top than the events that lead up to it.  Still, though, it’s a pretty good time.s