In 2021’s The Elevator, Eric Roberts plays Roman Juniper, who is married and who has three kids but who also has a demanding job in a downtown office building. Even though it’s both the weekend and his youngest daughter’s birthday, Roman still has to go into work for a few hours. Unfortunately, just as Roman is looking forward to heading home and celebrating with his family, there’s an electrical short in the building and Roman finds himself trapped in the elevator!
His family starts to wonder where he is and, in another unfortunate coincidence, he is initially misidentified as having been involved in a freak accident that occurred outside of his building. His family fears that Roman is dead but will they ever discover that he’s actually tapped in a dark elevator, where he’s yelling and losing his mind?
In many ways, this film is the ultimate latter day Eric Roberts movie. Roberts is actually the lead in this movie. The film centers around his character and, even when he’s not on-screen, everyone is talking about him. For once, this is not a film where Roberts just shows up in some throw-away role and lends the production a few minutes of Eric Roberts star power. The Elevator is a legitimate Eric Roberts films. And yet, because of the film’s plot, Roberts still spends the majority of his screentime on only one set and, for the most part, he doesn’t really interact with the rest of the cast. Everyone else is out looking for him but Eric Roberts is alone on that elevator. He’s acting up a storm and Eric Roberts is always at his best when he’s playing an emotional character but it’s difficult not to notice that he was probably able to shoot his entire role in just a day or two. You have to respect a man who can star in a movie and still manage to get it all done in just a handful of hours.
Eric Roberts is, not surprisingly, the main reason to see The Elevator. The film itself is poorly paced and cheap-looking. But Eric Roberts is always fun to watch.
Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:
The 1993 made-for-cable television film VOYAGE opens with Morgan Norvell (Rutger Hauer) and his wife Kit (Karen Allen) headed to their 20-year class reunion. Morgan didn’t really want to go, but Kit talked him into it. It seems that Morgan was a champion diver back in high school. We know that because he’s looking at some pictures at the reunion that are meant to illustrate what a great athlete he once was. I say “meant to illustrate” because the man in the pictures looks absolutely nothing like a potentially younger Hauer would. Hauer is a big boned man, known for his blond hair. This guy in the pictures is scrawny with dark hair, but I’ll just move on, I guess. Morgan and Kit seem to be enjoying themselves, when they run into Kit’s old friend Gil Freeland (Eric Roberts) and his wife Ronnie (Connie Nielsen). It’s kind of awkward at first because Gil asks Morgan if he remembers him, and Morgan doesn’t, even though they were in the same class. Isn’t that the worst? I was recently at an Arkansas Razorbacks football game, and as I walked away from the concession area with my beverage, this lady’s voice said, “Well, if it isn’t Brad Crain.” I looked at the group of people standing in front of me, including the lady who said my name, and I immediately knew I was in trouble. They all looked kind of familiar, but a long time ago “kind of familiar,” and I knew none of their names. And then she asked that question I was hoping to avoid, “You don’t remember me, do you?” I had to admit I didn’t. We spoke for a few moments, and then I headed to my seat feeling a little embarrassed. I told my family about the exchange a few days later, and my sister Pam said that the lady was her best friend in school and that she used to spend the night at our house when we were kids. But the truth is that I still don’t really remember her, and now I’m starting to worry about how the hell I can’t remember her!
After that initially awkward moment, Morgan, Kit, Gil and Ronnie sit down together and start talking about their lives. We learn that Morgan is an architect (ala Paul Kersey), that Kit is an author, that Gil is a dentist, and that Ronnie just looks good. If she told her profession, I missed it. In a case of giving way too much information to people you haven’t seen in 20 years, Morgan and Kit tell the couple of their plans to go to Monte Carlo where they have a sailboat, which they plan to sail down the coast of Italy until they reach Malta. It seems that they purchased a hotel that is in much need of repair, and that they are going to live on the boat for a year, while Morgan puts his architect skills to good use and restores the property. The couple, who have had their share of struggles, are using this adventure as a fresh start in their marriage. Well Gil and Ronnie think this all sounds like a ball and even say that they’d love to join them for a few days if they could. No specific plans are discussed, and Morgan and Kit say that would be great, without expecting they’ll see them again after this night. Wrong! While Morgan is getting the boat ready in Monte Carlo, Gil and Ronnie show up. They have a good day on the ocean together and are enjoying some champagne that night when Gil proceeds to invite himself and Ronnie to go along with them on down the coast for a few days. She doesn’t want to be rude, but Kit is not for this idea so she kicks Morgan under the table. This is supposed to be their time to work on their relationship. Morgan should have known better than to say that Kit and Ronnie could join them for a few days, because any person who’s married or in a relationship should understand the under the table “kick to the shin.” But in a complete dumbass move, he invited them along anyway.
