The Rift (I) (2012) User Reviews

Trouble with grading on a curve

[toddatthemovies · 5/10 · 4 November 2012]

I have been anxiously awaiting the opportunity to screen The Rift. This is a Short Film debut release from the newly formed Vantis Pictures. The Director is Robert Kouba and his most ambitious project to date. The score I gave this film is a refection of the parts and it's "weight class". It's not fair to judge a debut micro budget short as if it was a major studio release. There is a lot to be excited about in general from Vantis Pictures and Robert Kouba.

First thing that struck me was the quality of the equipment used. The camera work was excellent and lighting too. These are little things new directors often do poorly on. The casting of Eileen Grubba was great, she was a stand out. The CGI and editing were also really strong points. Robert Kouba may be young, but he has a firm grasp of movie making mechanics. I expect big things from him in the future...along with big budgets comes big responsibility.

Now let's focus a little sharper on the issues I had with The Rift. You would think with the great equipment and skill level on the mechanics it would be a slam dunk winner. Unfortunately this is more of a calling card than a movie. More attention was put into the craftsmanship than the actual story. Outside of Grubba, the cast was sub par. For having such a small script (18-20 pages?) it wasn't very tight. Normally with new Directors the one thing in their control is the story and script and they lack the tools or skill. This is backwards. There was nothing new. The characters were stereotypes and the dialogue was hard to listen too. Even the really well done special effects were familiar, from 10 different movies.

In summary I think Robert Kouba is capable of making some really great films in his future, but I hope he puts as much effort in having something to say in his next movie as he does making it look good.

~Todd at the movies

Excellent. Will leave you wanting for more.

[jggorman-743-949651 · 7/10 · 20 July 2013]

I am judging this based on almost 24 minutes compared to 24 minutes of any other science fiction film. Well, I was tempted to give in 8 stars, but a short film cannot stand a few minutes of sub par acting as it might be excused in a longer film as long as it was made up for. The lead actor in this movie had some very good moments at the end, but earlier in the film his timing is off and his expressions don't quite communicate enough for a lead. Supporting cast was all fine. The look of the film is great and so is the pace. I think that sometimes there is a real need for some background noise or a soundtrack of some sort, if not music to help the scenes flow better (let's face it, the script can't compete with Sex, Lies and Videotape which has no background music). Nevertheless, I found myself more entertained in 24 minutes that I am for that period of time in most films of the science fiction/horror genre. The special effects were good and mostly believable. Above all, I found myself hoping this team gets a shot at making a feature length 3d film. I would definitely go see it (I typically like to see anything that has many low light scenes on the big screen). The movie inspired me to write my one and only review!

Feels like something written to get funds

[mike-ryan455 · 6/10 · 20 July 2013]

Do you remember District 9? Really killer flick. The director, Neill Blomkamp, did a short three years earlier titled Alive in Joburg to get backing for the full length feature.

No, The Rift isn't that good. But it kind of has that feel.

So, how was it? Plot novelty - eh. I wouldn't rate it that well.

Acting - the lead kid, Dean, not so hot. Actually I'd rate him as the worst of the bunch. He seemed pretty darn inexperienced and wasn't believable. His mother and the fat guy with the white tie were decent. The other kid in the diner wasn't as bad as Dean. I'd have had him do the lead.

Special effects - hey that's how stories are rated these days. Not that bad. Nothing outrageously fancy but not too bad.

Visually great but lifeless acting and a shallow script

[Hole_In_The_Bucket · 4/10 · 6 January 2013]

First things first. I usually like to start with the positive aspects of a film and the biggest thing this film has going for it are the visuals. It has a very consistent color palette throughout, giving it a clean, professional look that is very hard to achieve with such a small budget. With updates to computer software technology and hardware allowing for lower prices, it really isn't difficult to put this technology in the hands of Joe Q. Public but with that being said, it still requires some skill and an eye for detail to keep consistency throughout. The CGI is fairly well done, opting for the "less-is-more" approach which helps to lend an ominous air to the overall production. The music is also decently done, but a generic suspense film score.

