I love this movie so much

Thanks for the memories!

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

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.

It's difficult to find anything worth of praise with this movie. It's not the worst picture ever made, but that's not saying a whole lot. The plot is quite incoherent and unbelievable; it seems that the producers wanted to make a space movie, but decided to make it underwater to cash in at the success of The Abyss. In some scenes it seems as if the story indeed was set to outer space initially; the sub has a landing gear, the technicians are worried of a rip in a rubber diving suit at the depths of several kilometers, where the pressure would crush the diver and the suit like an empty beer can. The movie starts out okay, with planning of a recovery of a lost naval sub. After that the movie takes a plunge along with the Siren 2.Effects are so-so. The navigational screens are all done on Commodore 64 (remember, this is 1990, not 1983), the sub is controlled like no other sub ever; instead of control consoles, the officers have keyboards with which they enter long number sequences to control various functions of the ship. The interior of the ship isn't too convincing either.The final scenes leap from awkward to absurd. Welcome to the fifties, you can check your suspension of disbelief at the door.I fail to see enjoyment factor here. The movie is neither good nor hilariously bad MST3k-style (until you get to the final scene), it's like eating a slightly bad apple.

I liked the film overall. OK, I admit the acting (except for Lee Ermey at the end) was uniformly bad. The idea of a land ledge deep down in the ocean was pretty neat. Sure there were stupid mistakes, but hey this is a movie. Look, late at night I prefer mindless monster movies. Another good thing was they didn't try to make Jack Scalia too much of a macho hero. And they didn't make too much romance. When you're facing unheard-of-before monsters who has time to say silly romantic lines we see in so many other movies? There was some smartness in the plot, although I would have liked some more genetics mumbo-jumbo. The starfish monster was pretty good. I'd give it 5/10.

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.