And this is where things really start going in a different direction. That first night, Ronnie makes a sexual move on Morgan, which he somehow has the strength to turn down, while Gil and Kit are downstairs reliving old times… Strike 1! That same night, Morgan is awakened to the sounds of a person on the deck and finds Gil up there. Gil says he was needing some fresh air and dropped his champagne, but Morgan finds the fuel cap is loose after Gil goes back downstairs… Strike 2! A couple of days later, Ronnie tries to kiss Kit, Gil catches a fish and bashes its head in instead of just throwing it back and then has the nerve to imply to Morgan that he had sex with Kit in high school… Strikes 3, 4, and 5! Morgan knocks the crap out of Gil and then makes them get off the boat when they get back to shore that day.
And from that point forward, Morgan and Kit sail on down the coast of Italy, making their way to Malta where they rebuild both their relationship and the Hotel Riviera, and live happily ever after! I’m just kidding, the rest of the movie consists of Gil and Ronnie terrorizing the couple, ultimately wanting to kill them for far more nefarious purposes than I’ll reveal here. I believe that most people in the world will fit into 2 categories: those who want to watch a movie where Eric Roberts terrorizes and tries to kill Rutger Hauer, and those who don’t want to watch such a movie. I’m really writing this up for those in the first camp, so I don’t want to spoil this movies surprises!
Back in 1993, Rutger Hauer’s run as a big-screen lead was nearing its end. With a couple exceptions, he would spend the rest of the decade appearing in made-for-cable TV films and other low budget direct-to-video type fare. Eric Roberts, who had received an Oscar nomination a decade earlier, was also mostly doing low budget direct-to-video fare, TV movies, and the occasional character part in a larger budget movie. This is an interesting time for both actors as their careers were transitioning. But we’re talking about two guys who know how to act, as evidenced by Hauer’s 174 acting credits on IMDB and Roberts’ 760 acting credits on IMDB (and counting as he has 4 credits in 2025 already). Both Hauer and Roberts are capable of playing complete psychos, so I’m not sure how they settled in on Roberts to play the psycho in this one. It may be because Hauer played a psycho stalker in his earlier movie from 1993, the made-for-HBO film BLIND SIDE, but that’s just a guess.
I enjoyed VOYAGE when I watched it the night of its premiere on the USA Network on June 2nd, 1993, and I enjoyed it when I watched it again this morning. I’m a huge fan of Rutger Hauer, and I’ve always appreciated Eric Roberts. For me, it’s a real treat seeing these two guys face off. I enjoy that Hauer gets to play the “hero” while Roberts is the dangerous creep, and Roberts is as creepy as it gets in this movie. Hauer’s role isn’t very flashy, as he’s a pretty normal guy who finds himself in a bad situation, but he is Rutger Hauer so it’s not a surprise that he’s able to summon the strength to fight for his and his wife’s lives. VOYAGE was directed by John Mackenzie. Mackenzie made some good films earlier in his career, including the phenomenal British crime film THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY (1980), the Charles Bronson corrupt union drama ACT OF VENGEANCE (1986), and the Michael Caine / Pierce Brosnan spy thriller THE FOURTH PROTOCOL (1987). While VOYAGE is certainly not his most accomplished work, Mackenzie knows how to make a film, and he does a fine job here. And finally, I always enjoy a movie filmed in beautiful locations, and Malta definitely makes for some beautiful views.
Ultimately, I think your enjoyment of VOYAGE will come down to whether or not you like the idea of Rutger Hauer and Eric Roberts fighting it out to the death. I personally like that idea.
When it Rains In LA features Eric Roberts as Nate.
Nate is a happy man who lives in a big house and who obviously has a lot of money. He’s even got a much younger trophy wife, a Russian named Sasha (Monroe Cline). One day, Nate receives an odd package, a box that contains a rather hideous mask. Nate looks at the mask and then takes a sip of tea. He promptly drops dead.
After Nate’s funeral, the suddenly widowed Sasha flies to Los Angeles to see her friends from college. (Or, at least, that’s how I assume she met these people. At times, it’s difficult to really keep track of how anyone in this film actually knows anyone else.) Though she’s just buried her husband, she still flirts with the pilot of her airplane, the likably dorky Harry (Tom Gipson). She also meets a mysterious woman named Anna (Leslie Stratton) and doesn’t seem to notice that she’s being watched by a mysterious, bearded man (Mike Ferguson) who continually hides his face inside of his hoodie.
