The Cave (2005)

The scariest thing about this horror movie is that the end alludes to a sequel. 'The Cave' is really a disappointing action movie. A team of cave and undersea researchers go to Romania (one of these inexpensive places to make a movie, for now at least) and following a destroyed church enter in a cave that proves to be a realm of underground monsters. Or are they daemons? The movie never decides if it wants to be action, science fiction, or horror, it is a mix of all without salt or fun, and acted in a wooden manner. The best thing about the movie is the cinematography, but even the dark landscape of the cave becomes soon boring, because the film lacks pace and the characters are simply not interesting. Waste of time.

Fmovies: Thirty years ago, in the Carpathians Mountains of Romania, a group of explorers blows an entrance to a cave hidden under a church, but the explosion causes a landslide and they become trapped inside. In the present days, the expedition leaded by Dr. Nicolai (Marcel Iures) and his assistant, Dr. Kathryn (Lena Headey) are exploring the place and they find the access through an underwater river, requesting the experienced cave divers team leaded by Jack (Cole Hauser). Dr. Nicolai discovers that, in accordance with the local legend, the church was built to seal the cave as a display of God's protective power, and that Templar Knights entered the cave to fight winged demons. When the group reaches a cave though a tunnel one mile below and three miles in, a creature attacks one of the members and his breathing apparatus explodes, collapsing the tunnel and trapping the group in the cave. Sooner they realize that they are the rescue team and they have to find an exit to survive from the attack of the monsters.

"The Cave" is a predictable rip-off of Alien. If the viewer sees the trailer, as I did, he knows the whole story, and will only bet how many, if any, of the characters will survive in the end. This movie entertains because of the locations and the good cast. I am a fan of Lena Headey and her beauty is a good reason to see this film. The conclusion is a hook for a sequel, as usual. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "A Caverna" ("The Cave")

I give it an average "5" because it's an average movie. Not really bad, not really good. Just not really ANYTHING. It just sat there and didn't really do anything. As a "man against the elements" movie, it was at least interesting. As a "creature feature," it was completely dull and unoriginal. The characters were one-dimensional - you wouldn't care about any of them.

Rather than letting us spend the time with these characters to learn how and why they are so close-knit, the script writer simply had one of the characters say, "We're like a family." - OK, if you say so . . . then why does no one in the group shed a single tear when people start dying? Characters move from death scene to death scene as if they are just losing casual acquaintances - but wait, she said "they are like a family." OH, I get it - because most family members can't stand each other - OK, now it makes sense! Anyway - if they had lost the monsters, gotten some better actors and a better script, and simply made a movie about cave divers lost underground having to band together to get out, this might have been a decent movie. As it is, the "escape the cave" element is never really richly developed, and instead the focus seems to be on "scaring" you, which it never does, or "wowing" you with action and effects, which it CERTAINLY never does.

In the end, a wasted opportunity, with the only redeeming feature being the nice sets and photography. Wait till it comes to cable, dudes!

The Cave fmovies. 30 years ago a group of explorers entered an immense cave system under a church in Romania. The church caved in and the explorers were trapped, never to be heard from again. Flash forward to present day, where a geological expedition comes across the mouth of the cave. They call in an experienced group of cavers to map the place out, but an underwater passage way collapses, sealing them over a mile underground with no hope of being rescued. They begin searching for a way out, only to come to the realization that they aren't alone; not only are there bizarre, undiscovered creatures, but also the group of explorers from three decades ago, who are no longer quite humanÂ… I just got back from seeing this in a near-midnight show. There were a total of 9 other people in the theatre, not a good sign really, and combined with the almost exclusively rotten IMDb reviews I wondered if I'd made a mistake. Deciding not to waste my eight bucks and ride the film out, I actually enjoyed what this flick had to offer: A claustrophobic atmosphere, stunning photography, plenty of action, cool monsters and nifty special effects. This is the directional debut of Bruce Hunt, a former second-unit director on the Matrix films and 1998's "Dark City". While he handles some of the dialogue scenes awkwardly, he certainly knows how to make the film LOOK good. Man, this flick is GORGEOUS! Not only are the cave sets great (fantastic production values on this one) but their lit perfectly (and surprisingly realistically). Kudos to cinematographer Ross Emery for giving this flick the visual kick it needed. As for the actors, just about everyone here does well, especially Cole Hauser and Morris Chestnut. The only weak actor here is Piper Perabo. Sure, she's pretty, but she really, really needs to develop some ACTING skills. Then there are the creatures. We never get a lingering look at them, but they are COOL. I'm glad the creatures were mostly created with puppets and prosthetic instead of CG (what little CG there is was mostly limited to shots of the creatures flying), it was a wise move by the filmmakers. Effects artist Patrick Tatopoulos, who also handled the creatures in "Independence Day", "Pitch Black" and "Underworld", has done a great job as usual. Some people have called Tatopoulos the next Stan Winston, and based on the work he's done so far in his career, this very much might be true. Also worth noting is the score by Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek, which, though often low-key, is pulse-pounding and exciting and keeps the action flowing nicely. The ending is your typical twisted horror ending, but hey, it works anyways.

