Tag Archives: Kristine DeBell

The Eric Roberts Collection: A Talking Cat!?! (dir by David DeCoteau)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 2009’s A Talking Cat!?, an adorable kitty named Squeaky stars as Duffy, a cat who can speak with the voice of Eric Roberts!  It’s all due to a magic collar that Duffy is wearing.  Not only do we hear Duffy’s thoughts but he can actually talk to people.  He can only do it once per person and it’s not something that he really enjoys doing.  He usually prefers to keep quiet and just inspire the humans with his cuteness but occasionally, the human are so dumb that Duffy has to speak up.

Over the course of A Talking Cat!?!, Duffy helps two families become one.  Phil (Johnny Whitaker) has just retired from writing code and he has a huge home, a sullen son named Chris (Justin Cone), and too much free time on his hands.  Chris has a crush on Fannie (Alison Sieke), who he is tutoring in English.  Frannie obviously like Chris and enjoys swimming in the house’s pool but how will she react when she discovers that Chris doesn’t know how to swim?  A few miles down, single mother Susan (Kristine DeBell) is trying to start her own company while her children, Tina (Janis Peebles) and Trent (Daniel Dannas), does their own thing.  Tina wants to do something with computers.  Trent is still struggling to find himself.  He enjoys teaching people how to swim.  Hey, Phil is a programmer!  Chris needs to learn how to swim!  Do your thing, Duffy!

Somehow, this film has gotten a reputation for being bad.  Look, as far as I’m concerned, it features two really nice houses, an adorable cat, and the voice of Eric Roberts.  It’s great!  From what I’ve read, Eric recorded his dialogue over the course of a few hours.  His somewhat cynical and world-weary voice is actually the way most cats would probably sound.  Does his tone frequently not match what’s happening on the screen?  Yes, but that’s a part of the film’s charm.  Someone said, let’s get the cutest cat we can find and then have him speak in the voice of Eric Roberts.  As far as I’m concerned, that’s all this film needed for it to totally work.  Cats have been there.  They’ve seen stuff.  Cats are like, “Meow, things got dark!”

Thanks, Duffy!

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

  1. Star 80 (1983)
  2. Blood Red (1989)
  3. The Ambulance (1990)
  4. The Lost Capone (1990)
  5. Love, Cheat, & Steal (1993)
  6. Voyage (1993)
  7. Love Is A Gun (1994)
  8. Sensation (1994)
  9. Dark Angel (1996)
  10. Doctor Who (1996)
  11. Most Wanted (1997)
  12. Mercy Streets (2000)
  13. Wolves of Wall Street (2002)
  14. Mr. Brightside (2004)
  15. Six: The Mark Unleased (2004)
  16. Hey You (2006)
  17. Amazing Race (2009)
  18. In The Blink of an Eye (2009)
  19. Enemies Among Us (2010)
  20. The Expendables (2010) 
  21. Sharktopus (2010)
  22. The Dead Want Women (2012)
  23. Deadline (2012)
  24. The Mark (2012)
  25. Miss Atomic Bomb (2012)
  26. Bonnie And Clyde: Justified (2013)
  27. Lovelace (2013)
  28. The Mark: Redemption (2013)
  29. Self-Storage (2013)
  30. This Is Our Time (2013)
  31. Inherent Vice (2014)
  32. Road to the Open (2014)
  33. Rumors of War (2014)
  34. Amityville Death House (2015)
  35. A Fatal Obsession (2015)
  36. Stalked By My Doctor (2015)
  37. Enemy Within (2016)
  38. Joker’s Poltergeist (2016)
  39. Prayer Never Fails (2016)
  40. Stalked By My Doctor: The Return (2016)
  41. The Wrong Roommate (2016)
  42. Dark Image (2017)
  43. Black Wake (2018)
  44. Frank and Ava (2018)
  45. Stalked By My Doctor: Patient’s Revenge (2018)
  46. Clinton Island (2019)
  47. Monster Island (2019)
  48. The Savant (2019)
  49. Seven Deadly Sins (2019)
  50. Stalked By My Doctor: A Sleepwalker’s Nightmare (2019)
  51. The Wrong Mommy (2019)
  52. Exodus of a Prodigal Son (2020)
  53. Free Lunch Express (2020)
  54. Her Deadly Groom (2020)
  55. Top Gunner (2020)
  56. Deadly Nightshade (2021)
  57. The Elevator (2021)
  58. Just What The Doctor Ordered (2021)
  59. Killer Advice (2021)
  60. The Poltergeist Diaries (2021)
  61. The Rebels of PT-218 (2021)
  62. A Town Called Parable (2021)
  63. Bleach (2022)
  64. My Dinner With Eric (2022)
  65. Aftermath (2024)
  66. The Wrong Life Coach (2024)

