Sanctum review

Sanctum (15, 109 mins)
Director: Alister Grierson
★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
A cave diving expedition in Papua New Guinea goes badly wrong when a sudden storm floods the system and the only way out for the small group remaining, chief among them a mutually antagonistic Australian father and son, is to venture downwards to try and reach the ocean. If you ignore the wooden characters, exposition-heavy script and ropey acting, Sanctum just about passes muster even if it is frequently tame and plodding. With James Cameron on board as executive producer, his name seems to be its main selling point, alongside the sometimes effective, often pointless use of 3D. Caves may be the ideal environment to fully exploit the technology, and the depth of field and immersion here means Sanctum comes off better than most. And yet it never gets close to setting the pulse racing, though it’s also far from a disaster. If it was doing its job properly, you should feel like you haven’t drawn breath for two hours, but any thrills to be had are moderate at best and ultimately it’s nothing we haven’t seen a hundred times before.

Beautiful Kate review

Beautiful Kate (15, 101 mins)
Director: Rachel Ward

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Writer Ned (Ben Mendelsohn) returns to his old outback home to see his dying father (Bryan Brown) in this handsome Aussie melodrama. We also get snippets of flashbacks to his twin sister Kate, who died some years earlier, and a slow reveal of the dark family secrets as it explores Ned and Kate’s relationship with each other and the hardnosed Brown. It’s a set up for recriminations that covers well worn ground and describing it as Tennessee Williams with kangaroos wouldn’t be too far off the mark. So while it offers competent acting and a nicely drawn, albeit familiar, group of characters, don’t go looking for anything resembling surprises. And with a tendency to drag events out somewhat, it’s ultimately a long journey to no real destination.