The Rift

1990 "'You Can't Hold your Breath & Scream at the Same Time'"
4.7| 1h22m| R| en
Details

An experimental submarine with a very experienced crew, the "Siren II" is sent to find out what happened to the "Siren I" after it mysteriously disappeared in a submarine rift. Things go awry when they begin to find things that shouldn't be there...

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Reviews

Interesteg What makes it different from others?
Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%
Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.
Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Woodyanders An experimental submarine gets sent on a rescue mission to find out what happened to a previous similar sub. Things go nightmarishly awry when the rescue sub crew discover lethal genetic mutations deep under the ocean.Director Juan Piquer Simon, working from a silly script by David Coleman, keeps the enjoyably inane story moving at a brisk pace, maintains an engaging earnest tone throughout, generates a reasonable amount of tension, and delivers a satisfying smattering of gooey gore. The sincere acting by the game cast keeps this picture humming: Jack Scalia as rugged maverick designer Wick Hayes, R. Lee Ermey as the hard-nosed Captain Phillips, Ray Wise as shifty navigator Robbins, Deborah Adair as Wick's feisty ex-wife Lt. Nina Crawley, Ely Pouget as the sassy Ana Rivera, John Tales as likable smartaleck Joe Kane, and Tony Isbert as no-nonsense pilot Fleming. The modest (not so) special effects possess a certain hokey charm. Joel Goldsmith's robust score does the rousing trick. Juan Marine's slick cinematography provides a fairly polished look. A tacky hoot.
bonesnbraids An awful B movie at best with video quality similar to Dead Alive. I challenge anyone who is a "Aliens (James Cameron 1986)" Movie fan to count how many times either lines or almost entire sequences were ripped off from the first two Alien movies to make this classic piece of garbage.Cast members such as R. Lee Ermey and Ray Wise were the only two actors with any talent and the lead "Jack Scalia" was really absolutely horrible. I think they cast him for his massive cleft chin. I was also annoyed with the stereotyping of the only black male on the set John Toles-Bey who must look at this movie and just wonder. Look him up sometime as he has done a lot of interesting movies.But on this movie: The script as I said earlier was a rip-off of Aliens tweaked and turned into a submarine "thriller". It included such lines as "I got a bad feeling about this" and "Kill me" as one crew member is infected by one of the mutants and his belly starts doing the "alien hop" just before it pops out of his stomach. There is also a rip-off of the classic "get some!" via Bill Paxton. We also have a bunch of navy grunts running through caves with creepy crawlies popping out of walls. Even the explosions of the mutated creatures is very similar to the popping of aliens as they charge marines in the movie "Aliens". And the kicker is that some of the mutants spit acid (as opposed to having acid for blood). There are many more major examples. So if you want to see this script done well watch the first two classics Alien and Aliens (With Sigourney Weaver). You'll have a more enjoyable time.The plot could have been interesting and done better if not for confusing sequences in the start of the movie and generally poor editing. Camera shots were pretty dull and honestly it wasn't very hard to stop watching it and walk around the room to get a snack or check email. Many of the interactions between characters made little or no sense and went nowhere more often than not. The whole command structure between crew and Capt. was poorly done. I'm not even sure if there are Captains in the military that have full control over nuclear subs. In general this just shows that there was little research done for background information to make the movie seem at least a little respectable and there are many other similar examples (like dive depth etc..).If you like horrible movies or are a big fan of Alien and Aliens and want something to just laugh and shake your head at then this movie may be for you. As for me this one is going back on the shelf...permanently.
Coventry I love Juan Piquer-Simón! He's my absolute favorite bad-movie director and, throughout his whole career, he incompetently tried to cash in on simply every successful contemporary trend in the horror and fantasy genres. After the big hit that was "Superman", J.P made his own and hilarious "Supersonic Man", he picked in on the violent slasher-movie madness with the insane "Pieces" and he really over-trumped himself with "The Return of E.T.", the unofficial and downright laughable sequel to Spielberg's SF-blockbuster. "The Rift" is obviously inspired by the series of profitable underwater monster movies like "The Abyss" and "Deepstar Six". From start to finish, you can amuse yourself by spotting all the stolen ideas and shameless rip-offs of these (and other) classics. When a completely new and fancy type of submarine vanishes near the deep Dannekin rift, a second mission with U-boat designer Wick Hayes on board is sent out to investigate what really happened to Siren One. In the dark depths of the ocean, the rescue mission discovers an underwater cavern where the government secretly experiments with mutant sea-creatures. The monsters are quite aggressive but there's also the danger of a government enemy among the crew members... "The Rift" is a forgettable film, but it nevertheless has some ingenious – though very dodgy – monster models. Fans of blood and gore won't complain, neither, as the beastly attacks are quite gruesome and merciless. The acting is very wooden although many of the cast names can definitely do better. It's advisable that you simply enjoy the clichés and gory effects in the "The Rift" because, if you start contemplating about the screenplay, you'll find that it makes absolutely no sense.
tshower Whew, thought it would be at least mildly entertaining. Following a check of Full Metal Jacket, I thought another of F. Lee Ermey's military roles would be as good. WRONG!!! Bad special effects, worse than any 50's Buck Rogers episode, mindless dialogue, cheesy love interest that gives away the ending as soon as it starts. Bottom line, this movie SUCKS. Don't bother renting.