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.

It is what it is; I enjoyed this movie but you shouldn't have too high expectations for it. Most of the acting is terrible and the plot is predictable, but I still thought it was cute.

The acting is terrible, the dialogue is atrocious, but the editing? It is the worst thing I have ever seen in my life. If there is a part with a green screen, you will be able tell instantly it is a green screen. All the scenes with them on their phone have what they're doing on it displayed on screen with horrible editing. All the actors look like they want to leave, and honestly I would want to too. 1/10, and I hope they add a 0/10 rating just for this movie.

I will not add much to what has already been said about a bad movie with bad acting skills except this: Actress Kelli did a good job as the main character Kelly, she was basically the only factor which held this whole mess together and thus avoided a complete trainwreck. She should have her chance for "real" movies with "real" scripts and a real chance to show her acting skills.

It was an entertaining movie, but was very disappointed that I didn't really get to see any of the routines. The camera angles only showed the hands or the feet, or a ceiling camera for the floor routines, but never the whole girl, like in American Anthem. It was very formulaic and I agree with a previous poster about the ending.

Inspiring. Motivational. It's based on a girl who moves to another country with her mom and she swears off gymnastics but Mets a new friend who is trying to make the gymnastics team.

Movie premise had potential and I had high hopes for it since it has the girl from Lab Rats but was disappointed. The script and editing are awful. So I don't totally put it in the actors/actresses. They did the best they could with what they were given. I kept watching hoping it would get better but it didn't. So sadly I only gave this 2 stars.