Sanctum: Not worth the dive!

Expert diver Frank McGuire and his teenage son Josh head an expedition to map a network of underground caverns but when a tropical storm cuts off their exit, they must use all of their wits and strength to find a route to the surface.

What should have been an uplifting drama about the struggle and eventual triumph of a group of regular people to survive some rather unfortunate circumstances turned out to be a dull, dreary and even malicious waste of the audience's time.

It felt like it took Alister Grierson (who directed the film) forever to get the film setup and then moving. That was due to the fact that both the characters and conflicts they were dealing with were monotonous. The audience would be hard pressed to find a character within the cast to root for as they were all aggrevating and/or insipid in some way. Even when there were moments for the audience to gravitate to someone like Josh, Frank or another member of the cast, something awful would happen to someone and they would suffer a fate worse than what would happen to some hapless teen in a slasher film.

Not even the name of James Cameron (who served as Executive Producer) could save Sanctum from being a depressing waste of time.

Grade: D

Solaris: Brainy Sci-Fi at its best!

Dr. Chris Kelvin is sent to investigate what has happened to his friend and the rest of a research team on a space station that is orbiting the planet Solaris. But once he discovers the truth behind the strange happenings on board will he want to return to Earth himself?

I don’t believe that directors set out to confuse the audience with their films, confusion leads to alienation and, ultimately, an upset crowd. After viewing Solaris, I am sure there were more than a few viewers who were looking for a refund because they did not get it. They no doubt saw the name James Cameron on the dvd cover or movie poster and thought Solaris would be a rip-roaring, action packed thriller with big guns and even bigger explosions much in the same vein as Cameron’s previous films (Aliens, Terminator, etc.). Little did they realize that Cameron only produced the movie and let the director, Stephen Soderbergh, craft Solaris into a brainy sci-fi thriller more in line with a film like 2001: A Space Odyssey.

It is a shame if viewers decided to turn off the movie once they realized they were not seeing the second coming of Aliens for they missed a film that challenged them to think and react to concepts and ideas that the story introduced, an exercise missing in most sci-fi films (or films in general) nowadays. Solaris dealt with a number of philosophical questions such as what is real, are we alone in this universe and if we are not, what would those other beings we come across want from us (if anything), what does it mean to be alive, and other thought provoking issues that could cause one’s eyes to go cross if they thought about them long enough. A film like this one could easily veer into the realm of pretentiousness if its actors are not believable, thankfully the performances were strong and helped to carry the narrative along. George Clooney gave a very un - George Clooney like turn as Dr. Chris Kelvin in that he was not suave and smooth with the usual charm he is known to exude. Kelvin was a broken man, disconnected from life thanks to the suicide of his wife Rheya (an affective Natasha McElhone) , who is simply going through the motions. When Rheya suddenly reappears to him thanks to the alien phenomena on the space station that is orbiting Solaris, he has to face the feelings and emotions of their tenuous relationship (which we see via flashbacks during the film). Their relationship was the thing that kept the audience hooked and made them ponder some of those deep questions previously mentioned.

Solaris is definitely not for everyone, but you are willing to take a chance and immerse yourself in a film that forces you to work out your own answer, it is worth a look.

Grade: B