SANCTUM

SANCTUM (2011). Director: Alister Grierson.

Very loosely inspired by a true incident which fortunately had no fatalities, Sanctum deals with a group of cavern explorers who are trapped inside a huge, twisting network of often underwater caves in New Guinea after a storm cuts off their exit. If there's any problem with the move it's that the leader of the group, Frank (Richard Roxburgh) is a total cliche, the expedient, practical hard-as-nails S.O.B. who shows little emotion until the script demands that he do so. During the movie Frank slowly bonds with his disgusted son, Josh (Rhys Wakefield), who doesn't share his interest in exploring. Ioan Gruffudd from Fantastic Four is another explorer who in a suspect "dramatic" development goes nuts after his girlfriend dies a horrible death in the caves [the women in this are much less dimensional than the main male characters]. For the first half of the movie you can't tell who anybody is because of the face masks, and don't especially care. The picture gets better and more suspenseful as it goes along, and is ultimately reasonably entertaining. But a much better script that avoided stereotypes and developed its characters better would have been welcome.  This picture got a little more attention than it might have because it was produced by James Cameron (Titanic).

Verdict: Nice scenery, even if most of this was filmed on a sound stage. **1/2.

VAN HELSING

VAN HELSING (2004). Director/writer: Stephen Sommers.

The church employs an amnesiac named Van Helsing (Hugh Jackman) to hunt down and kill all spirits and monsters of darkness, and after defeating an inexplicably giant-sized Mr. Hyde, he is assigned to destroy Dracula and his sexy brides. Helping him with his task is a Transylvanian lovely (Kate Beckinsale, in very contemporary bustier), and a geeky friar. Although this film was released by Universal, it plays much more like a parody of Hammer Horror Films of the sixties and seventies than of the Universal monster flicks of the forties. Unfortunately the campy approach – as it so often does – means that it's impossible to really care about what happens to the one-dimensional characters, and the film falls flat on its feet. [True, James Whale's classic Bride of Frankenstein was itself a parody of Frankenstein, but at least it recreated a period atmosphere; Van Helsing, like Xena and Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, has a very 21st century approach.] The movie's main strength is some striking scenic design, some very effective action scenes, and first-rate special effects, which include winged vampire-women who fly around a town square picking up struggling victims [these vampires are incredibly strong it seems]. There are some interesting concepts in the movie – Dracula wants to use the life energy inside the Frankenstein monster's body to resuscitate thousands of his vampire bat-like children (remember those brides?) -- but after awhile it simply gets too silly and busy for its own good. Jackman and Beckinsale manage to hold on to their dignity, but Richard Roxburgh's over-the-top and perfectly dreadful performance makes him the all-time worst Dracula of the cinema. This is House of Dracula for the “frat boy” generation.

Verdict: If you really love these old movies, forget about this and watch the Universal –or Hammer – films on DVD again. *1/2.