The Eric Roberts Collection: Story of Eva (dir by Tom Woodbeck)

Posted on April 9, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

“Jakey, Jakey, big mistakey,” the bad guy says at one point during 2015’s Story of Eva and if that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about this film, I don’t know what to tell you.

Eva (Nicole Rio) is the mother of teenage Amber (Chelsea London Lloyd). After Amber is murdered by a serial killer who also works as a human trafficker, Eva decides to get revenge. First, however, she has to train herself to not only inflict pain but to also handle it. She finds Amber’s stash and starts smoking it. She wears a ball gag. She whips herself. She learns how to handle pain. She uses Amber’s college fund to buy a membership at the gym and takes boxing lessons. And she builds her own little dungeon. Whenever Eva captures a criminal, she turns into Evil Eva and is even played by a different actress, Shawn Craig. Eva is one of those vigilantes who can’t punish an evil-doer without delivering an endless monologue. The script is talky in the way that scripts written by first-timers determined to prove their cleverness often are.

“No child should ever suffer!” Eva — in “good” form — announces before then adding, “What kind of God would allow that?” Thunder rumbles in the background and it’s not for the first or the only time in the movie as Eva views herself as having become a vengeful God. I have to admit that I appreciated the fact that the film was so shamelessly overwrought and overdone. Everything about the the move is over-the-top and yet, oddly, it’s still rather dull. Some of it is that fact that we live in a post-Hostel world. Torture chambers just don’t carry the same jolt that they once did.

Eric Roberts plays a detective who is investigating all of the murders. He is named Detective Wood. His partner (Rico Ross) is named Detective Grind and the fact that there was no one named Detective Bump seems like a missed opportunity. Roberts appears in a handful of scenes and brings some welcome wit to the role.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

The Eric Roberts Collection: Cyclops (dir by Declan O’Brien)

Posted on April 8, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Behold the glory that was Rome!

In 2008’s Cyclops, Ancient Rome is a bad CGI village that is being menaced by an even worse CGI cyclops. (The height of the Cyclops literally changes from scene to scene.) After the Cyclops is captures, it’s forced to fight in the gladiatorial games of the decadent Emperor Tiberius (Eric Roberts). Marcus (Kevin Stapleton), a centurion-turned-gladiator, eventually launches his own revolution against the Empire. When you’re fighting against the 15 members of the fearsome Roman army, it helps to a have a monster from Greek mythology on your side. Long live the Roman Republic!

This is an extremely silly movie but it’s hard not to admire the chutzpah it takes to try to recreate the glory of Rome on a tiny budget. It’s not just that the city of Rome looks like a medieval village. It’s also that there appears to only be about fifty citizens of Rome and most of them look like they wandered over from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The film doesn’t work but kudos to the filmmakers for trying in the first place. Not surprisingly, this was a Roger Corman production.

Eric Roberts as a Roman emperor is something that simply needs to be seen to believed. Eric has the haircut and the sinful smile and he gives the thumbs up symbol with the proper theatrical flourish. In the film, Tiberius turns on Marcus after the latter demands that he be given a land grant along with his promotion and I’m on Tiberius’s side as far as that goes. Marcus should have just accepted the promotion without making demands. Tiberius had every right to be miffed and no one plays miffed quite as well as Eric Roberts. Tiberius goes on to plan the state dinner that will celebrate the capture of the Cyclops. Tiberius and his friends will have half-a-boar. Marcus will be given “eggs and greens.” Oh, Tiberius!

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

The Eric Roberts Collection: Megalodon: The Frenzy (dir by Brendan Petrizzo)

Posted on April 7, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 2023’s Megalodon: The Frenzy, the giant shark that keeps coming back …. well, it comes back again! Actually, there’s more than one giant shark this time. The ocean is not safe, not for tourists, not for beach partiers, not for scientists, not even for the Marines!

Fortunately, Lt. Commander Sharp (Eric Roberts) is in command of a battleship and he’s constantly encouraging his Marines to be prepared to sacrifice everything to stop the giant sharks. While scientist Rylie Clark (Caroline Williams) attempts to figure out how to stop the sharks, Sharp barks out order to his crew. His crew replies with “Oorah!” I would have to check the official records to know for sure but there’s a distinct chance that this movie set the record for the most use of “oorah” over an 82 minute run time.

The true stars of the film are the giant sharks, of course. That said, it’s nice to see Eric Roberts playing a good guy for once. Of course, Eric does seem a little advanced in years to still be on active duty. The mandatory retirement age for a flag officer is usually 64 but retirement can be deferred until 68 by Presidential order. Eric Roberts was around 67 years old when he filmed this so I guess it pays to have a friend in Washington. Well, no matter. Eric gave his orders with authority and rallied his men and probably had the longest hair that you’re ever likely to see on an officer.

As for the sharks, they’re really big and they jump out of the water and eat people. This is an Asylum film and the Asylum has always understood what people want when it comes to giant sharks. Don’t take this film seriously and you’ll be fine.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

The Eric Roberts Collection: Groupie (dir by Mark L. Lester)

Posted on April 6, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

2010’a Groupie tells the story of the Dark Knights.

The Dark Knights are a legendary band with devoted fans. I’m not sure why because, from what we hear of their music, they really suck. I don’t mean that they suck in a funny deliberate way, like Spinal Tap. I mean, they literally suck. Maybe some of their popularity has to do with their habit of setting their lead singer on fire during their performances.

Unfortunately, during one performance, the fire gets out of control. There’s a panic in the club. A 16 year-old fan is stomped to death. A year later, The Dark Knights are ready to launch their comeback tour. And they’ve got a new groupie, Riley (Taryn Manning)! Riley likes to make death masks. Well, I guess everyone needs a hobby. Riley is also the sister of the fan who was stomped to death. She’s looking for revenge against the Dark Knights and their manager, Angus (Eric Roberts).

That this film appears to be based on a real-life tragedy (i.e. the Station Nightclub Fire) gives the whole film are rather icky sheen. Also adding to the film’s oddness is how straight-forward it is. Riley shows up. A mysterious killer strikes. Riley appears to be the killer and, hey — she is the killer! There’s no real attempt to create any sort of suspense or misdirection as to who the killer may be. That said, Taryn Manning is entertainingly unhinged and director Mark L. Lester keeps the action moving quickly.

As far as Eric Roberts is concerned, he plays a pretty sleazy character but he does so with good humor. Indeed, it’s hard not to have sympathy for Angus. While the band is busy setting things on fire, he’s the one who keeps the tour bus moving.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

The Eric Roberts Collection: If I Can’t Have You (dir by David DeCoteau)

Posted on April 5, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 2023’s If I Can’t Have You, Michelle (Bailey Kai) is the host of the hottest late night radio show in town but she’s been getting creepy phone calls from someone identifying himself as Curtis. Michelle and her producer (Gina Haraizumi) can’t get get any help from the cops (played by Jackee Harry and Tracy Nelson) so they decide to investigate on their own.

Who is Michelle’s stalker? Could it be the creepy guy (Michael Pare) who lives next door? Could it be their geeky engineer, Keith (Phillip McElroy)? Could it be Stan (Eric Roberts), the owner of the radio station who seems to be really determined to get them to change their time slot? Or could it be just some other random guy with too much time on his hands?

To give credit where credit is due, director David DeCoteau does manage to generate some suspense as to who the stalker actually is. I wouldn’t say I was exactly shocked when the stalker’s identity was revealed but DeCoteau still did a good job of giving us plenty of suspects to consider. That said, this is still a David DeCoteau film and the real pleasure of the film is spotting all of the standard DeCoteauisms. In this case, Joe’s Restaurant — previously seen in The Wrong Mr. Right — makes a return appearance.

In the end, this one isn’t as much fun as DeCoteau’s “Wrong” films. There’s no Vivica A. Fox saying, “Looks like you suspected the Wrong Stalker.” Still, it’s entertaining enough and Eric Roberts appears to have been in a good mood during filming.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

The Eric Roberts Collection: The Night Never Sleeps (dir by Fred Carpenter)

Posted on April 4, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

2012’s The Night Never Sleeps takes place over the course of one very long night in a New York city.

Sgt. Cavanaugh (Dan Brennan) is a tough and plain-spoken cop, the type who might not be great with pleasantries but who is a good enough policeman that he’s not going to let anyone stop him from avenging the deaths of the officers working under him. Each murder leads to Cavanaugh digging deeper and deeper into the city’s underworld. In between phone calls from his ex-wife (played by Eliza Roberts, wife of Eric) and meetings with the skeptical Inspector Romanelli (Armand Assante), Cavanaugh pursues a bloodthirsty hitman (Russ Camarda) and his boss.

