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.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

The Eric Roberts Collection: Eternity: The Movie (dir by Ian Thorpe)

Posted on March 30, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In the 1980s, no band better represented mediocre R&B than Eternity.

At least, that’s the claim made by 2014’s Eternity: The Movie, an occasionally amusing comedy in which Pennsylvania-bred singer/songwriter Todd Lucas (Barrett Clarke) moves to California, gets his dream job of working at BJ-Maxx, and eventually befriends a coworker whose name actually is BJ (Myko Oliver). BJ is a saxophonist who has released a solo album in which he covers the theme songs of classic detective shows. When the naive Todd and the irresponsible BJ get together, they become an unlikely hit-making duo. Their first song Make Love, Not Just Sex, shoots up the charts and soon, Todd and BJ are putting all of their personal issues to music.

Eternity: The Movie is a comedy that recycles a handful of jokes over and over again. The main joke is that Todd and BJ come across as being extremely into each other, even while they’re sleeping with groupies and both pining for their neighbor, Gina Marie (Nikki Leonti). Todd and BJ are the type of musical partners who discuss their lives while sharing a bubble bath. It’s not the cleverest joke ever told but, thanks to the ability of the actors to say the most ludicrous of lines with a deadpan face, I did chuckle occasionally. The better joke is that their music is both convincingly bad and also convincingly catchy. It’s the type of bad music that you can believe would become very popular. At one point, Todd sings a song about his ex-girlfriend, who drowned in a river. Throughout the song, he laments that she just wasn’t a better swimmer. The songs are performed with just the right amount of earnest stupidity to be funny.

As for Eric Roberts, he plays the manager of BJ-Maxx. Jon Gries and Martin Kove also show up, playing a record executive and the record executive’s father respectively. I’d like to see a movie where Eric Roberts and Martin Kove start a band. Someone should make that happen.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

The Eric Roberts Collection: Tripfall (dir by Serge Rodnunsky)

Posted on March 15, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In an effort to save their marriage, Tom (John Ritter) and Gina (Rachel Hunter) take a vacation in California. However, when they arrive at the home that they’re going to be renting, they are taken hostage by a group of redneck criminals led by Mr. Eddie (Eric Roberts). Mr. Eddie wants all of Tom’s money and this leads to a rather drawn-out hostage situation as Tom tries to get the better of Mr. Eddie and Mr. Eddie spends a lot of time purring threats in a thick Southern accent.

That’s plot of 2000’s TripFall. Don’t ask my why it’s called TripFall. It seems like a bit of a redundant title because a trip and a fall are pretty much the same thing. In fact, don’t even ask me what the point of the film is because there’s really not that much action or suspense. It’s mostly just Eric Roberts and the gang driving John Ritter from one location to another. I’m not a big fan of films about people being held hostage because they always seem to feature the same scene played over and over again. The hostage refuses to do something. The person holding him hostage gives a long monologue. It gets boring after a while.

TripFall is not a career highpoint for either Roberts or Ritter. It’s an action film in which there is very little action. Watching the film, I found myself thinking that it would have been more interesting if Ritter and Roberts had switched roles. Roberts could have played the likable family man for once and maybe the film could have explored the darkness behind Ritter’s goofy persona. (Comedic actors sometimes make the best villains.)

That said, it’s difficult to resist the oddness of John Ritter and Eric Roberts starring in the same movie. If there are two actors who feel as if they literally come from different planets, it’s Ritter and Roberts. Ritter is his typical goofy self, even when he’s trying to play up the drama of the situation. Roberts hisses his lines as Mr. Eddie and appears to be acting in a totally different movie from Ritter. They’re so mismatched that they become rather fascinating (if not exactly memorable) to watch.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

Shattered Politics: The Alternate (dir by Sam Firstenberg)

Posted on January 2, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Why is 2000’s The Alternate one of the greatest action films ever made?

Consider this: President John Fallbrook (John Beck) is scheduled to give a speech at a World Hunger Symposium, where he will be announcing legislation that will make it illegal for people not to have food. (I’m not sure how that would work but whatever. It’s a movie.) Eric Roberts is The Alternate, a former intelligence agent who has just been recruited to serve as a member of a team that is being used by Agent William (Ice-T) to test the President’s security. (Ronn Moss, of Hard Ticket to Hawaii and Bold and the Beautiful fame, plays the fake President.) The Leader (Bryan Genesse) tells the Alternate that the CIA actually wants to abduct the President for real in order to help boost the President’s reelection campaign. The Alternate agrees to help but then it turns out that the Leader is actually just in it for the money and he’s planning on holding the President hostage until he gets paid. While Agent Briggs (Michael Madsen) watches from the outside, The Alternate makes his way through a nearly deserted hotel and attempts to defeat the bad guys.

It’s Die Hard …. with Eric Roberts!

