The Rift (2016)

Excellent but underrated film

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

I often rate films on IMDB, but rarely feel compelled to write a review to explain why I gave the rating I gave.I'm not in the film industry, but I am in the television industry, and have a lot of friends and colleagues who work on film projects and, in fact, produce their own low budget efforts like this one, so I typically understand the problems of production work flow and how low budget movies can suffer from even simple things, like continuity and special effects problems, and I try to look for the good in direction and acting and, of course, the story as a foundation of the entire movie.Had there been even a minor step up in audio production, I would have actually watched this movie to the end, but my constant volume adjustments just got too tedious to bear. That, among other things, made this movie essentially unwatchable.The movie hilariously starts showing a flyover of Seattle (see below for why). The two main characters are part of a special U.S. government organization, both with personal problems that have kept them from working for some time, both being recalled for this "special" mission to retrieve what's left of a government satellite that may not have completely burned up on reentry into our atmosphere. Just coincidentally, and conveniently, one has a Serbian accent... doing "special ops" for the U.S. government, based in Seattle, apparently. They meet to discuss the mission and Agent Smith (yes, really) says "let's take a drive."No, really. Supposedly in Seattle, they immediately jump to a car driving down the road in Serbia. No stock shots of planes, or walking out of an airport, they are just magically driving down the road there. While these b-roll driving sequences aren't very long, they certainly feel that way as the background music is turned up to intolerable levels, forcing me to turn down the volume (maybe if it was better music I could have left it turned up). Every time there is a pause in dialog, where we see the car driving down the highway, or the characters walking through a field, the music destroys any sense of mood you might have otherwise had.At one point, where I have the dialog at acceptable volume levels, the two main characters - I kid you not - turn and walk away from the camera, and their dialog becomes impossible to hear without cranking up the volume again. Really? No boom mic operator back there? No dubbing (the characters weren't even facing the camera, it wouldn't have been hard)? It was at this point that my wife and I just decided to watch something else.At least with movies like these I'd like be able to say "sorry, but an A for effort!" But no... I can't even do that this time.

Science-less science fiction with no point and little coherence. I suppose I should have been warned by the sorta nonsensical title but the credits at the beginning depict the moon rotating in space and clearly depict the reality that the moon has no "dark side" but rather a day /night cycle just like the earth; just longer. Alas, I should have remembered that sfx sequences are often done by people smarter and/or more interested in accuracy than the film-makers. There are some good scenes at the very beginning which provide background on the main character, but it's all downhill from there. Characters behave bizarrely, even before the story begins to depend on bizarre events to propel it. The music is eccentric and often... Well, the word bizarre keeps coming to mind. Honestly, I had to skip over large parts of the film, which was annoying me too much to endure, but I am absolutely certain I didn't miss anything that would have rendered it interesting or meaningful.

Yes, the music was bad on this movie. I would have rather watched in silence. I eventually turned off the sound and read the captions.

I gave it 2 stars because I actually felt bad for everyone responsible for this film. I watched it in my 4:20 hour and it still failed to hold my attention, ended up playing with my cat. Looking forward to the guys at Mystery Science Theater to make it watchable.