Now for the not so good points. The pacing of this film is done in such a way that the skill of acting is severely lacking. The line delivery is very stunted and slowed down, as though there was an overall feeling that the dialogue wouldn't be heard unless they... speak... very... slowly (the news broadcast is one example that comes to mind). By doing this, there's just no energy or believability to anyone's performance. For a better idea of how this can be overcome, especially on such a low budget, I recommend watching Shane Carruth's "Primer". He opted for more naturalistic speech. This allowed the actors to come across as more authentic. The Rift also incorporates way too many lingering closeups of the actor's faces. M. Night Shyamalan also does this a LOT in his movies and it really detracts from his story-telling overall. In the Rift, it just highlights the inadequacy of the depth of the acting and serves to give an overall slowness to the film's story arc.

As for the script, there's just too much oddness that makes no sense. For example, the DARPA 'assassin' is this left-field character who doesn't really add anything overall and feels like it was shoe-horned in. Also, the fact that those who collected information about these 'anomalies' mysteriously disappeared also makes no sense. It implies there is a government conspiracy to end the world with monsters from another dimension. Why? What gain could there possibly be?

The overall concept of R.A.D.A.R. anomalies being a cause for alarm is also a hard idea to swallow. Another idea that feels like it was thrown in to attempt to create artificial tension. A deeper history of how and what these R.A.D.A.R. anomalies have done in the past would have helped a viewer understand why they would concern the main character as much as they did before all hell started to break loose.

Overall, this film is okay for a short. Visually, it's quite good, but that's really about it. Acting is sub-par and the story is thread-bare, containing an odd mesh of ideas that don't really coalesce into a cohesive and logical whole. It's quite possible that with a bit more experience/seasoning and a better grasp of plotting, we might be seeing Robert Kouba churn out some good sci-fi popcorn fare in the future. This film short is more of a meretricious effort.

Impressive Debut

[SimplesVoice · 8/10 · 29 October 2012]

I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to see a sneak viewing. If I'm honest I wasn't expecting a great deal as its a film from a fairly new studio and a very young director. Although Robert Kouba has won various awards in his youth for his directorial pieces, it never guarantees success on the big stage.

My skepticism was misplaced and I'm pleased to say I was very impressed with the Vantis Pictures debut. First thing to note is that this isn't a huge Hollywood feature, therefore we're not talking millions of dollars budget and so the acting isn't Oscar material but convincing enough to sell the story. The script is well paced and along with the films direction it builds up the suspense and interest nicely.

The score adds to the tension and the effects are amazing. There are so many cheap and nasty films on the Sci-fi channel with terrible alien/monsters produced by big studios, yet this movie puts them all to shame. The CGI blends seamlessly into the real scenery and you could almost be fooled into thinking its real.

The film demonstrates great maturity in film making for someone so young. With the experience Robert will get over the coming years and bigger budgets at his disposal you can't help but think we will be in store for some great story telling.

Great start to a career and a great movie to see. Well worth your time and effort.

Reworking of The Mist

[hipower-1 · 4/10 · 22 July 2013]

Spoiler Alert! Main character can't stop staring! Stares at the wall,stares in the distance and stares into the camera. He's a little stare bear. The production was amateurish,the music from 70's cop shows and the plot borrowed from Stephen King's "The Mist."To the good side the production values are decent,(better than SyFy)and everyone seems to be trying hard. Obviously the producer is looking for funding to extend this short film and if he changed some of the actors,(STARE!)and tidied it up a bit it could make a decent series. A good effort if it's coming out of a film school. I applaud them for what they got done for $20,000.This is the first time I have seen Robert Kouba's work as a director and I am impressed at what he achieved for so little money.All in all it won't hurt your eyes to watch it.

Positive surprise

[vesanen-juho · 8/10 · 1 November 2012]

I was also given a chance to see this movie in advance and I have to say I'm impressed. It's a good story with a pretty difficult subject to make it look believable, but Robert and his team have done a great job at it. The cinematography is very fluid and easy to the eye, grading and vfx are also very well executed.

Everything is done with good professional touch so you can't really notice that it had a pretty small budget, not a Hollywood product by any means. This is a difficult genre to produce a scenes that are not too tacky and "cheap", this being said, The Rift is a positive surprise. I believed every second of it!

To sum it up, I'd say it is a film you definitely should watch. The visual effects are well blended to the footage and the acting is good. When I first watched it I felt that I would want to see more, which is a good thing!

Did an 8-Year-Old Write This?

