I swear, the crap that I watch just because it features Eric Roberts….

2016’s Enemy Within takes place in Los Angeles.  A drug war is being fought on the streets and the local news is full of stories about violence, immigration, and the presidential election.  Born in Italy, Concetta Masconi (Romina Di Lella) has come to Los Angeles to be a dancer and has ended up working as a stripper at a club owned by Jack (Eric Roberts).

When Concetta is attacked by an axe-wielding maniac, she is nearly raped until the sound of an approaching siren scares her attacker away.  With Detective Solano (William McNamara) investigating the case and another detective named Nick (Damian Chapa) looking out for her, Concetta continues to date Max (Paulo Benedeti), despite the fact that Max has a history of abusing women and he’s the number one suspect in her own attack.  Solano yells that Concetta is not taking any of this seriously.  Little does he know that Concetta has been suffering from slow motion, black-and-white flashbacks.

When Concetta is attacked for a second time, she goes into hiding with a group of Latino gangsters.  But can even they protect her from her attacker?

So, this is a pretty bad movie.  It was obviously meant to be a showcase for Romina Di Lella but whatever hope she may have had of giving a good performance is pretty much sabotaged by a script that is full of confusing motivations and truly risible dialogue.  Along with being poorly paced (certain scenes just go on forever!), the film itself is just truly unpleasant to watch.  The rapes scenes were filmed to titillate and the inclusion of some light S&M feels less daring and more like an attempt to trick the 50 Shades crowd into watching.  I’ve seen a lot of bad films in my quest to see every movie that Eric Roberts has made.  This is one of the worst.

As for Roberts’s performance, he gets a few more scenes than usual and he does a good enough job with his one-dimensional role but his character still turns out to be a red herring.  Roberts brings a few moments of intentional comedy to the film but otherwise, it’s a role that almost anyone could have played.  In his autobiography, Eric Roberts wrote that he largely appears in films like this for the money.  Hopefully, he got paid for this one.

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. Wolves of Wall Street (2002)
12. Mr. Brightside (2004)
13. Six: The Mark Unleased (2004)
14. Hey You (2006)
15. In The Blink of an Eye (2009)
16. Enemies Among Us (2010)
17. The Expendables (2010) 
18. Sharktopus (2010)
19. The Dead Want Women (2012)
20. Deadline (2012)
21. The Mark (2012)
22. Miss Atomic Bomb (2012)
23. Lovelace (2013)
24. The Mark: Redemption (2013)
25. Self-Storage (2013)
26. This Is Our Time (2013)
27. Inherent Vice (2014)
28. Road to the Open (2014)
29. Rumors of War (2014)
30. Amityville Death House (2015)
31. A Fatal Obsession (2015)
32. Stalked By My Doctor (2015)
33. Joker’s Poltergeist (2016)
34. Prayer Never Fails (2016)
35. Stalked By My Doctor: The Return (2016)
36. The Wrong Roommate (2016)
37. Dark Image (2017)
38. Black Wake (2018)
39. Stalked By My Doctor: Patient’s Revenge (2018)
40. Clinton Island (2019)
41. Monster Island (2019)
42. The Savant (2019)
43. Seven Deadly Sins (2019)
44. Stalked By My Doctor: A Sleepwalker’s Nightmare (2019)
45. The Wrong Mommy (2019)
46. Exodus of a Prodigal Son (2020)
47. Free Lunch Express (2020)
48. Her Deadly Groom (2020)
49. Top Gunner (2020)
50. Deadly Nightshade (2021)
51. Just What The Doctor Ordered (2021)
52. Killer Advice (2021)
53. The Poltergeist Diaries (2021)
54. The Rebels of PT-218 (2021)
55. A Town Called Parable (2021)
56. Bleach (2022)
57. My Dinner With Eric (2022)
58. Aftermath (2024)