Rip it Off (Beyond the City Limits)

Despite those lofty credentials, he starts off his acting role in this grade-b film by prancing around stark naked for several minutes.

Rip it Off, aka Beyond the City Limits, is a girl buddy flick in which crime symbolizes liberation and empowerment. It's kind of a no-budget Canadian version of Thelma and Louise.

I'm in deep shit; Deep Shit, Alberta, eh?

The basic plot is that the buddies get jilted by their abusive criminal boyfriends, so they decide to achieve liberation by committing the very crime the boyfriends had been planning. Since they know when the boyfriends planned the heist, they simply execute the same plan a bit earlier. Needless to say, there are plenty of foul-ups and double crosses.

DVD info from Amazon.

Widescreen anamorphic 1.85:1.

The odd buddy pairing consists of Nastassja Kinski and Band Camp Chick. BCC is joined in the film's cast by another member of the Buffy team, Alexis Denisof, who speaks with an accent that is supposed to be Russian, and was obviously learned from countless hours of studying Bullwinkle reruns. Jennifer Esposito joins Nastassja and BCC for a casino robbery, some violence, a high body count, and an improbable finale.

The Critics Vote

Apollo 60/100

The People Vote ...

IMDB summary. IMDb voters score it 4.8/10

The meaning of the IMDb score: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence equivalent to about three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, comparable to approximately two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, equivalent to about a two star rating from the critics. Films rated below five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film - this score is roughly equivalent to one and a half stars from the critics or even less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. (C+ means it has no crossover appeal, but will be considered excellent by genre fans, while C- indicates that it we found it to be a poor movie although genre addicts find it watchable). D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Any film rated C- or better is recommended for fans of that type of film. Any film rated B- or better is recommended for just about anyone. We don't score films below C- that often, because we like movies and we think that most of them have at least a solid niche audience. Now that you know that, you should have serious reservations about any movie below C-.

Based on this description, this film is a D. I can't give you any reason to see this, unless you just have to see Alyson Hannigan play a junkie. It is completely unoriginal, and there are really no fresh or clever details to hold interest.