It is what it is; I enjoyed this movie but you shouldn't have too high expectations for it. Most of the acting is terrible and the plot is predictable, but I still thought it was cute.
21 Reviews
Good enough
bonnielfriend31 March 2021
The Little Film That Couldn't
laughing_cat27 November 2017
You know, you see these little films in the list and decide to give them a try, only to be disappointed. Somehow, with Raising the Bar, I did stick it out till the end, but it was dismal. The acting was so bad. And the energy was very low. I would not recommend it. There are plenty of other low budget movies that are a better use of time.
Weird to watch
julcy10 December 2019
I'm not sure what the director was thinking...for a gymnastics film the camera angles were so off and didn't show anything?! Why are there so many long closups on hands and oddly framed shots without the gymnastics in shot?
A Typical But Fun Sports Movie That Raised the Bar A Bit
tabuno22 December 2020
This youthful gymnastic sports movie set in Australia ("Down Under") has the typical and predictable set up of an underperforming American gymnastic star outcome. With decent pacing, easy to follow storyline, this movie has a touched added bonus of actual extended edited gymnastic routines and moves that are exciting to watch that are usually omitted or excluded. There is also a nice addition of more rounded antagonistic characters. So overall, this fun, uplifting movie literally raises the bar of romance movies above average.
Spectacularly poor - Avoid!!!
gabor-beke26 May 2019
I watched this with my kids, and although I have seen some bad productions, this has to take the cake.
There isn't a single feature of this film I could mention in a positive term. The script, the cast, the acting, the cinematography are all shamefully poor. So much so it was cringe worthy to watch. This film should be used to illustrate how not to make a film. The dialogs were pathetic, the acting amateurish, and could go on and on. No only was is this film spectacularly bad, but also very sloppy. One of the main characters, who is a gymnast, was clearly overweight, her physic didn't remotely resemble that of an athlete. Also, in a scene the main character Kelly starts her high bar routine with one hair do and finishes with another. AVOID!
Not a good movie but a decent main character actress
user-171794 February 2021
I will not add much to what has already been said about a bad movie with bad acting skills except this:
Actress Kelli did a good job as the main character Kelly, she was basically the only factor which held this whole mess together and thus avoided a complete trainwreck. She should have her chance for "real" movies with "real" scripts and a real chance to show her acting skills.
Good movie overall
helica-2790827 July 2022
Warning: Spoilers
I keep watching this movie as I really enjoy sports films. I have no idea how gymnastics should look when filmed properly but it was good enough for me to enjoy. I also liked the conflict between Jess and Kelly and also between Megan and Kelly and how they were finally resolved.
I would have given the film a higher rating if it weren't for some issues I had with it. The first was how in the beginning the mother was shown to be so forgetful. I mean she's a surgeon, for goodness sake. I would be so scared of letting her operate on me - worried that when she was done she'd be like "where did I put the scalpel." I also wondered why the teacher didn't even acknowledge Kelly when she walked into her first class, seeing that she was a new student, she should have then introduced her to her classmates.
My other disappointment was with the coach. No coach would allow a student to dictate to her just which students should or should not join the team. Also, when one of the gymnasts performed a move exceedingly well and even when the team won she just stands there like a piece of wood, while the others jump up and down in excitement, hugging and congratulating each other.
I don't know, I just seem to get a bit irritated with those particular faults. In spite of them, I still find it overall to be a nice film to watch.
I would have given the film a higher rating if it weren't for some issues I had with it. The first was how in the beginning the mother was shown to be so forgetful. I mean she's a surgeon, for goodness sake. I would be so scared of letting her operate on me - worried that when she was done she'd be like "where did I put the scalpel." I also wondered why the teacher didn't even acknowledge Kelly when she walked into her first class, seeing that she was a new student, she should have then introduced her to her classmates.
