The 2021 film, The Rebels of PT-218, takes place in 1943.

At the height of World War II, the Allies are on the verge of invading Italy and moving into Europe.  General Omar Bradley (played by William Baldwin, who looks like Alec but sounds like Stephen) orders the SS Lawton, a small torpedo boat to help secure the port of Solano.  It won’t be easy.  The Atlantic Ocean is full of German U-boats and the Lawton is built to move cargo, not fight battles.  But the Lawton is still the most powerful boat in the area and General Bradley believes in the abilities of the Lawton’s commander, Lt. William Snow (Eric Roberts).

However, Snow is eager to get into combat and defeat the Germans.  In fact, he’s so gung ho to fight that some of Bradley’s assistants feel that Lt. Snow’s judgment can’t be trusted.  Commander Barnes (Noah Blake) tells Ensign Kenneth Ford (Geoff Meed) to keep an eye on Snow and do everything he can to keep Lt. Snow on track.

The men of the SS Lawton, meanwhile, just want to man the guns, launch the torpedoes, and stop the Germans.  They’re from all over the United States but they’ll be familiar to anyone who has ever seen a war film.  Some of them are naive.  Some of them are cocky and streetwise.  One of them is played by Danny Trejo!  Trejo plays Cookie, a former gunner turned cook.  He delights in serving chorizos for dinner.  Cookie has a mustache and a pony tail, which definitely do not feel like they would be within Navy regulations.  After Cookie is wounded in action, a crewman tosses Cookie a machete and Trejo smiles like a man who has waited his entire life for that exact moment.

Historical accuracy?  Who needs historical accuracy when you’ve got Danny Trejo and Eric Roberts in the same movie?  Obviously, both Roberts and Trejo are a bit too old for their roles.  Cookie would have probably retired from the Navy long before the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  As for Roberts, one has to worry about any officer who is clearly in his 70s and still hasn’t achieved a rank higher than lieutenant.  When Snow expresses his ambition to be promoted, you have to wonder if he’s hoping to be the world’s oldest admiral.

This film is an attempt to do an epic war story on a budget and it doesn’t quite work.  One never feels that any of the characters are waking up everyday with the knowledge that this could be the day that they die.  The ship and all of the characters are remarkably clean and fresh-faced throughout the film, with none of the grime nor grit that would have given the story a realistic edge.  That said, Danny Trejo gets a few good lines and it’s always fun to watch Eric Roberts play an authority figure.  In the end, the important thing is that America won.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

1. Star 80 (1983)
2. Blood Red (1989)
3. The Ambulance (1990)
4. The Lost Capone (1990)
5. Love, Cheat, & Steal (1993)
6. Love Is A Gun (1994)
7. Sensation (1994)
8. Dark Angel (1996)
9. Doctor Who (1996)
10. Most Wanted (1997)
11. Mr. Brightside (2004)
12. Six: The Mark Unleased (2004)
13. Hey You (2006)
14. In The Blink of an Eye (2009)
15. Enemies Among Us (2010)
16. The Expendables (2010) 
17. Sharktopus (2010)
18. The Dead Want Women (2012)
19. Deadline (2012)
20. The Mark (2012)
21. Miss Atomic Bomb (2012)
22. Lovelace (2013)
23. The Mark: Redemption (2013)
24. Self-Storage (2013)
25. This Is Our Time (2013)
26. Inherent Vice (2014)
27. Road to the Open (2014)
28. Rumors of War (2014)
29. Amityville Death House (2015)
30. A Fatal Obsession (2015)
31. Stalked By My Doctor (2015)
32. Joker’s Poltergeist (2016)
33. Prayer Never Fails (2016)
34. Stalked By My Doctor: The Return (2016)
35. The Wrong Roommate (2016)
36. Dark Image (2017)
37. Black Wake (2018)
38. Stalked By My Doctor: Patient’s Revenge (2018)
39. Clinton Island (2019)
40. Monster Island (2019)
41. The Savant (2019)
42. Seven Deadly Sins (2019)
43. Stalked By My Doctor: A Sleepwalker’s Nightmare (2019)
44. The Wrong Mommy (2019)
45. Exodus of a Prodigal Son (2020)
46. Free Lunch Express (2020)
47. Her Deadly Groom (2020)
48. Top Gunner (2020)
49. Deadly Nightshade (2021)
50. Just What The Doctor Ordered (2021)
51. Killer Advice (2021)
52. The Poltergeist Diaries (2021)
53. A Town Called Parable (2021)
54. Bleach (2022)
55. My Dinner With Eric (2022)
56. Aftermath (2024)