Simply Perfect

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The Rift (1990) ** (out of 4)The experimental submarine Siren I goes missing so the government sends the Siren II to find out what happened. A new crew led by Captain Phillips (R. Lee Ermey) heads into the waters and soon they find the killing creatures.Juan Piquer Simón will always be known for his cult classic PIECES as well as the overly insane and gory SLUGS but this film here certainly has enough good moments to where fans of his will want to check it out. Obviously, the low-budget film borrows from the likes of ALIENS, THE ABYSS and even LEVIATHAN but this somewhat adds to the charm.The best thing about this movie are the gory special effects that certainly push the R-rating. Obviously the effects aren't as graphic as what we saw in PIECES but they're still a lot of fun. I really thought the production team did a terrific job on the underwater scenes and especially the cave of the creatures. All of it looked extremely good and they certainly got everything that they could out of the budget. Even better where the gory special effects. Once the violence breaks out there are all sorts of creatures that get blown apart and this adds to the gory fun. The look of the creature was also decent, although they do kind of take a Roger Corman approach and not show it that much. The cast is good for what they're asked to do but there's no doubt that the screenplay is really lacking any sort of originality and I'd argue that the film is missing any sort of suspense.With that said, fans of the director will get a kick out of certain elements of THE RIFT and for the most part it's a decent low-budget film.

The underwater sub called Syren 1 is disappeared at a depth of 30.000 feet , and his designer named Wick (Jack Scalia) is sent down by NATO (chief played by Edmund Purdom) to investigate it . The mission on board a sub called Syren 2 is commanded by a stiff captain (R. Lee Ermey) , the crew is formed by a misfit group (Ray Wise , John Toles Bey , Emilio Linder , Ely Pouget , Frank Braña) and a scientific (Deborah Adair) , former Wick's love interest . Tracking a black box signal , the submarine heads to the deep rift where they find several surprises and dangers .This Sci-Fi/fantasy movie is a mingle of various films , as the deep rift with monsters (Leviathan , Deepstar six) , a crew saboteur (Alien) , a giant mother of creepy monster (Aliens) and abysmal underwater mystery with weird beings (Abyss) . Acceptable playing and good acting by Lee Ermey , as always , who brings nice performance as a commandant , his usual role . Secondary cast is full of Spanish actors , such as Frank Braña , Luis Lorenzo , Tony Isbert and even Pocholo Martinez Bordiú , grandson of dictator Francisco Franco . Cheesy but enjoyable special effects and creatures by Colin Arthur (The Neverending story) . Scale models and functional maquette work by Emilio Ruiz del Rio and Francisco Prosper . Passable cinematography by Juan Marine , Juan Piquer's ordinary cameraman . Atmospheric and adjusted musical score by Joel Goldsmith, Jerry Goldsmith's son . It's produced in middling produced by Francesca DeLaurentiis , daughter of the great Dino . Francesca hired David Coleman to rewrite a 250 pages draft by Colin Wilson . At the beginning the story was set in outer space in an earlier draft of the script but then was subsequently considered an underwater setting . After producing Leviathan (1989) for about $30 million , Dino De Laurentiis, albeit uncredited, decided to finance this low budget version of his own bigger budgeted movie . The picture was professionally directed by Juan Piquer Simon (Slugs , Pieces , Extraterrestrials visitors , Supersonic Man), and also producer . The principal shooting for this film lasted eight weeks . Moreover , an additional fourteen weeks was spent shooting the special effects for this movie . Rating : Average but entertaining.

This is a well-acted, low budget science-fiction/horror movie set in the deep ocean. It involves a submarine crew on a rescue mission and a secret government project which has gone terribly wrong. The crew are stereotypical, but likable, so the viewer is genuinely concerned about their fate. The stand-out performers are the great Lee Ermey (as the submarine commander) and Ray Wise (as a seemingly obsequious science officer). B-movie action hero, Jack Scalia, also gives a strong performance as the brilliant, but iconoclastic, lead.The special effects, which include a wide variety of aquatic monsters, are certainly low-budget but never laughable or too fake looking. The obvious use of submarine miniatures are somewhat unconvincing.The film is rated R for a considerable amount of gore and strong language. There is little or no sexual content.This underwater thriller is reminiscent of sci-fi films of the late 1950's/early 1960's, such as It! The Terror from Beyond Space and Angry Red Planet (two other films which I would also recommend).It is also somewhat similar to DeepStar Six, another underwater horror film which was released at about the same time.

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.