Raising the Bar

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.

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.

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.

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.