THE 33 is a workable Chilean drama about the real-life disaster and rescue tale of the famous 33 miners who spent months trapped below ground after a cave-in. The recent story will be familiar to all of us who follow world news, which robs this tale of some of the suspense, but otherwise it's quite an efficient film. I don't think it will ever be a favourite, because not much actually happens after the initial disaster. A lot of time is spent on building conflict with the group, but generally everybody got on and nobody went crazy. I could have done without all of the sentiment and the family relationship material which only serves to slow things down quite considerably. Still, a decent cast has been assembled here, including Antonio Banderas, James Brolin, Bob Gunton, and Lou Diamond Phillips, so it's worth a look.
Review of The 33