From the minute that Sasha lands in Los Angeles, it starts to rain. Everyone that Sasha meets mentions how strange it is that it’s raining in Los Angeles. Some people say the rain is probably no big deal. Other people act as if the rain has some sort of secret meaning. Sasha keeps her opinions to herself.
Her friends seem to be curiously unconcerned with Sasha suddenly being a widow. One of them won’t stop talking about the death of his former lover. They go to a club, where the bartender gives out free drinks and the owner seems to be strangely hostile. Sasha meets Harry. Characters appear and then disappear without anyone seeming to notice. Everyone comments on the strangeness of rain in Los Angeles. People start to die in brutal ways but again no one seems to really care. It’s a slasher film where societal detachment is the biggest threat.
It’s an odd film. The budget was obviously low and the majority of the performances are a bit amateurish but, whether it was intentional on the part of the filmmakers or not, the film often plays out like a surreal dream. Sometimes, the film moved at an almost rushed pace and then other times, a heavy sense of ennui seems to descend over the action and the characters. Characters repeatedly do things that don’t make any sense but they do it with such determination that it becomes rather fascinating to watch. The film’s final moments are surprisingly effective, certainly more effective than you might expect from all the moments that came before them. Visually, this low-budget film has moments of almost ghostly beauty. The scenes of the rain falling in Los Angeles are effectively atmospheric and ominous. In the end, the film qualifies almost as a work of outsider art.
And, let’s not forget, Eric Roberts is in it! This was the first Eric Roberts film to be released in 2025. Nate dies before the opening credits and Eric still gets top billing. I imagine it will be the first of many.
Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:
Two twin brothers, John and Jeremiah, grew up in a series of terrible group homes. One night, John fell off a bridge and Jeremiah failed to rescue him from the water below. Jeremiah was convinced that John drowned. Wracked with guilt, Jeremiah turned his life around. He became an upstanding citizen and, as an adult, he’s an Episcopal deacon who is just a few weeks away from being ordained. His girlfriend (Cynthia Watros) loves him but can tell that he’s not always open with her about his past and his emotions.
What Jeremiah doesn’t know is that John did not drown. He survived and grew up to be a career criminal. Having spent the last few years in jail, he tracks down his mentor, Rome (Eric Roberts), as soon as he’s released. (That’s right! This is an Eric Roberts film!) Rome wants John to help him out with a scheme involving counterfeit money. John decides to grab the money and run. When Rome can’t catch John, he decides to abduct Jeremiah instead.
Meanwhile, John takes over Jeremiah’s life. Pretending to be his brother, John fixes Jeremiah’s relationship with his girlfriend and he even proves to be better at delivering sermons than Jeremiah, despite the fact that John is not religious at all. While Jeremiah gets a crash course in how to be a counterfeiter, John learns how to be an upstanding member of society.
Of course, it doesn’t last. Jeremiah eventually escapes from Rome and finds himself on the streets, where he struggles to not fall into the same criminal lifestyle that previously captured his brother. Fortunately, Jeremiah runs into a priest named Tom (Stacy Keach), who offers some good advice. Meanwhile, John learns about the importance of forgiveness and redemption and discovers that Jeremiah has spent his entire life mourning the brother who he thought was dead.
Mercy Streets is an odd mix of religion and action. On the one hand, the film features David A.R. White playing two brothers who feel like they could have walked out of one of his wholesome Pureflix movies. (White, while being a decent actor, is not exactly the most believable hardened criminal that I’ve ever seen.) On the other hand, you’ve got Eric Roberts teaching Jeremiah how to be a criminal and basically taking over the entire film whenever he’s onscreen. (The scene where Rome teaches Jeremiah how to pass fake money is surprisingly well-acted and directed.) The movie runs into the same problem that plagued many a DeMille production. The heroes may all be Godly but the sinners appear to be having more fun. That said, this film at least reminds us of what a good actor Eric Roberts can be when he’s got a decent role.
Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:
2013’s Bonnie and Clyde: Justified opens with a long-haired Eric Roberts introducing himself as legendary Texas Ranger Frank Hamer. Speaking straight to the camera, Roberts-as-Hamer warns us against idolizing the notorious Depression-era outlaws Bonnie and Clyde. They were murderers!, Hamer tells us with all the fervor of a tent revival preacher.