[giggedyguy · 1/10 · 22 July 2013]

I think the cast and crew are responsible for 9 out of 10 reviews on this movie. Writing has never been worse than that used to create this pile of dung. The dialog was rubbish, the acting was garbage--especially the "secret agent" or whatever the hell he was supposed to be. He looked like a drunk they found on the street and dressed up in the worst suit you've ever seen. I swear they threw a glass of water on his face to make him look like he was crying at one point. The story telling was extremely clumsy and sorely lacking in continuity. The ending was just plain STUPID. There's just no other word that's appropriate.

I've seen plenty of really, really bad movies though most of them were done by people aware of how bad they were. The people involved in this movie seem to be clueless as to how bad it is.

great film

[alpcenk · 10/10 · 18 November 2012]

l don't understand IMDb ratings about this films l think they rate for different film which is awful and has the same name.l totally agree with SimplesVoice and his following reviews,I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to see a sneak viewing. If I'm honest I wasn't expecting a great deal as its a film from a fairly new studio and a very young director. Although Robert Kouba has won various awards in his youth for his directorial pieces, it never guarantees success on the big stage.

My skepticism was misplaced and I'm pleased to say I was very impressed with the Vantis Pictures debut. First thing to note is that this isn't a huge Hollywood feature, therefore we're not talking millions of dollars budget and so the acting isn't Oscar material but convincing enough to sell the story. The script is well paced and along with the films direction it builds up the suspense and interest nicely.

The score adds to the tension and the effects are amazing. There are so many cheap and nasty films on the Sci-fi channel with terrible alien/monsters produced by big studios, yet this movie puts them all to shame. The CGI blends seamlessly into the real scenery and you could almost be fooled into thinking its real.

The film demonstrates great maturity in film making for someone so young. With the experience Robert will get over the coming years and bigger budgets at his disposal you can't help but think we will be in store for some great story telling.

Great start to a career and a great movie to see. Well worth your time and effort.

Pity about the middle

[horizon2008 · 4/10 · 21 July 2013]

I came across this short online so gave it a watch. It actually starts really well, fantastic titles, big orchestral music, and it seems to set up a promise of good things to come. Sadly this wasn't the case however. The middle is pretty bad I must say. Terrible acting, and I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be a comedy or serious sci-fi.

If this had been a 90 minute movie I would surely have switched it off it was so bad halfway through, but knowing it was only 25 minutes I held in there. The ending actually wasn't too bad and I was impressed with the last frames showing that monstrous apocalyptic scene. This could have been so much better than this I have to say and with the current state of CGI anything is possible in creating fantastic alternate Universes. Maybe next time things will be better for this movie company.

Generic alien invasion film

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 20 August 2015]

"The Rift" is an English-language movie from 3 years ago written and directed by rising Swiss star Robert Kouba. He wasn't even 20 when he made these 25-minutes, but this was far from being his first directorial effort as a short film director. He kept making films in the following years and soon his first full feature movie is about to come out. All in all, especially taking his age into account, he did an okay job here. However, I felt that it dragged occasionally despite being a short film. There is nothing really in here that hasn't been done already in terms of mystery, science-fiction or alien films and I wish this could have been a bit more innovative, a bit more creative. The writing and acting could not really convince me either. I'd only really recommend it to fans of the genre.

Slick and Stunning Sci-Fi

[katelyn-morey · 8/10 · 3 November 2012]

I had the opportunity to see this movie in advance, and I have to say that I was impressed. The Rift is a simple, but well-executed science-fiction film that manages to emulate its influences without being derivative.

Great cinematography, and fantastic special effects that enhanced the story, but didn't overshadow it. If I had any criticism, it would be that the story itself needed to be a tad bit tighter--some elements were redundant, while others needed more explanation. It was a solid script; a little more tweaking would make it amazing.

All in all, I thought The Rift was a fast-paced and fun flick in the sci-fi genre, and I would definitely recommend it as a must-watch film!

Great ! ! !