The Night Never Sleeps is a low-budget police procedural, one that actually works far better than it has any right to. There’s hardly a cliche that isn’t present and there’s as few scenes where the nonstop “tough talk” verges on self-parody but the actors — especially Dan Brennan — all give good performances and the fact that the action was actually shot on location gives the film an appropriate gritty feel.

As for Eric Roberts, he plays a pimp whose cheerful manner hides a dangerous temperament. This is one of Roberts’s better cameo appearances. Not only does he seem to be invested in the performance but his character is also central to the plot. The film makes good use of Eric Robert’s off-center smile. On the one hand, he seems friendly, or at least as friendly as a pimp can be. On the other hand, there’s just enough fidgety nervousness beneath his amiable manner to indicate only as fool would turn their back on him.

The Night Never Sleeps is a flawed film but it still held my attention.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

The Eric Roberts Collection: The Wrong Mr. Right (dir by David DeCoteau)

Posted on April 3, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

“Girl, you picked the wrong Mr, Right,” Sandra (Vivica A. Fox) says towards the end of 2021’s The Wrong Mr. Right and she’s absolutely correct.

Sandra’s best friend is Tracy (Krista Allen), whose new boyfriend Paul (Rob Hillis) has recently moved into her huge home. (The house should be familiar to anyone who has seen a David DeCoteau film.) Tracy’s daughter, Jessica (Anna Marie Dobbins), is suspicious of Paul and she has every right to be. Paul is not only a con artist and a murderer but he’s also so dumb that he leaves a box full of all the evidence of his wrong doings sitting in his office, where anyone could easily find it and go through it.

In general, I enjoy the “Wrong” films but I have to admit that even I couldn’t suspend my disbelief long enough to buy that Tracy would not only trust Paul but also continue to trust him even after it was revealed that his name was actually Michael O’Neill. I shared Jessica’s frustrations and, to her credit, Anna Marie Dobbins went through the film with a “What the heck!?” expression on her face that made Jessica very relatable.

The usual DeCoteau suspects all make appearances in this film. Dominique Swain, Meredith Thomas, Kirstine DeBell, and Michael Gaglio all have small roles. Best of all is Eric Roberts, who plays a jaunty private detective. He doesn’t get much screentime but this is still one of Roberts’s better cameo appearances. I’m going to guess that he must have been in a good mood on the day he shot his scenes. His character is definitely one of the highlights of the film.

In closing, I should mention that this film takes place in Texas. While I’m pretty sure that the house was located in Canada, there were at least a few scenes that were apparently shot in Austin. That was nice to see. The Wrong films are branching out!

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

The Eric Roberts Collection: The Wrong High School Sweetheart (dir by David DeCoteau)

Posted on April 2, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 2022’s The Wrong High School Sweetheart, Mea Wilkerson plays Danielle, a real estate agent who dated Danny (Alex Trumble) in high school. (Dani and Danny! How cute!) Danielle and Danny broke up when Danny went off to college on a baseball scholarship. Now, Danny has returned home and he’s eager to start things up again with Danielle. Danielle’s wimpy fiancé, Tod (Doug Rogers), isn’t happy about that.

“You just had the wrong high school sweetheart,” Vivica A. Fox says once it’s become obvious that Danny is psychotic. Vivica plays the high school principal. For some reason, she is best friends with her former student, Danielle. Vivica A. Fox appears in all of the “Wrong” films and she’s usually cast as an authority figure. It almost always falls on her to say the film’s title. Sometimes, she’s a bit judgmental. If she says you “picked,” the wrong person, you know everything is your fault. In this once, she makes it clear that Danielle is not to blame because she “just had” the wrong person in her life. It’s always a fun to see Vivica in these films.

The “Wrong” films are almost always entertaining. The Wrong High School Sweetheart certainly is. David DeCoteau’s campy sensibility is uniquely suited to these films. The Wrong High School Sweetheart features Danny chanting, “Stronger than steel/Hotter than the sun/Danny Brooks won’t stop/Til he gets the job done!” while exercising in his underwear. Alex Trumble throws himself into the role of Danny and good for him.