We then flashback to Bonnie (Ashley Hayes) and Clyde (Jim Poole) driving down a country road. Clyde is behind the wheel. Bonnie, a redhead like me!, reads aloud her latest poem about what it’s like to be a notorious outlaw. Suddenly, Hamer and his men appear on the roadside and open fire.
We then start yet another flashback. 15 year-old Bonnie marries good-for-nothing Roy (Julian Brand) while Clyde and his brother Buck (Hagen Mills) steal a truck full of turkeys. Jump forward to 1929 and Bonnie is unhappily married and working in a diner that we’re told is in Dallas, Texas. Oddly enough, there’s a lot of mountains in the background. I live in North Texas and I can assure you that, as much as things have changed here over the past few years, one thing has always remained the same. There are no mountains in Dallas County.
Eventually, Bonnie meets Clyde, they fall in love, and they rob banks. At least, that’s what we’re told. The majority of the film is told through sepia-toned still shots and newspaper headlines. Clyde attempts to escape from prison but we don’t actually see him do it. Instead, we just see a headline. Bonnie and Clyde rob banks but, again, we don’t really see it as much as we hear about it. Even when people die during the robberies, we don’t really learn the exact circumstances that led to Clyde opening fire. Ashley Hayes actually gives a good performance as Bonnie and her scrappy interpretation of the character is probably closer to the truth than Faye Dunaway’s. As for Jim Poole, he’s much better-looking than the real Clyde Barrow and that’s a good thing. Who wants to watch an ugly bank robber? There’s a reason why my distant-relation Pretty Boy Floyd remains a legend. As for the title, you may be wondering what exactly was justified about Bonnie and Clyde. You can argue that they were justified in doing what they had to do in order to survive during the Great Depression. Or you can argue that Frank Hamer was justified in ambushing them. Or you can assume the film was trying to appeal to (or perhaps just tricks) fans of the Justified television series. Or you can just not worry about it.
This is the story of Bonnie and Clyde on a budget. It came out in 2013, presumably to coincide with a 4-hour Bonnie and Clyde miniseries that was airing on A&E at the time. To be honest, you have to respect the nerve of a film about Bonnie and Clyde that doesn’t actually feature much of them doing what they were famous for. Cheers to director David DeCoteau for sticking with it and giving Eric Roberts top-billing for a cameo appearance. And cheers to Eric Roberts for just being Eric Roberts.
Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:
In 2024’s The Wrong Life Coach, Morgan Bradley stars as Jordan Roberts, whose popularity as a high school cheerleader did little to prepare her for the pressures of adult life. Her career is going nowhere. Her boss (Vivica A. Fox) does not respect her. Her boyfriend (Hector David, Jr.) is bored with her and their vanilla sex life. Her mother (Tracy Nelson) is living with her and trying to control her life. Jordan needs someone to help her get her life together. She needs a life coach!
(Personally, I’ve never gotten the whole life coach thing but whatever. Apparently, it works for some people.)
A chance meeting with Liz Kimble (Allison McAtee) changes Jordan’s life. Though Jordan doesn’t really remember her, she and Liz went to high school together. And it turns out that Liz is now a life coach! Soon, Liz is encouraging Jordan to take sexy pictures, demand more from her career, and to stand up to her domineering mother!
At first, it all seems perfect. Except …. Liz is not a certified life coach! She’s just repeating a bunch of stuff that she heard from her own life coach, Rhonda (Meredith Thomas). It may sound like the start of a hilarious comedy but it turns out that Liz is a little bit crazy. Liz has never gotten over losing her spot on the cheerleading squad to Jordan and now, she’s determined to get revenge,
In quick order, Jordan loses her job, her relationship with her mother, and nearly her boyfriend as well! Plus, her best friend has gone missing! After Jordan tells Liz to get lost, Liz begins to obsessively stalk Jordan. What Jordan doesn’t know is that Liz has placed hidden cameras all over her house and she’s even hacked into Jordan’s email. Jordan thinks that she’s had a good job interview with Mr. Gordon. (Hey, it’s Eric Roberts!) But remember those lingerie-clad photos that Liz encouraged Jordan to send to her boyfriend? Well, those pictures end up getting sent to Mr. Gordon as well.
“I couldn’t hire you if I wanted to,” Mr. Gordon says. When even Eric Roberts refuses to work with you, you know you’ve asked the wrong person for advice!
“Girl, you listened the wrong life coach.”
She sure did!
I love the Lifetime “Wrong” films. The Wrong Life Coach is a tremendous amount of fun, from Allison McAtee’s over-the-top performance as Liz to the side-eye that Vivica A. Fox gives Jordan every time she makes a mistake. As always, with the “Wrong” films, director David DeCoteau fully embraces the melodrama and creates a film that’s so ludicrous that you can’t help but love it. Any director could make a film about a crazy life coach. But only David DeCoteau has the courage to have that life coach make her diabolical plans while wearing her old high school cheerleader uniform.