My other disappointment was with the coach. No coach would allow a student to dictate to her just which students should or should not join the team. Also, when one of the gymnasts performed a move exceedingly well and even when the team won she just stands there like a piece of wood, while the others jump up and down in excitement, hugging and congratulating each other.
I don't know, I just seem to get a bit irritated with those particular faults. In spite of them, I still find it overall to be a nice film to watch.
Laughable, man!
AlienByChoice20 August 2017
There's a fantastic scene in The Big Lebowski, where the enraged Jesus Quintana (John Turturro) screams "Laughable, man!" That's the only thing I could think of when watching this "movie". I surely didn't have high expectations, but I didn't expect anything as bad as what I saw.
Cheap production is all fine, not every movie needs to be a Hollywood blockbuster. But there's a minimum to expect from an indie film. Like... a half decent script. A story line that isn't so unnecessarily convoluted you give up after 20 minutes. Actors who can actually act. Dialogues that don't make you cringe every time someone on screen opens their mouth. Music that doesn't sounds like something out of a pilot for a TV series from the 1980's. But even with all that absent, this is a gymnastics movie. So surely you can show us some great gymnastics routines. Unfortunately, since the actresses aren't gymnasts, the camera has to resort to the most weird angles to obscure the lack of technique, and where stunt doubles are used - to obscure the faces. So not even that.
A laughable effort. 2/10
Cheap production is all fine, not every movie needs to be a Hollywood blockbuster. But there's a minimum to expect from an indie film. Like... a half decent script. A story line that isn't so unnecessarily convoluted you give up after 20 minutes. Actors who can actually act. Dialogues that don't make you cringe every time someone on screen opens their mouth. Music that doesn't sounds like something out of a pilot for a TV series from the 1980's. But even with all that absent, this is a gymnastics movie. So surely you can show us some great gymnastics routines. Unfortunately, since the actresses aren't gymnasts, the camera has to resort to the most weird angles to obscure the lack of technique, and where stunt doubles are used - to obscure the faces. So not even that.
A laughable effort. 2/10
great for children
liammoiser11 May 2016
Warning: Spoilers
I love watching movies and I watched this with my sister, whilst I can see where this is going, I was disappointed with the ending. Without giving to much away, it turns out a certain someone left for a reason and they come back to gymnastics. Now okay she moved countries but being an ex US junior champion, there is no way that when you are offered the shot at the Olympics are you going to turn it down. I would have personal done the ending differently, I could see a sequel if it had been but maybe there not interested in doing another one. Overall though as I say it's great for children, but not someone like me who overthinks everything.
A decent sport movie
jared-2533116 August 2022
Raising The Bar is a standard by the numbers teen sport movie that gets the job done. The best thing about this movie is Kelli Berglund's performance. Overall, if you're looking to kill some time with a movie, Raising The Bar (2016) is a passable watch.
An awful portrayal of gymnastics and Australia
emily-2492215 November 2017
I don't know if it's because I'm a gymnast or not but this movie was one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Everything from the camera angles, the editing and the soundtrack to the acting, the dialog and the actual gymnastics was off point and rather poorly done. The combination of the camera angles, soundtrack and editing gave the movie a high school media project feel and the acting wasn't as poorly done as the script which I blame entirely for the bad performances of the actors. I do blame the actors for not getting into the part, however. It was painfully obvious throughout the entire movie that the actors had no idea what they were doing in relation to gymnastics barely learning how to do a basic handstand and speaking in laughably fake accents. Instead, resorting to weird camera angles which barely showed some of the talented and beautiful sport that is gymnastics. Very disappointed.
Disappointment
tmtreat3 October 2018
Movie premise had potential and I had high hopes for it since it has the girl from Lab Rats but was disappointed. The script and editing are awful. So I don't totally put it in the actors/actresses. They did the best they could with what they were given. I kept watching hoping it would get better but it didn't. So sadly I only gave this 2 stars.