A Preempted Late Night Retro Television Review: CHiPs 3.13 “Second Chance”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Mondays, I will be reviewing CHiPs, which ran on NBC from 1977 to 1983.  The entire show is currently streaming on Prime!

CHiPs got preempted this week, due to our Monday celebration of St. Patrick’s Day and Kurt Russell.  Here’s the late review of this week’s episode!

Episode 3.13 “Second Chance”

(Dir by John Florea, originally aired on December 1st, 1979)

Someone is breaking into the homes of rich people, stealing their jewelry, and then making a fast escape on a motorcycle.  I say “someone” but, actually, we know who it is because the show tells us early.  It’s a two-man operation.  One guy works as a valet parker at a trendy restaurant.  The other guy sits in his van until the first guy brings over the keys of whoever they’re going to rob.  We know it but the cops don’t know it so we still have to sit through Ponch and Baker investigating the robberies and somehow not figuring out what’s going on,  even though it’s extremely obvious.

So, the crimes weren’t that interesting this week.  This show was mostly about celebrating the local children’s hospital and, even more importantly, celebrating Ponch’s popularity at the local children’s hospital.  All the nurses love Ponch.  All the children love Ponch.  Only the recently paralyzed Kelli (Dana Laurita) is immune to Ponch’s charms but he wins her over eventually.  Given the way this show treated Ponch, I’m surprised he didn’t magically heal her.

In other words, this is another episode in which Baker does a lot of work and Ponch gets all the credit.  There are a few exciting chases, as there were with every episode of CHiPs.  Whatever else you may want to say about the show, it’s obvious that the producers understood that people were watching for the high-speed pursuits and the crashes.  This episode even features Ponch on a boat.  The bad guys can’t even swim away to safety!  Of course, it’s Ponch who got on the boat.  There’s no way that Baker was going to get do anything like that.  I’m surprised Ponch even needed a boat, to be honest.  If nothing else, Ponch should be able to walk on water by this point.

Anyway, it was an okay episode.  Ponch appears to be full recovered from his injuries from earlier in the season so watch out, bad guys!

Summer Fun with Bill Murray in MEATBALLS (Paramount 1979)

Posted on by gary loggins

gary loggins's avatarcracked rear viewer

Summer is finally here, so what better way to celebrate than with a summer movie starring Bill Murray!  Bill had joined the cast of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE in 1979 (back when it was actually funny) and quickly became a fan favorite with his smarmy, snarky persona and silly characterizations. After the film success of John Belushi, it was only natural for Hollywood to come calling, right? Wrong, bucko… it was Canada that lured Bill for his first starring vehicle, the oh-so-70’s teen comedy MEATBALLS! Yeah, you heard right, ’twas the Great White North that plucked Bill away from being “Live from New York” to a location shoot at good ol’ Camp White Pines in the wilds of Ontario.

Bill’s fellow ‘Second City’ alumnus Harold Ramis (or as he was called in SCTV’s credits, ‘Ha-Harold Ramis’!) was a cowriter of the screenplay, beginning a long string of movie collaborations between the two (STRIPES, CADDYSHACK,  GHOSTBUSTERS I…

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