The Eric Roberts Collection: The Perfect Summer (dir by Gary Wheeler)

Posted on April 12, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

It’s the perfect summer …. or is it?

In this 2013 film, teenage Jake (Adam Horner) moves to California with his mother, Alyssa (Sydney Penny). They move in with Jake’s grandfather, surf shop owner Lou Reynolds (Eric Roberts). At first, Jake is miserable. He misses his friends. He doesn’t know what to make of the California lifestyle. He has a crush on Kayla (Katie Garfield) but he feels insecure because he can’t surf and, when he does buy a surfboard, it’s promptly broken in half by the local surf bullies.

(Is there really such a thing as surf bullies? I’ve never lived on the beach so I really haven’t had much experience with surfers. The ones that I met in Hawaii and Galveston all seemed pretty cool, though. But, in the movies, they’re all like, “Can’t surf our beach, brah.” A part of me suspects that movies should not be used as a guide for real life.)

It’s a good thing that Lou just happens to be a legendary surfer! While Alyssa pursues a romance with Marcos (Louis Mandylor), Lou tries to teach his grandson how to surf. It’s not always easy. Jake gets frustrated easily and he doesn’t quite understand the zen philosophy behind surfing. But, with Lou’s help, Jake gets the hang of it and soon, Jake is ready to enter the big surging competition!

If this all sounds familiar, that’s because you’ve already seen a hundred films like this. Think of The Karate Kid, but with surfing and Eric Roberts as the mentor. It’s all very predictable but the beach is pretty. The ocean is majestic. My favorite American Idol also-ran, Jason Castro, shows up for a few minutes. And Eric Roberts actually gets a fairly substantial role and a chance to show what a good actor he can actually be! There’s absolutely nothing surprising about the film but, for what it is, The Perfect Summer works.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

The Eric Roberts Collection: Deadly Sanctuary (dir by Nancy Criss)

Posted on April 11, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 2015’s Deadly Sanctuary, Philadelphia reporter Kendall O’Dell (Rebekah Kochan) relocates to a small town in Arizona and proceeds to spend the majority of the movie complaining about it.

Seriously, I could relate to Kendall to an extent. We both have red hair. We both have asthma. We both hate snakes. We both wear high heels in the desert. We’ve both run outside in our underwear after coming across a tarantula in our house. But, even with all that in mind, even I quickly got annoyed with listening to her complain about every little thing. Her father got her a job at the Arizona newspaper so, of course, Kendall calls him up to complain about the desert. An old man stops and helps to shoo a snake away from Kendall’s car so, of course, Kendall gives him the glare of death when he casually calls her “sweetie.” (The guy’s 70 and was clearly not hitting on Kendall so maybe he can be forgiven for not speaking like a 30-something grad student.) Kendall shows up late for her job interview so, of course, she complains about the newspaper to her editor (Eric Roberts). Kendall gets a place to live, rent-free. She complains about the house being located near a mental hospital. Kendall’s co-worker, Ginger (Teri Lee), sets Kendall up with both a handsome cowboy (Marco Dapper) and the richest man in town (Peter Greene) and, of course, Kendall finds an excuse to complain about it.

Eventually, a plot of sorts kicks in. Kendall investigates the death of her predecessor and discovers that the sheriff (Dean Cain) doesn’t seem to be all the interested in solving any of the murders that seem to occur around town. She also tries to set up an interview with Dr. Price (Daniel Baldwin), the owner of the mental hospital, but it turns out that he doesn’t want to talk to her. He doesn’t care that she once wrote a series of articles about mental health in Philadelphia. (Yikes! I’ve seen Parking Wars so I can only guess how scary that must have been.)

Kendall hears strange voices in her house and spiders keep showing up at inopportune moments. Who can she trust? Who is the bad guy here? The rich guy or the salt-of-the-Earth cowboy dude? Well, I won’t spoil the film. I will say that the plot had potential but the poor pacing and the unlikable lead character eventually combine to do this movie in.