Watching this film reminded me of how much I love Lifetime and its demented films. I look forward to reviewing a lot more of them in 2025!
Hopefully, more than a few of them will feature Eric Roberts!
Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:
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:
2002’s Wolves of Wall Street tells a story of high finance and lycanthropy.
Jeff Allen (William Gregory Lee) dreams of being a rich and successful stockbroker but he runs into a huge problem when he tries to find a job on Wall Street. No one is willing to hire him without experience and he can’t get any experience because no one is willing to hire him. A sympathetic bartender named Annabella (Elisa Donovan) tells him to apply for Wolfe Brothers and she even promises to put in a good word for him. Annabella, as we soon learn, has a very powerful friend at Wolfe Brothers.
Jeff is given an internship with Wolfe Brothers and, after a week, he’s offered a job by the head of the firm, Dyson Keller (Eric Roberts). Jeff not only has his dream job but he’s also convinced the initially reluctant Annabella to date him. However, it soon becomes obvious that there are some strange things going on at Wolfe Brothers. The brokers spend a lot time talking about the importance of working as a “pack” and about how they are all kin now. At the end of the week, they hold wild but ritualized parties with prostitutes and neck biting. Jeff is told that he’s not allowed to have any outside interests. He life now revolves around Wolfe Brothers and that means that everything he has also belongs to his bosses. Afterall, they’re the Alphas….
As you’ve probably already guessed, Jeff is working with a bunch of werewolves!
They’re not your usual werewolves. Though they howl at the moon and enjoy biting strangers and they can pick up on scents and pheromones, they don’t actually seem to turn into wolves. And while I’m sure that the lack of dramatic transformation scenes was probably a budget thing, it actually makes the film all the more effective. It leaves you to wonder if the brokers are really werewolves or if they’re just people who have been brainwashed into accepting the Wolfe Brothers lifestyle. In this film, being a werewolf becomes the equivalent of being in a cult.
Eric Roberts makes for a wonderfully sinister cult leader, though I should note that there is a pretty big twist involving his character that I didn’t see coming. With his smirk of a smile and his friendly but nervous manner, Roberts gives a wonderfully sinister performance and, even with limited screentime, he elevates the entire film. Wolves of Wall Street is a wonderfully pulpy and sordid B-movie and one of director David DeCoteau’s best.
Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:
A young man named Eric (Allen Williamson) enlists as a combat medic and is sent to Afghanistan. Eric truly thinks that he’s going to help to make the world a better place but, what he sees and experiences in Afghanistan, leaves him shaken and haunted by memories of the dead and wounded.
Upon returning home, Eric tries to keep himself busy helping his family’s winery recover from the latest round of California wildfires but he still finds himself tormented by his experiences. Suffering from PTSD, Eric discovers that his country is more than willing to send young men overseas to fight but it’s less willing to provide them with the support that they need when they return. With the help of his mother (Elizabeth Gast), his girlfriend (Cayla Black), and a fellow veteran (Stephen Wesley Green), Eric tries to find his place in the world.
Scars is an undeniably low-budget film. If you’re looking for a war film that is full of epic battle scenes and which will leave you feeling as if you actually are in the middle of Afghanistan, Scars is not the film to go with. Indeed, it took me a while to realize that Eric was in Afghanistan because Afghanistan looked exactly like California. As well, towards the end of the film, there’s a few moments of clumsy melodrama that feel as if they were added solely so that this rather talky film could be sold as a thriller.
But you know what? In the end, those flaws don’t matter. Scars is a heartfelt film, featuring an excellent lead performance from Allen Williamson, playing a man who is burdened by guilt but who never lets go of hope. Scars is a film about the pain that people carry with them and the struggle that men like Eric have when it comes to opening up about that pain. (Not all of the scars in the film are physical.) It’s an indictment of a society that, far too often, pushes the needs of veterans to the side. That’s especially true if that veteran served in an unpopular war, like the ones in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Considering that we still don’t know how many people were left behind when we left Afghanistan, Scars is a film that feels all too relevant.
And yes, Eric Roberts is in Scars. Playing a sympathetic doctor, he has about a minute of screentime towards the end of the film. It’s always a good idea to put your Eric Roberts cameo at the end of your movie, just to make sure that audiences stick around for the entire film.
Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:
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:
Through the Shattered Lens 