Sanctum
Universal Pictures | Release Date: February 4, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
42
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
17
Negative:
8
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Entertainment WeeklyAdam MarkovitzFeb 3, 2011
As we go deeper into the cave, walls squeezing, water rising, the movie has a narrative pull as sure as gravity. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliFeb 3, 2011
Although it's true that a father/son relationship lies at Sanctum's emotional core, the movie is at its best when it highlights the defiance of the protagonists to yield to despair and give up. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderAndrea GronvallFeb 4, 2011
After a sluggish half hour, this well-crafted adventure kicks into high gear and never lets up. Read full review
70
Boxoffice MagazineAmy NicholsonFeb 2, 2011
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 full review
67
The A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonFeb 3, 2011
While Sanctum is frustratingly familiar, it's easy to get caught up in the action. Read full review
63
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottFeb 4, 2011
Once the real story hits its stride, it's easy to get lost in Sanctum. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaFeb 3, 2011
Grisly stuff. The movie, shot in Australia with an Aussie and British cast, makes "127 Hours" look like a walk in the park. Read full review
63
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreFeb 2, 2011
It's a solid, old-fashioned action yarn filled with the very latest dive gear and the oldest plot formula in the movie-maker's playbook. Read full review
60
EmpireNick de SemlyenFeb 5, 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. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierFeb 4, 2011
If you're able to think of characters as just air bubbles to get past, then dive in, the excitement's fine. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorAndy KleinFeb 5, 2011
It's technically impressive, but most of the better aspects of Sanctum would be almost – maybe exactly – as effective viewed the old-fashioned way. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldConnie OgleFeb 5, 2011
The bigger problem with the film, which is genuinely unnerving at times, is what happens when the cavers are not in immediate peril, because they talk. Read full review
50
Washington PostMark JenkinsFeb 4, 2011
This is a movie that features not one, but two graphic mercy killings. Forget "127 Hours": Sanctum makes sawing off your own arm look like a minor penalty for the crime of spelunking while clueless. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleFeb 3, 2011
Sanctum is by no means a badly made movie, but it has the feel of one of those dramatic re-enactments made exclusively for Imax theaters. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenFeb 3, 2011
To wit, 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 full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternFeb 3, 2011
Sanctum is far from a good movie, just as 3-D is far from the movie industry's savior. But it certainly looks good, and watching it through those plastic glasses reopens your eyes to the promise of the third dimension. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrFeb 3, 2011
A muscular Australian B-movie down to the thin characters and boilerplate dialogue. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsFeb 3, 2011
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 full review
50
VarietyJustin ChangFeb 2, 2011
The key to enjoying Sanctum is to look, not listen. Read full review
42
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallFeb 2, 2011
A movie that wouldn't get much attention if the creator of "Titanic" and "Avatar" (as the ads overhype) weren't tangentially involved. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichFeb 4, 2011
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. Read full review
40
SalonAndrew O'HehirFeb 3, 2011
Whatever his faults as a filmmaker may be, Cameron would never make an adventure flick that felt this bland and generic. Read full review
40
MovielineStephanie ZacharekFeb 3, 2011
The supposition, maybe, is that in an alleged thrill ride of a movie like this one, the words aren't supposed to matter. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzFeb 2, 2011
What it has instead is really bad acting set against often-stunning cave-wall backdrops and underwater action sequences. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenFeb 2, 2011
Banal dialogue, over-modulated performances and melodramatic scoring combine forces to sink the stirringly photographed proceedings quicker than that treacherous flash flood. Read full review
38
New York PostKyle SmithFeb 4, 2011
It sounds like it was written by the star pupils at the Cameron Academy of Screenwriting. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertFeb 2, 2011
Sanctum tells the story of a terrifying adventure in an incompetent way. Some of it is exciting, the ending is involving, and all of it is a poster child for the horrors of 3-D used badly. Read full review
30
The New York TimesManohla DargisFeb 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. Read full review
30
TimeRichard CorlissFeb 3, 2011
Sanctum is a stinker, a horror movie without a visible monster. Read full review
30
L.A. WeeklyAaron HillisFeb 2, 2011
Ultimately, the plot-point overload dilutes any palpable sense of dread, excitement or empathy, and it doesn't help that all the dialogue acts in service to either patronizing exposition or turgid interpersonal drama. Read full review
25
Rolling StonePeter TraversFeb 5, 2011
The movie ultimately reveals itself as a pretender with no balls. Creatively, it's all wet. Read full review
25
USA TodayClaudia PuigFeb 3, 2011
A documentary on the formation of stalagmites would have been more compelling. Read full review
20
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovFeb 3, 2011
Those audiences who have complained about the clunky exposition and mawkish emotional dialogue in Cameron's films will discover the "King of the World"'s own dramatic talents to be on par with the Bard in comparison to the shouty, over-emoted hokum on display here. Read full review
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