CAVE IN! is rumored to have been filmed in 1979 but not broadcast on TV until 1983...and I can see why. This sucker is boring! Things get off to a quick start with a police chase, but after just a few moments you can already tell that this movie is about as low-budget and quickly slapped together. Next we're introduced to the cave and I swear to Satan that this cave has been featured in like a thousand movies and TV shows! Anyway, the cave has been having some problems recently with dirt and small rocks falling down, but yet the people who run it
insist on keeping it open. So, of course, there's a cave in and some people are trapped inside. Compared to all of the other Irwin Allen films I've seen, the disaster moment this time takes place
waaaaay earlier than usual, but I guess that's because this time they figured it was kind of hard to drum up any build-up excitement over a cave.
Anyway, people are trapped and now they (kinda like survivors in
THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE) have to find a way out. Boiling water, swimming underwater, walking across an old rope bridge...all the same old shit we've seen a thousand times before, but this time neutered by being on network television. I wish it could have at least been fun to laugh at, but for the most part everything was so bland there really wasn't much to laugh at.
Maybe good for a watch if you're a fan of old made-for-TV movies, but I found the entire affair to be too bland to be enjoyable. Even ol' Ray Milland as a cranky professor didn't help much! Skip it.