[dadatuuexx · 5/10 · 15 June 2013]

Please don,t let the term " short " fool you -this was "tall" ,compared to some of the sci-fi going on in t.v.,and film today. I was not familiar with the creator of this cool little story ,but i,ll keep up with the future work,s ,that,s for sure. I like mystery in a story,regardless of genre,and this tale has an element of the unknown , that,s for sure.The story starts a 20 years before thing,and shows you a bit of whats going on,then the tease is over ,and we jump to present time,where ,as we saw before ,something dark ,and wrong is about to go down. I think the actors were strong ,and the effect,s very decent. i myself not a huge fan of C.G. effect,s,was happy with the way the over all look was pulled off. Great is not enough to rate this film. You would think that this work would be enough to get this guy some backing,as we all know whats being show on screens across the globe. i have seem much worse,made for way more time ,and money.Just enjoy this morsel ,and hope this artist gets a complete film out. I would like to see a huge re-make of this story .I would tune in each week ,if this came on t.v. .Only time will tell.

Great!

[tecnogaming · 8/10 · 22 July 2013]

Oh man, why so short !

This movie is incredible. Believe me, you can forgive some of the performances, you can forgive little nuances and then you can enjoy an incredible well directed end of the world.

The rift tells a story about a young guy helping a "scientist" scan anomalies in the satellite system.

The first few minutes are very well spend introducing the characters, no more than it is needed and then the catastrophe.

The scenery is very good, the special effects are incredible considering the budget and the way the movie is handled is incredible for such a short movie.

Only 25 minutes of your life you WILL remember, yes we all had seen this before but, somehow this is worth watching it.

Although the movie ends in the mother of all cliffhangers you will appreciate what it's been done here, wish more movies were built like this.

No 1 hour 30 minutes of cheesy dialog, just 25 minutes of focused end of the world, yeah baby!

Go see it, you wont regret it although you will want Rift 2.

What is it? Look up in the Sky!!

[jbog1038 · 5/10 · 3 July 2014]

This has to be a joke! I feel sorry for anyone having to pay full price for a movie trailer. This movie was pretty good - acting was mediocre to say the least. Story unfolds as a Russian physicist discovers something extraordinary that was behind the strange radar anomalies he was recording. Something dark, which will eventually alter the path of mankind. Before he could tell anyone, he is mysteriously vanished. Many years later a young physics student Dean Hollister and his discredited physics teacher have become obsessed with the same mystery. What had been a rare phenomenon is suddenly happening all over the world. The day it happens for Dean working a night shift at his mother's diner. Black rifts appear in the sky. Behind those rifts, something is moving. It's watching us. Very creepy climax. jbog

Movie (clip) runs no more than 25 min. Save your money and watch it online. The Director must have run out of money to extend this story. It could have been a big "hit".

A Pleasure to Watch!

[geraldyelverton · 9/10 · 3 August 2015]

I just had the pleasure of viewing the Robert Kouba film, The Rift. "Pleasure" is the optimum word. I thoroughly enjoyed this film.

Many of the characteristics we have come to love from Kouba are present in The Rift, great cinematography, powerful sound and top notch acting.

With The Rift running just short of half of an hour we are able to truly see how well he can tell a story. The film fan is not disappointed by the result. I conclude that suspense thriller's plot is well paced and thought out.

It has been a pleasure to watch Kouba's films to this point and I look forward to seeing his on going growth and artistic talents in future projects to come.

if only...

[ruch-beckey · 8/10 · 23 August 2013]

wow,this little movie....my main thing I want to say..i wish it could have kept going... I understand the budget reasons...but that movie was a winner. you don't get many fantasy horror movies much anymore..and they are my favourite....few and far between...because I think audiences demand reality and answers to every question about the plot...about why6 this and that happened ...but with fantasy horror or sci-fi..it relies on imagination.....it needs to be able to grab the audience into the world the makers wanted you to see....I don't think it was like Stephen kings the mist....but the film is much shorter than the mist also...it had so much potential to me..... still its also a good short film......more monster movies please!!!!!!!!!!

Amazing!

[miryam-88521 · 10/10 · 8 August 2015]

I love the thriller genre, I love the director R. Kouba, so how could I not watch "The Rift"? My expectations were not disappointed either this time, so I have no doubt to say that this is a masterpiece. A young scientist and his professor back to the present some studies done, a few decades earlier, by a Russian physicist, mysteriously vanished. These studies involve the appearance of mysterious and disturbing rift in the sky, whose presence doesn't bode well. In fact, the protagonist doesn't know what is going to happen: something disconcerting, that will endanger his life and that of his loved ones. I don't want to anticipate anything more to not spoil the surprise for those who are going to see the short film! I also appreciated soundtrack and shooting because they help to create the right atmosphere for each scene of the film .