Eric Roberts is his usual avuncular self in this film. He spends most of his scenes sitting behind a desk. The rest of the film’s celebrity cameo budget was apparently spent on Dean Cain and Daniel Baldwin, both of whom seem rather bored with the whole thing.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

The Eric Roberts Collection: DC Down (dir by Geoff Meed)

Posted on April 10, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 2023’s DC Down, Washington D.C. is hit by an earthquake!

It’s a 6.3 on the Richter scale, which means the aftershocks are going to be even worse. The Washington Monument now has a big crack on it. The Potomac is threatening to flood the city. And even worse, both the President (Sean Young) and the Vice President are trapped underneath a bunch of White House rubble. (Fortunately, the main White House is still standing and actually looks remarkably sturdy. The President and the Vice President were touring a new wing of the White House that was under construction.)

General Harris (Terry Woodbury) is determined to head up efforts to dig up the chief executive and hopefully find either her or the Vice President alive. However, Speaker of the House Terry Wilder (Eric Roberts) has other ideas. First, Wilder invokes the 25th Amendment and takes over as temporary President. Then he suggests that a militia group be brought in to search through the rubble and rescue the president. General Harris thinks that’s an odd idea but, in the end, he goes with it. Needless to say, Wilder does not have the president’s best interests at heart. For him, this earthquake is the perfect opportunity to take over. He orders the head of the militia to kill the president when she is found. Can Wilder be stopped?

(For that matter, do we want to stop Wilder? Eric Roberts seems like he would be a much more entertaining president that Sean Young.)

D.C. Down is another Asylum mockbuster, the type that I used to love to watch on the SyFy network. It’s cheap and it’s ridiculous and it’s self-aware enough to be entertaining despite all of that. You have to appreciate any film that can not only work in an earthquake and a flood but also a political coup. Add to that, Eric Roberts actually gets a few more scenes than usual in this film. I have to admit that I laughed out loud when he first appeared, casually walking up to the ruins of the White House extension as if it was just another day in the nation’s capitol. But, again, that’s a part of the charm of DIY, almost-punk rock charm of the Asylum and their mockbusters. They defy the conventional definitions of good and bad and they create a unique cinematic world all their own, in this case a world where both Sean Young and Eric Roberts can be President over the course of a day. Good for the Asylum! I hope they never stop making movies.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

The Eric Roberts Collection: Raptor (dir by Jim Wynorski)

Posted on April 9, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 2001’s Raptor, Eric Roberts stars as Jim Tanner, the sheriff of a small desert town. When the locals start turning up all shredded to heck, Sheriff Tanner suspects that maybe it was an animal attack. When the sheriff’s daughter (Lorissa McComas) witnesses one of the attacks and goes into a coma as a result, Tanner is determined to get justice, even if it means working with his ex-girlfriend, Barbara (Melissa Brasselle).

It turns out that it’s neither coyotes nor bears that are attacking the folks in the desert. Instead, it’s a bunch of dinosaurs that have been brought back into existence by Dr. Hyde (Corbin Bernsen, wearing a beret), a mad scientist who has a laboratory in a secret government installation. When the army realizes that there’s a bunch of mini-dinosaurs roaming the desert, they send in a special taskforce to take care of the problem.

It’s a pretty simple movie and no one in the cast, Roberts included, really seems to be taking it all that seriously. There a few scenes where Corbin Bernsen looks like he’s about to break out laughing at some of his dialogue. Director Jim Wynorski keeps the action moving and tosses in plenty of blood and a little nudity. If you’ve ever seen any of the other films that Wynorski directed for producer Roger Corman, you’ll know what to expect from Raptor.

The dinosaurs are cute. They’re all obviously puppets and there’s a lot of scenes of them moving quickly through the desert with an intense look in their eyes. Apparently, almost all of the dinosaur footage was lifted from the first three Carnosaur films, which perhaps explains why the film suddenly goes from being about Sheriff Tanner trying to protect his town from the dinosaurs to being about a bunch of soldiers hunting for the dinosaurs in Dr. Hyde’s underground lab. It’s cheap but it’s kind of fun, a timewaster that no one should take seriously.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

The Eric Roberts Collection: Las Vegas Story (dir by Byron Q)

Posted on April 8, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

2015’s Las Vegas Story tells the story of Maria (Christina Bocanegra), a 30ish single mother with four kids, a house that she has to pay the bills on, and an adorable dog that gives her quizzical looks whenever she leaves for work in the middle of the night.

Maria works as an escort, meeting with men in hotel rooms and collecting enough money to keep her family fed and to prevent the house from falling apart. When her friend and former mentor, a stripper named Izzie (Francesca Fanti), comes to Vegas, Maria allows Izzie to say with her. When another old friend named Doug (Wade-Allain Marcus) shows up, Maria allows him to crash on her couch despite the fact that Doug is a drug dealer and he’s gotten in trouble with some very bad people.

Las Vegas Story has the usual collection of gangsters and corrupt cops that you would expect to find in a film like this but, ultimately, it’s more of a character study than a typical narrative. The film follows Maria over the course of her nights. Maria isn’t ashamed of how she makes her money but she doesn’t have any illusions about the business either. Las Vegas Story is about a woman doing what she has to do to support her family and Christina Bocanegra gives a strong and sympathetic performance in the lead role.

Maria’s most faithful client is played Eric Roberts and it must be said that Roberts give an excellent and rather poignant performance as a businessman who is terminally ill and who seems to sincerely care about Maria. Roberts doesn’t have a huge role but he definitely makes an impression and shows that he’s still more than capable of giving a memorable performance.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

The Eric Roberts Collection: Night Night (dir by Niki Koss)

Posted on April 7, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

April Davis (Brenna D’Amico) has just inherited a small fortune and she’s got a wonderful boyfriend named Robert. Plus, she lives in Texas! Her life is going wonderfully! But then, a terrible car accident leaves her in a five-month coma. When she finally awakens, she discovers that the people in the other car — a mother and her children — were killed in the accident. Because she had a few drinks before she got behind the wheel and she was texting with her boyfriend while driving, she is now being investigated for vehicular manslaughter.

April is taken home by Robert (Nick Marini) but it turns out that things have changed. As Robert explains it, April was in a coma for five months so he had to handle things until she woke up. As a result, he now has a key to the house. He bought her a new phone to replace the one that was taken by the police. He bought her a new monitor for her computer. Robert’s been on top of everything! What a great guy …. except, there seems to be something different about Robert as well. He’s angrier than April remembered and he’s controlling. He says it’s for April’s own good but who knows for sure? April starts to have strange dreams and nightmares and soon, she’s wondering what’s real and what isn’t.

Released in 2021 and filmed in the lovely town of Corsicana, Texas, Night Night is an effectively dream-like thriller, one that features a good lead performance from Brenna D’Amico and a plot that’s full of twists and turns. Despite the low budget, director Niki Koss does a good job of creating a properly ominous atmosphere. This film really took me by surprise. I was mostly watching because Eric Roberts was in it but the film’s story drew me in pretty quickly.

As for Eric Roberts, this is one of his one-scene wonders. He plays Dr. Nelson and gives April an update on her condition after she awakens. The late Tony Todd also makes an appearance in this film, playing April’s attorney. Neither role is big but the film itself works so well that it doesn’t matter that neither Roberts nor Todd play particularly prominent roles. This was a good, independent thriller. Give it a chance.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

The Eric Roberts Collection: Bed & Breakfast (dir by Marcio Garcia)

Posted on April 6, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

2010’s Bed & Breakfast is one of those Hallmark-y films that takes place at a B&B in a quaint little town.