As always with the “Wrong” films, some familiar faces show up in small roles. Tracy Nelson plays a therapist. And, of course, Eric Roberts shows up as a detective. Hopefully, we’ll get a sequel called The Wrong Detective.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

The Eric Roberts Collection: Hard Luck Love Song (dir by Justin Corsbie)

Posted on April 1, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

2020’s Hard Luck Love Story tells the tale of a man named Jesse (Michael Dorman).

Jesse is a drifter, heading from town to town and staying in cheap motels. He plays the guitar and sings to himself. He goes to pool halls and hustles people out of their money, earing him the enmity of a heavily tattooed redneck named Rollo (Dermot Mulroney). He drinks when he’s alone. He drinks when he’s with other people. On the one hand, he’s a pool hustler who makes his living by cheating other people. On the other hand, he’s the type who will hug strangers and give them all of his money. Jesse’s not really a bad guy but he’s someone who, as fate would have it, seems to live in a world that’s dominated by frequently bad people. When Jesse has enough money to afford some beer and some cocaine, he calls his ex-girlfriend, Carly (Sophia Bush), to his hotel. Over the course of a night, we get to know them. Neither one is quite who we originally assumed. Jesse makes a lot of mistakes and he has a talent for angering even the people who try to help him but it’s impossible not to like him. Some of that is due to Michael Dorman’s charismatic performance. Even more of it is because everyone has known someone like Jesse, the well-meaning guy who just has a talent for screwing up.

Hard Luck Love Story is a piece of Americana, one that captures the atmosphere of small towns struggling to survive, dive bars full of broken dreams, and rain-slicked nights when it seems like just about anything can happen. It captures life on the fringes with empathy and a sense of humor. Jesse and Carly may be the heart of the story but the film is full of interesting characters, the types who you could only find in the small cities of Middle America. I particularly liked Zach (Brian Sacca), the bearded cop who goes from being intimidating to being likable in his own dorky way.

Eric Roberts has a small role in this film. He plays Skip, an associate of Carly’s. Roberts doesn’t have a lot of screentime but he makes the most of it. There’s a tendency to be dismissive of the roles that Roberts does nowadays. In his autobiography, Roberts is himself fairly dismissive of a lot of them. But, in Hard Luck Love Song, he gets a chance to create an actual character and he definitely makes an impression. He’s not just Eric Roberts doing a cameo. Instead, he’s very much a part of the film’s world.

Hard Luck Love Song is an engrossing trip through the parts of America that tend to get overlooked by other films. The film is based on an alt-country song and it hits all the right notes.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

The Eric Roberts Collection: The Wrong Teacher (dir by David DeCoteau)

Posted on March 31, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

When Charlotte (Jessica Morris) meets a younger man named Chris (Philip McElroy), she is both flattered and amused when he asks her out. “You’re a little young for me,” Charlotte says. However, Charlotte’s friend, Maddie (Akari Endo), insists that Charlotte really does need to get out more so Charlotte meets up with Chris for drinks. One things leads to another and soon, Charlotte is having sex with Chris in her classroom!

(Charlotte is an English teacher, along with being a struggling romance novelist.)

The next day, as Charlotte teachers her class, she is shocked when Chris shows up. “What are you doing here?” Charlotte asks. Chris reveals that he’s a new student and Charlotte is now his English teacher!

2018’s The Wrong Teacher is one of the many “Wrong” films that David DeCoteau directed for Lifetime. This one follows the usual pattern. Chris isn’t ready to let go of his one night of passion with the teacher. When he discovers that Charlotte is getting back together with her ex-boyfriend (Jason-Shane Scott), he snaps. Soon, people are getting shot and hit with baseball bats and videos of Chris and Charlotte going at it in the classroom are showing up on the school’s twitter page. Vivica A. Fox is alarmed that Charlotte could be so foolish. Charlotte declares, “You messed with the wrong teacher!” Thanks to some last minute strangeness that sees Charlotte adopting a Southern accent, The Wrong Teacher is enjoyably over the top.

As for Eric Roberts, he plays the assistant principal. He’s a bit burned-out. He’s easily annoyed. He doesn’t want any scandalous behavior in his school. He’s Eric Roberts and he makes the most of his three scenes. Eric even stands up and walks in this movie. He only does that when he’s particularly invested in a role. The Wrong Teacher? More like The Right Vice Principal.