Is "The Cave" a masterpiece of modern film-making? No. Would it have been better if it had had an R rating and more gore? Most certainly. Still, this summer creature feature is more entertaining than I expected it to be, I came in praying I might get at least a LITTLE enjoyment out of it and in the end I got more than I expected to. Enjoy!

6.5/10.

This wasn't a bad movie if you like creature flicks. It isn't original, but it does nothing badly and is interesting enough to spend 1.5 hours with.

Firstly: why is it that the entire team consists of hunks and babes? Even the scientists are good looking chicks. Oh well, we'll just have to suspend our thinking and just accept that actors have to be good looking these days, even if their roles completely rule out looking like a supermodel.

As for the movie itself: the action, plot (if there is any to speak of), effects and direction are OK, as is the acting.. Once again, nothing special, novel or interesting but not bad either. The editing was decent except for the action shots. Why does every editor and/or director think that they are doing an MTV clip these days? Keep the camera still! If you think I can see what's going on in random .3 second bursts of film, you're wrong. So irritating.

The effects are OK. Although at times the caves are lit in ways that are impossible for the little flashlights to accomplish, the set is generally dark enough to be realistic. The caves look real. The monsters are not that good but they are almost never shown completely, and in doing so they are acceptable. I do wish the movie had more gore though. Being, as almost all horror movies these days, PG-13 to cash in on teenage kids' money, it does not show any gore besides some scratches and some ugly but very brief ceature shots.

Final comment: I wish the movie had revolved around the first cave expedition that is shown during the introduction titles. They seemed a hell of a lot more interesting than that group of supermodels who came in later. Real men, real people, driven by greed. Oh well.

Decent action, decent thrills. Not bad to kill some time with.

The opening sequence with a group of men breaking into an old monastery is wonderful. Weird forms in the walls and floors promise that the place has been guarding some terrible secret. Unfortunately an avalanche/earthquake destroys the building and send the men into a deep dark cave where there are monsters. Some years later the ruins are being excavated and the cave is discovered. Its so big that there might be something there, especially since there appears to be a river of some sort that runs a hundred miles underground. A team of specialists is brought in and soon everyone is trapped underground and underwater, including the beasts.

For the early portion of this movie I was a bit confused by the critical drubbing that this movie took. Sure it wasn't the best movie ever, but it wasn't that bad. Unfortunately as time went on I began to get very lost, I got to the point where I wasn't sure what I was seeing. The problem is that the film is very dark and its often filmed in tight shots that re-enforce the claustrophobic nature of where the cast is suppose to be. Worse everyone in the cast blends together so once everyone got underground and in similar wet suits I had no idea who anyone was except there was a blonde girl, a brunette girl, an old guy, a black guy, a Japanese guy, and a bunch of white guys. The combination of the dark confused camera work with the clone like cast had me rapidly lose interest because I had no idea what was going on or who anyone was. I got to the point where I stopped caring. To be honest I got lost as to what was going on and stuck with it just to see the monsters.

Its a shame the film making isn't better or more coherent since the monsters are mostly quite good. These beasts are what makes the movie worth seeing. Sure there are some that look like rubber toys but some of the big guys look absolutely stunning. They are destined to become legends once the movie hits home video.(I can see the toys now) Should you see this? If you like great monsters yes, you'll want to see this. If like horror movies, you can give it a try, but understand its just an okay horror movie, not anything more. If you want a great movie find something else.