Having recently been left by his actress wife, Jake (Dean Cain) is trying to open up a bed and breakfast, using a house that was left to him by a former employer. Helping Jake out is his brother, Peter (Jake Engvall), a member of law enforcement who not only enjoys drinking beer but also enjoys talking about beer as well. Juliana Paes plays Ana, the niece of the original owner of the house. Ana is from Brazil and she wants to sell the house because her brother is in debt to some local mobsters. But then Ana meets the handsome and single Jake and …. well, you already know what’s going to happen. This is one of those films where the familiarity is the point. You watch it because you know that Jake and Ana are going to fall in love and you know exactly how long it’s going to take for that to happen. Dean Cain is rugged. Juliana Paes is pretty. The town is lovely. It’s a sweet little film that you’ll forget about a few minutes after it ends.

Of course, these films always require a cameo or two. John Savage and Julia Duffy show up as a couple who stay at the B&B and who share a dance at the end of the film. Ted Lange is the judge who settles the issue of who actually owns the house. Eric Roberts shows up as a reviewer who stays at the B&B and decides that it’s a wonderful place that more than deserves a good review. Yay! I will say that it’s always interesting to see Roberts playing someone who is just a nice, polite guy. He doesn’t get to do it all that often. Eric Roberts doesn’t have much screentime in this film but he gets to be pleasant the entire time. It’s a nice change of pace.

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The Eric Roberts Collection: Devil’s Knight (dir by Adam Werth)

Posted on April 5, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

2024’s Devil’s Knight opens in the kingdom of Veroka. A group of thieves all discuss what they’ve stolen over the course of the day. The leader of the thieves is named Orwell. Another thief — played by Daniel Baldwin — is named Camus. The group is joined by as stranger named Sigurd (John Wells), a man who has only one eye. He tells them the story of how he and his friends — The Lost Blades — were hired to vanquish the fearsome Bone Devil….

Yep, it’s one of those type of movies. There’s a lot of sword fights. There’s a lot of monsters. There’s a hint of sorcery, though not as much as you might expect from a movie like this. The thieves are named after philosophers. The huge cast is full of streaming stars and a handful of actors who are known for appearing in just about anything. Kevin Sorbo plays Baldur, the noble head of the king’s guards. Angie Everhart plays the Duchess who speaks French despite living in a mythical kingdom. Eric Roberts shows up as Lord Sussex. He only onscreen for a few minutes, though he does get a few funny lines. Sadly, Roberts doesn’t even get to fight a monster. At least Sorbo gets a big battle scene.

Here’s the thing, though. Taken on its own terms, Devil’s Knight is a lot of fun. You can tell it was made by people who have a genuine love for the sword and sorcery genre and there’s enough intentional humor to keep things interesting. With the exception of some blood splatter, there’s also a definite lack of CGI. The monsters are played by actual actors wearing costumes and under makeup and it’s surprisingly effective. The film’s plot is not always easy to follow. In the tradition of many medeival legends, the film’s story really is just one random incident after another, the majority of which lead to a fight and at least a few deaths. The cast is huge but few of the characters are still alive by the end of the movie. Monsters aren’t something to mess with and I actually appreciated that the film was willing to even kill off the characters who usually survive a film like this. It really did create the feeling that anyone could die if they ran into a monster in a hallway. (Even the stereotypical princess-who-wants-to-be-a-warrior character was taken in a surprising direction.) The film moves quickly with a lot of energy and enthusiasm. I enjoyed it.

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The Eric Roberts Collection: Beyond The Trophy (dir by Daniel J. Gillin)

Posted on April 4, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Does this plot sound familiar?

There’s a gang war brewing. An undercover cop is sent into one of the gangs and ends up falling in love. Another cop is involved in the undercover operation but he’s actually working for one of the mob bosses. And then there’s a Russian mob boss who keeps complicating things. The whole thing plays out with a lot of scenes of people pointing guns at each other and randomly shouting before gunfire erupts. No one can trust. There’s plenty of twists. There’s narration from one of the mob bosses. The plot is actually pretty confusing as one person after another turns out to be working for someone else. The whole thing leads to so many betrayals that it almost become comical in its indulgence.

The Departed, you say?

