Surviving the Rush (2007) Poster

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1/10
Very Bad Movie
BitterJim14 December 2011
Warning: Spoilers
This film is about an anticipated new movie getting moved from a large theater to a very small theater last minute, and how the manager and his only 2 employees (due to 3 other employees calling off)have to prepare and deal with the unusual and unexpected large crowd.

Oh, my my my...I could write a book on why this movie is pure crap. The entire cast of characters are unrealistic. Everyone...literally everyone, from the main characters to the extras act completely insane, inconsistent, and illogical.

Let me give you a taste...One scene, a random person orders popcorn. The concession worker asks if the customer would like butter on his popcorn, and the customer says "Of course I want butter, what do you think I am, a (insert derogatory word for gay beginning with an F and having two G's in the middle...this site wont even let me repeat it)!?" Not only is that line entirely unnecessary, but it makes no sense in any context. People are called this offensive derogatory word, not even in context and serving no purpose, throughout this film..it appears to be a running theme, and is used and shouted for reasons as: using the quarter machine, not allowing animals into the theater, etc etc...

There are about 12 monologues, mostly by the main character, the manager of the small theater. In the beginning of this film, the owner of the theater, a woman, calls the manager, and literally tells him, for no reason, that she will cut his penis off, kill him, run him over, stab him, etc etc, and also insults him sexually and abuses him verbally.

You literally see several potential lawsuits occur, yet the main character accepts this as normal behavior, and submits, and goes about his day.

Anyways, the main character also has several thoughtful, emotional monologues, in the midst of complete and total madness. Its as if the actor was a pretentious camera hog, and must have had a hand in the production of this film, to greedily give himself so much screen time.

Some black woman, who plays a miserable, scowling employee, goes about the movie calling customers f-ing a-holes, and telling them to go "F" themselves...because no one would ever get fired over that, right? Do you see what kind of nutty world this film takes place in? And yet, it tries to go after your heart when the 3 main characters have self realizations, and emotional monologues, suddenly grounded in some sort of reality...only to immediately jump back into a world where the customers are stomping on the employees and physically assaulting them, as well as stripping naked in a movie theater because it gets to hot after the thermostat goes haywire.

Stripping naked in a movie theater because of how ungodly the heat gets...not getting up and leaving and demanding money back???!!! At another point, they run out of popcorn, and the concession stand employee goes to another theater and steals some. Because thats entirely reasonable and logical behavior, right? Especially when said character is on probation, and knows his probation officer, whose out to get him, was literally just in the theater harassing him.

Oh god, the acting...people literally look directly into the camera in several scenes..they act like sports athletes doing a car commercial, its so bad. The main characters themselves are horrible, untalented actors. The film was also arrogantly long. It desperately needed several minutes cut. I don't know how long exactly this film was, but it felt like 6 hours.

So, combine ZERO talent, with one of the most boring, ridiculous shitty stories/scripts ever, with no consistency or logic in anything, from story to characters, and you get this gem. No, wait...this is a turd, not a gem.

I wish it was so bad it was good, like Troll 2 or something. This is just so bad, it makes you angry. It makes you feel swindled. It makes you feel ashamed to be apart of the same species as the animals involved in producing this absolute garbage.

It makes you question man kinds worth. Seriously. Don't believe me? Then watch it. But then...these shysters get your money. And thats a bad thing. They deserve to starve to death.
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9/10
There's an 80 minute AND a shorter version--I saw the shorter one.
planktonrules26 February 2008
I thought that IMDb was wrong about the length of this film, as I clearly saw an 18 minute film by this exact director and with the exact same title. After first posting this review, I got an email from Sean Farley indicating there ARE two different versions--the longer and the shorter one. My review is for the short one, but considering how much I liked it, I really want to find the full version.

SURVIVING THE RUSH is certainly not a very polished film. It looks like a well-made amateur film--with a relatively low budget, no-name actors and simple sets. However, despite this, it's also a tremendously entertaining short film--one that you can enjoy and ignore its artistic deficiencies as well as the occasionally crude language. This is because the writing and energy level are so high that you can't help but like the film and keep watching. The bottom line is that it is very, very funny and there's a lot of charm to SURVIVING THE RUSH.

The film is about a movie theater where everything seems to go wrong during one particular evening--and I do mean EVERYTHING!! Rats in the popcorn, a broken film and insanely annoying customers and the manager of this theater is really at wits end by the end of the shift! You really have to feel sorry for the guy--though watching him and his staff being tortured is awfully funny in an Itchy and Scratchy sort of way!! This film is one of the bonus shorts included with the wonderful DVD "A Collection of 2006 Academy Award Nominated Short Films"--a must have for fans of the genre. Buy this DVD--it's one of the best I've ever invested in and I'll be watching it again.
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