One of the most blatantly paint-by-numbers films I've ever watched.
Audio throughout felt just a bit off in recording, editing, and dialogue delivery. So many lines had a distinct "punch-in" effect, where some background sound abruptly started and stopped around the words.
Some of the sound issues might have been forgivable if the script and cinematography had held up their parts… But since I've said that, it's obvious that I thought they failed to do so.
Right from the very first shot, all of the camera angles used to show the characters actually performing gymnastics—one might argue, the very point of watching a gymnastics-focused movie—made zero sense. Ceiling cameras pointed in weird directions, capturing an image that was often practically upside down, were the norm for this film… at least, when the camera wasn't focused on closeups.
I'm not sure what director Clay Glen was thinking. The closeups were fine, if a bit overused. I just don't understand why more "normal" shots of the gymnasts' performances weren't shown. Run-of-the-mill broadcast footage of Olympic gymnasts keeps the athlete's whole body in view, so the audience can appreciate all of their technique. Maybe traditional shots would have revealed that the performers were actually doubles? (The credits did list a lot of them.) Even so, I think the production could have done better with the camera work.
And finally, the script. It's really generic, despite attempts to add twists to Kelly's backstory. I will make a conscious effort to unlearn anything this film might have "taught me" about gymnastics or Australia, because everyone and everything seemed really stereotyped.
Not sure what's up with the runtime. IMDB says 93 mins, but Amazon's copy and the official blu-ray runtime both come to 96 minutes. So at time of writing, I spent about 3 mins longer watching this than my Trakt stats will reflect. My guess is something to do with PAL vs. NTSC frame rates. That's always a risk with foreign content, since so many more countries use PAL standards than NTSC.
Review by dgwVIP 10BlockedParent2020-09-07T03:56:12Z
One of the most blatantly paint-by-numbers films I've ever watched.
Audio throughout felt just a bit off in recording, editing, and dialogue delivery. So many lines had a distinct "punch-in" effect, where some background sound abruptly started and stopped around the words.
Some of the sound issues might have been forgivable if the script and cinematography had held up their parts… But since I've said that, it's obvious that I thought they failed to do so.
Right from the very first shot, all of the camera angles used to show the characters actually performing gymnastics—one might argue, the very point of watching a gymnastics-focused movie—made zero sense. Ceiling cameras pointed in weird directions, capturing an image that was often practically upside down, were the norm for this film… at least, when the camera wasn't focused on closeups.
I'm not sure what director Clay Glen was thinking. The closeups were fine, if a bit overused. I just don't understand why more "normal" shots of the gymnasts' performances weren't shown. Run-of-the-mill broadcast footage of Olympic gymnasts keeps the athlete's whole body in view, so the audience can appreciate all of their technique. Maybe traditional shots would have revealed that the performers were actually doubles? (The credits did list a lot of them.) Even so, I think the production could have done better with the camera work.
And finally, the script. It's really generic, despite attempts to add twists to Kelly's backstory. I will make a conscious effort to unlearn anything this film might have "taught me" about gymnastics or Australia, because everyone and everything seemed really stereotyped.
Not sure what's up with the runtime. IMDB says 93 mins, but Amazon's copy and the official blu-ray runtime both come to 96 minutes. So at time of writing, I spent about 3 mins longer watching this than my Trakt stats will reflect. My guess is something to do with PAL vs. NTSC frame rates. That's always a risk with foreign content, since so many more countries use PAL standards than NTSC.