The plot is so convoluted that it borders on self-parody but director Sam Firstenberg keeps the action moving quickly and, to its credit, this is a film that fully understands how to embrace the melodrama. When the Leader tries to take out The Alternate, he doesn’t just pursue him with a gun. Instead, he picks up a flame thrower! When The Alternate gets into a gunfight at the hotel’s pool, he doesn’t just duck behind pillars and fire his gun. Instead, he grabs a banner and swings back and forth over the water, all the while shooting his gun. When the President says that he doesn’t like heights, it isn’t just a case of him getting nervous about being on the roof of the hotel. Instead, he’s so paralyzed that he literally has to be picked up and carried from one location to the next. When The Leader calls the police and gives them his list of demands, he doesn’t just make the usual threats. Instead, he speaks in what sounds like a French accent and claims to be a infamous (and possibly fictional) terrorist. When it’s time to kidnap the President, the kidnappers don’t just use guns. Instead, they also use blow-darts to paralyze the Secret Service agents. Everything about the film is gloriously and wonderfully over the top.

(I’ve always felt that, when it comes to low-budget action films, the best ones are the ones that are willing to just be as ridiculous as possible. Bring out the flame thrower. Fly the Money Plane. Cast Joe Don Baker as your lead. Just jump off that cliff and see what happens.)

The Alternate is definitely a film that deserves to be better-known. (It was also released under the title The Replacement.) In the realm of Die Hard rip-offs, it’s in a class by itself, a totally enjoyable thrill ride that manages to get more and more excessive with each passing minute. Bryan Genesse, who also wrote the script, gets to show off some stylish martial arts moves. John Beck is the wimpiest President ever. Michael Madsen never takes off his dark glasses. And, best of all, Eric Roberts gets to be the star!

The Alternate? Why, it’s just one of the best action movies ever!

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

The Eric Roberts Collection: Shakey Grounds (dir by Michael Garcia)

Posted on January 1, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

One of the over 30 films to feature Eric Roberts in 2025, Shakey Grounds tells the story of Travis (Eric Nelsen), a sullen and hard-drinking singer who lives in Arkansas and who is struggling to cope with the suicide of his best friend. When recently fired record company executive Nick (Jonny Danks) shows up in Travis’s home town, it looks like it might be a chance for Travis to become a star. But can Travis get out of his own way or is he destined to just be another angry burn-out?

I will admit that I have a weakness for low-budget films like this one and, as someone who has family in the state, I appreciate that the film took place in Arkansas and that it had a relatively positive attitude towards the Natural State. Some of the performances are better than others. I liked Ella Cannon’s performance as Mel and Mackenzie Ziegler did a good job as a character named Lisa (!), even though she wasn’t given a whole lot to do. The main problem with the film was the script, which was overwritten and full exchanges of dialogue that just didn’t seem to flow naturally. Even worse, I wasn’t really sold on Travis’s music or even Travis himself. For the most part, he just came across as someone trying too hard to be Kurt Cobain. His main song sounded like it was written by an AI that had been prompted to sound angsty.

As for Eric Roberts, he appears in one scene and one scene alone. He plays the president of the record label, the one who fires Nick. Acting from behind a desk, Eric doesn’t even stand up during his performance but he does spit out a few insults with elan. Eric Roberts always seem to have fun playing a mean boss. I can’t wait to see what he has in store for us in 2026!

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

An Eric Roberts Holiday Film Review: A Karate Christmas Miracle (dir by Julie Kimmel)

Posted on December 15, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 2019’s A Karate Christmas Miracle, young Jesse Genesis (Mario Del Vecchio) believes that if he can become a black belt in four days, his father — who has been missing for a year — will return home. Jesse’s mother, Abby (Mila Milosevic) tries to get Jesse to understand that his father was abducted and probably murdered by a killer clown. Eventually, trying to understand what happened to her husband, Abby teams up with Elizabeth (Julie McCullough), a quirky law professor who is also psychic.

This is a strange film. Eric Roberts and Martin Kove are listed as co-starring in the film but actually, all of their footage appears to have been lifted from 2015’s Joker’s Poltergeist, a film that stylistically and thematically has next to nothing in common with A Karate Christmas Miracle. Scenes of Jesse practicing karate and trying to work his way up to black belt in just six days are mixed with scenes of Eric Roberts threatening to kill people and Martin Kove rambling about he wants to leave a movie theater to his daughter. The scenes just don’t mix but they do show that if Eric Roberts and Martin Kove aren’t available to do your bad movie, you can just lift scenes of them from an even worse movie.

Sitting through A Karate Christmas Miracle is a bit of a struggle. It’s only 81 minutes long but every scene still goes on for too long and the dialogue is full of overly quirky moments that probably sounded great in the writer’s head but which play out very awkwardly on film. This movie really made me appreciate films that are actually edited in a professional manner. We tend to take good editing for granted. This movie reminds us not to.

Now, to be honest, the story did have some potential. A child is so desperate for his father to return that he sets an impossible goal for himself. Seriously, in the right hands, this could have been a real tearjerker. But everything about A Karate Christmas Miracle just feels off. The film works itself towards an heartfelt ending that it really hasn’t earned.

Perhaps the best thing that can be said about this film is that it’s still better than Joker’s Poltergeist.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed: