p e n g u i n d e v i l

but especially after watching this mediocre movie, The Cave. Strangely, it arrived the same year as the vastly better, The Descent, which is well worth watching (feel free to read about my three viewings of that). This one starts out ok: a nice title sequence, some gruff fellows locating and going through a creepy old church in Romania, then getting dumped into a cave below it. But then? Well, we cut to the present and things head a bit south. We are introduced to our dull batch of buff Hollywood actors, with their bad dialogue, flat characters and dorky machismo. It was just like I remember the preview being.

Of course, it’s not all bad… Anything that involves caves is good for just that reason and the caves here are nice, though strangely bright for being a “mile below the surface”. The rest is a bit of a mixed-bag: the creatures are creepy, but too overdone for one to be able to suspend any disbelief, leading to “the twist”, which, while it is sort of clever, suffers from being too preposterous to even give a nod towards. And, as a horror-type movie, well… It’s not tense, scary or suspenseful. There is some action, but it’s just moderate and predictable. The only part I liked took place on a terribly high underground cliff, and that was entertaining, but the movie is just hard to buy into, and it doesn’t really compel you to want to try. It was fine as something to play in the background while feeding the baby.