Rupture (2016)

Noomi Rapace seems to be working hard in taking on challenging roles in her career and RUPTURE is such a role. Unfortunately, despite the physical performance she gets to give, RUPTURE is a lesser film and one that suffers from an all-too-familiar air of predictability. She plays an ordinary mother who gets kidnapped by mysterious strangers and subjected to various cheesy fear tests in a locked room, which mainly involve her being menaced by CGI spiders. The film plays out at a slow pace and gradually builds to a left-of-field climax that relies too heavily on more CGI for effect. It's certainly not the worst plot I've seen, but it is limited and similar plots have been done better previously.

First of all this is a movie without a 3rd Act. I weep for the future of cinema because NONE of these people seem to have ever read a book or seen a play. They all seem to be making movies from watching other movies. Bad movies. Noomi Rapace is great as usual but she really can't save this thing. It's even got Peter Stormare who I usually like and Kerry Blishe who I've liked in other movies but they are given ridiculously shallow parts. Blishe is particularly bad. I expected her to break into her best moo-ah-ah-AH!!! Dr. Evil laugh at any time. Since I've seen her act before this it's probably the fault of the director. Michael Chiklis is in it too but I've never been a fan. He usually gets on my nerves and does here, for sure.If they had wanted to make a real movie they should have got to the 'rupture' earlier with it's TERRIBLE computer generated effects and have something of import happen after. What if the rupture happens and then Rapace's character still goes on to resist them? A MOVIE might happen then, huh? And while I'm thinking about it, if you are going to make a SciFi movie with creature special effects make sure you have the BUDGET to hire a talented creature designer AND a good effects house. Nothing takes you out of the movie faster than bad effects when the movie is centered around the theme of watching a human becoming something non-human. The effects here are embarrassingly bad.They waste a lot screen time with Rapace getting loose from the room she's held in when you know she's eventually going to get caught again. She goes all over the damn place and then is very accidentally discovered by Chiklis' character who says words to the effect, 'Did you think you could get loose without us knowing?' Well, YEAH. We just saw her do it for about 20 minutes until you dumb-lucked into finding her, you doofus. That's just plain bad writing.Also I'm going to go on record as saying having people escape a room through the duct system is the most ridiculous cliché in the history of film. A room the size she's in would have a duct no larger than 6"x10" at most because of a thing called air pressure. You see ducts must become SMALLER as they reach their final destination. Rooms that size don't have return air in them, so you can't get out that way, either. Please, just stop with it, already. One review compared this to a student film. THX1138 was a student film but Lucas got help on the script to turn it into a feature. Steven Shainberg who directed this isn't a novice so he really has no excuse for these pretty egregious shortcomings.I've been happy to see thoughtful SciFi making a bit of a comeback with interesting movies like 'Ex Machina' 'Arrival' 'The Zero Theorem' and the beautiful and poetic 'Bladerunner 2049' being released in the last few years. I was hoping I might see that here but no.It's too bad 'Rupture' couldn't be part of that resurgence.

This is science fiction, horror, and an escape movie. There are aspects here that are 1984's Room 101. The lead actress puts in a critical masterclass performance every bit as strong as Prometheus, if not a tad better. I took a point off because I felt the movie's horror aspect needed a darker tone, and both the lighting and some of the characters were letting it down for that reason, and another point because the critical CGI was, for me, flawed. While for the story itself the timing of the CGI was professional and bang on the goose-bump money, for me I found, as a visual imaging, well, it was unnecessarily strange rather than spooky. On this point others will disagree, perhaps arguing originality, but I stand by my penalty point.For all that this is still a brilliant ride. This is an edge of your seat nightmare. Don't let children anywhere near it.Yes, I would definitely watch a sequel.Just a note about the DVD cover. I didn't take any real issue with it, but honestly, at no point is anyone naked, nor are there any brain implants. That's an issue the executives need to take up with both themselves and their Graphic Designers.

Renee (Noomi Rapace) and her son are being watched. It isn't long before she is strangely abducted and experimented upon. Our only clues are the words G-10 12X and the fact everyone rubs cheeks with her and says, "Nice Skin." We have 45 minutes of build up with Renee struggling and it gets as frustrating for the audience as it does for Renee. Eventually things move on and it is unceremoniously revealed what is happening with a sci-fi yawn.If watching Noomi strapped to a table (with clothes no groping) for much of film, wondering what is going on is on your bucket list, I can say this one will let you scratch it off.Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.