Raising the Bar

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.

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!

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.

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?

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.