"Director: Alister Grierson"

• Sanctum (Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (13/06/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  The 3D action-thriller Sanctum, from executive producer James Cameron, follows a team of underwater cave divers on a treacherous expedition to the largest, most beautiful and least accessible cave system on Earth.

• Sanctum | Blu Ray | (14/05/2012) from £8.99   |  Saving you £16.00 (177.98%)   |  RRP £24.99

  If there's an undersea adventure with high-tech equipment, macho posturing, and lots of underwater photography, you know James Cameron must be swimming around the vicinity. Add the fact that Sanctum was released to theaters in 3-D, and it's clinched. Cameron served as executive producer to this crazy tale of a cave-diving expedition forced to improvise when a typhoon inundates their New Guinea location. (The film, shot in Australia, is allegedly based on a true event by co-screenwriter Andrew Wight, but it might be safe to conclude that the original incident was a jumping-off point for the high melodrama on display here.) A globetrotting billionaire (Ioan Gruffudd, of Fantastic Four) is underwriting this exploration of a hidden cave maze, which explains why he gets to bring his girlfriend (Alice Parkinson) along. As a measure of their thrill-seeking habits, we are told they met on an Everest climb. The cave-diving boss is a crusty old pro (Richard Roxburgh), who is rough on his underlings and even rougher on his teenage son (Rhys Wakefield); naturally, the cataclysm that follows will be an occasion for some extreme father-son fence mending. As cornball as these elements are, and as generally toneless as director Alister Grierson's ear is with the dialogue scenes, Sanctum does work up some bona fide thrills: the sheer power of water is unleashed at a few memorable spots, as is the panic of losing an oxygen tank at a crucial moment. It's also pretty brutal, with a steep body count and a few grotesque bits of bodily injury. It ought to be easy to dismiss Sanctum as a silly piece of boy's adventure, but--curse you, Cameron!--one must admit that the thing is awfully effective. --Robert Horton

• The 39th Battalion | DVD | (30/06/2008) from £12.39   |  Saving you £4.60 (37.13%)   |  RRP £16.99

  New Guinea 1942 Allied Australia is at war with Japan. A small platoon of reservist Australian soldiers have been sent as an advanced patrol up the Kokoda trail - a critical supply line that separates Australia from full blown invasion. After sustained bombardment from the Japanese the men are cut off from their supply lines. Isolated in the jungle behind enemy lines they must make their way back through the most unforgiving terrain on earth to reunite with the main body of Australian troops. After three days without food or sleep carrying their wounded and suffering the horrifying effects of dysentery and malaria they emerge from the jungle exhausted to the point of collapse. But on learning that Isurava is about to fall they pick themselves up and rejoin the battle... Inspired by real events and the Kokoda / Isurava memorial inscription of 'courage mateship endurance and sacrifice' Kokoda evokes the visceral and terrifying realities of warfare and their devastating effects on the human condition.

• Sanctum | Blu Ray | (13/06/2011) from £24.28   |  Saving you £0.71 (2.92%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The 3D action-thriller Sanctum, from executive producer James Cameron, follows a team of underwater cave divers on a treacherous expedition to the largest, most beautiful and least accessible cave system on Earth.