Entertaining movie that needed to show more of these talented girls
goldie617516 August 2017
It was an entertaining movie, but was very disappointed that I didn't really get to see any of the routines. The camera angles only showed the hands or the feet, or a ceiling camera for the floor routines, but never the whole girl, like in American Anthem. It was very formulaic and I agree with a previous poster about the ending.
Terrible
MemeologyKid10 July 2021
The acting is terrible, the dialogue is atrocious, but the editing? It is the worst thing I have ever seen in my life. If there is a part with a green screen, you will be able tell instantly it is a green screen. All the scenes with them on their phone have what they're doing on it displayed on screen with horrible editing. All the actors look like they want to leave, and honestly I would want to too. 1/10, and I hope they add a 0/10 rating just for this movie.
One Time Watch!
amgee-8955119 May 2019
I just watched it on Netflix. It was ok nothing special. The acting was laughable at Times. That's how they talk down under. The lead actress American accent was pretty bad but she did try so I have to give her props for trying at least. You can tell she's Australian. All of the man characters was badly written. What really took me out of the film was the camera angles when they was performing. Lazy cinematography. One time watch for me unfortunately. 3/10
In Truth, five Star
ok4me2you17 December 2018
I'm seventy-six and have watched this movie more times than I can count.
And though it probably could have been edited a little better and shown more of the gymnastics for the focus of the movie it worked out OK.
An as for going out for the Olympics and turning it down, Kelly was not out for that glory. She was more interested in doing her own thing and not going out for mans glory. Enjoy a great family flick.
I'd like to point out something that I see fro,m the reviews about this movie.: The negative reviews I see indicate that the watchers are not into just enjoying a flick as is but have formed an opinion as to what a movie should be putting out. If you want real gymnastics, don't look for it in the movies.( Any of them.)
An as for going out for the Olympics and turning it down, Kelly was not out for that glory. She was more interested in doing her own thing and not going out for mans glory. Enjoy a great family flick.
I'd like to point out something that I see fro,m the reviews about this movie.: The negative reviews I see indicate that the watchers are not into just enjoying a flick as is but have formed an opinion as to what a movie should be putting out. If you want real gymnastics, don't look for it in the movies.( Any of them.)
They raised the bars too high
samo_finest16 July 2023
The close ups they made crumbled my tummy. My 8 years old girl is interested in gymnastics so i was looking for a movie to make her see the pros and cons about it.. so, obviously the main character is not good at gymnastics so they exchanged her scenes with a professional that looks like her. Thats why they have to make is with close up lens so they avoid showing her face. The acting is decent actually but i couldn't finish even half of it and i skipped a lot to see some nice moves but there was none.. good luck with these actresses with next movies but my advice is, don't raise those bars so high bc you couldn't reach them.
Blame the writers/director/and executive producer...
joe-520271 March 2022
I've been watching this with my daughter - she's seen it like 20 times (she loves gymnastics, but knows nothing about quality cinema). Like most Aussie films for kids coming to Netflix in the US, it's a cutesy film meant to entertain children. I'll leave that there. But, is Australia really that far behind the US and UK in filmmaking that they don't know how to light or mic sound? And who wrote this?? Is it common in Australia that at a teen gymnastics competition that the broadcasters make rude judgmental comments about the teens performing in the arena on the Jumbotron for the competitors to hear? This is a major fail for the writers, the director(s), and who ever produced this and thought it was worthy of being sent out. I feel bad for the actors who probably did the best with the junk they were given to work with. Awful.
First-Class
idontliketacos13 June 2016
This movie was incredible. An action packed, well-shot and acted, humorous and creative adventure movie fit for all ages, I would highly recommend. A great cast, including Kelli Berglund, Emily Morris and Jack Tomich, really captured the essence of their characters in a stellar performance. Cinematography was beautiful and the variety of shots/transitions was truly outstanding. Not too fond of the upside-down birds eye view shots, but whatever floats your boat. Some scenes dragged on a little, so perhaps that's something to work on for next time. Definitely looking forward to the third in the series. 1hr 33 well spent.
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