Caved In

Years ago, when he was one of the heads of PM Entertainment, Richard Pepin directed and produced memorable direct-to-video action movies like EPICENTER. However, his return to directing here is not very good. His strength seems to be with action, not sci-fi and horror, which is what this movie is. He seems to have distanced himself from this movie, with his credit being "Rick Pepin" instead of his normal name. In fairness, the sets and locations don't look too bad, there are some memorable gory moments, and the CGI effects are okay for what must have been a very low budget, as is the case for movies made for the Sci-Fi network. But there's not much more to give praise to. Atkins looks very worn out and does not seem to be very enthusiastic. There are stupid turns in the script, like when the party's first encounter with the bugs not being discussed right after they escape... or the party having *laser rifles* handy... the movie jumping between three plot threads since there's not much excitement in the main thread... and taking forever before the cave party realize they are in serious danger. Pepin, if you're reading this, reunite with your old partner Joseph Merhi and get back to making the kind of movies that made a name for yourself.

I have actually watched the 2006 movie "Caved In" once before, back around the time when it was a new movie. But I must admit that I have entirely forgotten about the movie. And since I had the time to sit down and watch the movie here in 2025, I opted to do so, and believing it was actually my first time to watch it. But it dawned upon me that I had, in fact, seen it once before.

Writer Neil Elman put together a pretty straightforward script and storyline. It was a watchable movie, although a somewhat simplistic narrative, if you can get past the atrocious CGI animated beetles.

There are actually some familiar faces on the cast list, with the likes of Christopher Atkins, David Palffy, Angela Featherstone and Colm Meaney. The acting performances in the movie were fair, though you're not in for anything grand here, mind you.

The CGI effects in the movie have not aged well. Heck, even back in 2006 the CGI in "Caved In" were bad, looking like something that escaped from a late 1990s computer game. The effects are rather terrible and makes the movie come off way more ridiculous.

My rating of director Richard Pepin's 2006 movie "Caved In" lands on a generous three out of ten stars.

Take the monsters out of the plot and you might have had a good adventure story, the sort of things we used to see on Saturday afternoons. Oh well, the monsters were a good addition to the plot anyway. Wait . . . did I just say "plot"? I did, didn't I? Oops, my mistake. This was yet another fill-in-the-blank story that managed to offer a few surprises but not many.

Our hero is taken hostage by some French terrorists (insert joke here) who hold his wife and children captive while he is forced to lead a group of them through an abandoned mine in search of a fortune in emeralds allegedly buried there. Now right away you know there are going to be problems and the problem in this movie is:

A. Personality clashes

B. Cave-ins

C. Giant prehistoric Rhinoceros Beetles

D. Bad special effects

E. Bad acting

Did you say "all of the above"? Good! You obviously know what to expect from movies like this. The leader of the terrorists is such an unlikable crumb you just know something really awful is going to happen to him and sure enough, it does! The gun toting psychopath named Marcel who is holding the hero's wife and daughter hostage is just as bad and meets an equally awful fate after he has been in the picture long enough for the audience to really get to hate him.

The giant beetles, and there are loads of them, are fairly well rendered but when they attack you get the feeling you are not watching a movie but a video game. Several of the monsters have a tendency to explode when hit by high velocity bullets and you could almost see a score getting progressively higher in the upper right hand corner of the screen if you use your imagination. CGI effects like these will never replace stop motion animation; at least not in my opinion.

So is this movie good? I've seen better, LOTS better!

far to be awful, it is only expression of good intentions without a credible script. good occasion to rediscover Christopher Atkins and few good Romanian actors - Adrian Pintea , Cristian Popa and, sure, Monica Birladeanu- in too small roles,the old story of huge animal danger and search of treasure, bad guys and admirable heroes, it is predictable, unrealistic and too long. part of a long series of mediocre Sci Fi/horror movies, it can be nice entertainment for action fans.only bad thing - the ignored possibilities of story. but that is only an insignificant detail. because the virtue is the decent performance of ...insects.

Watched this tonight...it was a forced endeavor after the first few minutes. The Sci Fi Network has some real need of new creative staff, writers and directors. This was a poorly done venture of a pitiful film. While I enjoyed seeing Colm Meaney (Vincent) and Christopher Atkins (John Palmer) again, even their acting was rather bleak. The plot was interesting, but overdone - huge mutant beetles living underground for who knows how long. While the bugs themselves looked 'real', the editing was painful! There were really bad clips during the entire movie. Pay attention to a scene early in the movie when the group is going down the mine shaft – one guy nearly falls out – watch the 'skillful' editing when they get him back on the lift! Amateur film makers with Hi-8 Video Cameras could have probably done a better job. What was up with the actors who played the kids? Chelan Simmons (Emily Palmer) and Stevie Mitchell (Miles Palmer) were real screamers! I had to check the cast list to make sure that the actress who played Emily wasn't the daughter of Kate Capshaw! (Remember all the shrill, needless screaming she did in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom). All Chelan/Emily did was scream nearly the entire movie. If the writers were more realistic, the character of Emily would have been more of a fighter and helped her mother, Samantha (played by Angela Featherstone). At one point, I hoped Samantha would just shoot Emily to shut her up. I love the Sci Fi Channel because I really love Science Fiction and Adventure films, but the bigwigs in that network need a reality check and clean house of those who are producing their network movies. Most Sci Fi Channel/Network 'Original' movies have been absolutely horrible. Why do I even try to watch their 'Original' movies? Because I do live this type of movie and want to give them a chance and...I must also be a glutton for punishment...I keep expecting that they will finally get with the right picture.

Sci Fi DOES have some great and very creative commercials - maybe they need to have the people making those promotional spots produce their network movies.