Based on the real events of the 2010 disaster, The 33 follows a group of thirty-three miners were trapped inside the San Jose Mine for 69 days. The miners begin an epic quest to survive, contending with suffocating heat and the need for food and water. With family, friends and the rest of the world watching, it becomes a race against time and a true test of the human spirit.
Director Patricia Riggen efficiently touches all the bases without doing what Ron Howard did so well in Apollo 13 - creating an air of uncertainty despite the final outcome being known.
Mexican-born filmmaker Patricia Riggen makes the telling of this complicated true story of the 2010 Chilean San José Mine shaft collapse look easy. And, well ... fun!
In trying to breathe life into too many characters, the screenplay transforms them all into thinly-drawn caricatures. In focusing on its feel-good, inspirational ending, it fails to make nearly 2 hours of hardship a worthwhile experience.