No, this isn’t a Scorsese film. Instead, this is 2012’s Beyond The Trophy, which has a plot that borrows a lot from The Departed. Then again, the film actually borrows a lot from every other mobster film that’s ever been made. Most gangster films aren’t really about the activities of real-life gangsters as much as they’re about recreating the classic film scenes that the director enjoyed while growing up. As a result, we get a few Scorsese-style freeze frames to go along with the narration. We get plenty of Tarantino-style stand-offs. We got the Russian mob because every film has to have the Russian mob nowadays.

We also get Michael Madsen and Eric Roberts. Roberts plays Sgt. Bachman and his role is small. He smiles while barking out orders and he looks after his daughter, another undercover cop named Chastity (Brooke Newton). Roberts doesn’t get to do much and I’m not sure how many big city police departments are run by people with long hair but he’s Eric Roberts. You can’t help but love him. As for Madsen, he narrates in his trademark threatening whisper. Madsen is one of those actors who was born to play tough guys so he’s credible as a mob boss, even if he doesn’t really put much effort into the film. You can usually tell whether or not Madsen is invested in a film by whether or not he bothers to wash his hair. For the most part, his hair look pretty oily in this film.

The majority of the film revolves around Stephen Cloud and Michael Masini as the two cops and they both give credible-enough performances. Because the script is basically just a recreation of scenes from other mob films, neither one really gets a chance to surprise us. The one member of the cast who actually does manage to break free and make an impression is Robert Miano, who makes his Vegas mob boss into a somewhat sympathetic figure.

File this one under standard mafia nonsense.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

The Eric Roberts Collection: The Reliant (dir by Paul Munger)

Posted on April 3, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

First released in 2019 and funded by an Indiegogo campaign, The Reliant is the epitome of a late-era Eric Roberts film.

Roberts appears towards the beginning of the film. He gets roughly 45 seconds of screen time. He delivers three lines, all in close-up. His character is named Mr. Johnson but, to know that, you have to sit through the entire film so that you can track down his name in the end credits. We don’t know anything about his character, other than he’s a hardware store owner. We don’t know anything about his fate. When last seen, his store is being overrun by a bunch of Antifa goons. It’s not looking good for Mr. Johnson but luckily, he has a lot of weapons.

Kevin Sorbo is also in the film. His role is slight larger. He only gets maybe 16 minutes worth of screentime. His character is killed off fairly early but he does get to appear in a few flashbacks and a fantasy sequence. He plays a father who has taught his children how to shoot guns and survive in case society breaks down. Society does break down and he dies while defending his family. He probably would have survived if his liberal daughter Sophie (Mollee Gray) hadn’t hid the key to the gun safe. Sophie (boo!) doesn’t believe in the Second Amendment and doesn’t like it when her father goes shooting. Not even the sight of hundreds of angry rioters getting ready to open fire on her house can change Sophie’s mind. Boo, Sophie, boo!

Sophie doesn’t believe in killing, even if self-defense. (I don’t believe in killing either. That said, if someone’s coming at you with a gun, you have every right to defend yourself.) When she finds out that her fiancé, Adam (Josh Murray), has had to kill people while she and her siblings were hiding out in the woods, Sophie throws a fit and says that she doesn’t even want Adam — who can barely walk due to an injury — staying at her family’s camp. Sophie is a …. well, I swore off profanity for Lent.

Sophie and her family are being stalked by Jack (Brian Bosworth), an angry man who has a personal grudge against them. Along with Roberts and Sorbo, Bosworth is the other “name” in this movie and he actually does get substantial screentime. And he actually gives a good performance as well, certainly the best in this film.

The Reliant is a technically well-made film and some of the action sequences are surprisingly effective. Unfortunately, whenever the characters are arguing about faith and whether or not guns cen be a useful tool, the movie becomes painfully draggy. The Reliant is occasionally fun in a “I’m going to show this to the most annoying leftie I know and watch them get offended” sort of way. But, for the most part, it’s just too talky and slow for its own good.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed: