Lila (Ciarra Carter) has just broken up with her boyfriend and desperately needs a new job to take her mind off of things. Luckily, her friend Robin (Vivica A. Fox) comes to the rescue. Robin not only tells off Lila’s ex but she also gives Lila a job. At work, Lila meets Mark (Matthew Pohlkamp). One one night stand later, Lila is pregnant and moving into Mark’s surprisingly large house. (It’s a David DeCoteau film. All of the houses are surprisingly large.) Mark’s ex-wife, Julia (Jamie Bernadette), shows up and is surprisingly helpful. Meanwhile, it seems like everyone who questions Mark’s motives either disappears or is discovered dead. Is it all a coincidence or should Lila be worried?
Oh, you just have to love the Wrong films. A lot has changed over the past few years and Lifetime’s programming and movies have changed as well. Whether they’ve changed for the better or for the worse depends on how you look at things and what you prioritize. For someone like me, who detests change and wishes that time could be frozen for just a few years or so, it can be difficult to accept that it’s not the 2010s anymore. But the Wrong films have remained consistent for ten years. David DeCoteau directs. Handsome men of a certain age are not to be trusted. Everyone lives in a big house that there’s no way they would be able to afford in real life. The melodrama is embraced. The violence is often bloodless. The main character is usually a woman who really should know better. Vivica A. Fox plays the no-nonsense authority figure who, in most cases, says the film’s title.
It’s impossible to overstate the importance of Vivica A. Fox to these films. Along with serving as an executive producer, she also serves as the voice of reason. That she is usually as frustrated with the characters as the viewers is a very important thing. Watching these films, it’s easy to wish that you could step into Vivica’s stylish and expensive shoes and say, “Girl, looks like you hired The Wrong Landscaper.” Or, “Girl, looks you paid The Wrong Bill. The lights are going to be off for a while.” The secret is the way that Vivica delivers the line. When Vivica says that someone was “the wrong whatever,” she leaves with you with little doubt that there’s no point in arguing. Vivica knows wrong when she sees it and you don’t.
As for 2026’s The Wrong Baby Daddy, it has one of the best titles but it’s also actually a bit mild when compared to some of the other Wrong films. It goes through the motions without ever going as gloriously over-the-top as some of the other installments in the series. That said, it’s still a fun movie. At this point, the familiarity of the plot is kind of the point. The Wrong films are comfort food for the soul. It doesn’t matter how bad of a day you’ve had or how negatives the news may be. If hearing Vivica A. Fox call someone “the wrong baby daddy” doesn’t bring some light to your life, you have no soul.
“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:
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:
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:
Anything new from Quentin Tarantino is a big deal at my house. When you consider that it’s been over six years since the auteur released his most recent film, ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD (2019), I was understandably excited when I saw that the full “extended cut” version of the KILL BILL films, dubbed “The Whole Bloody Affair” was being released to theaters. Then, after seeing the trailer, I became really curious about the new scenes that were added, as well as the different presentations of the previous material. When I originally watched the separate volumes at the movie theater in 2003 and 2004, I enjoyed the first movie slightly more than the second based on the fact that it had more action. Now, I wanted to see how the two volumes flowed as one single film. My wife was working this weekend, so I had some time on my hands and decided to spend about four hours of that time watching KILL BILL: THE WHOLE BLOODY AFFAIR.
First, a quick summary of the film… on the eve of her wedding, a pregnant bride-to-be (Uma Thurman) and her entire wedding party is gunned down by the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, commanded by her former lover, Bill (David Carradine). Somehow surviving the rehearsal massacre, the Bride, who was once a member of the same assassination squad, sets her sights for revenge on each of the members, beginning with O’Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), and then moving on to Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox), Budd (Michael Madsen), Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah), and finally Bill himself. It’s a simple premise, but Tarantino uses that premise as a springboard to share his love of kung fu movies, samurai cinema, spaghetti westerns and grind house fare and create something truly special. I loved the KILL BILL films when they were originally released, and the four hours seemed to go by very quickly today as I had a blast watching this definitive version with a relatively full theater of fans.
After watching KILL BILL: THE WHOLE BLOODY AFFAIR, my first thought is that it wouldn’t be that different if the theater just showed Volume One, had a 15-minute intermission, and then showed Volume Two. This isn’t putting down the new version in any way, but there are not a large number of changes that enhance the overall quality of the film itself, and screening the original volumes back-to-back would provide the context for the “big picture” of the story that was lacking when the movies were released in the separate years of 2003 and 2004. With that said, watching the film in this new version was a lot of fun for me, and it should become the norm moving forward as it is truly Tarantino’s vision. It does flow better, mainly by eliminating the unnecessary, late cliffhanger reveal of the daughter in Volume One, as well as the Bride’s “direct to the camera” update at the beginning of Volume Two.
For those who want to go see this new version, I did want to point out the significant differences I noticed while viewing KILL BILL: THE WHOLE BLOODY AFFAIR. The first sequence where I noticed obvious additions to the film occurred in the anime sequence that introduces the background of O’Ren Ishii. This extended version adds additional footage of the Yakuza assassin Pretty Riki to the sequence, and once O’Ren is a slightly older schoolgirl, we get to see her execute a plan of vengeance against him. I would guess somewhere between five and ten minutes of action was added to the sequence. I enjoyed it in Volume One, and I also enjoyed the extended anime sequence in this new version. Does the sequence really add to the overall quality of the film, though? Even though I enjoyed the new material and am glad it was added, I would say no. The next significant difference I noticed with this version concerns the addition of color to the fight sequence between the Bride and the crazy 88’s in the House of Blue Leaves, as compared to the sequence in Volume One that was shown largely in black and white. As a person who doesn’t enjoy a lot of gore in my movies, it never bothered me that the scene switched from color to black and white once the limbs and heads started getting lopped off. With that said, it was kind of fun watching all those limbs hacked off in glorious color this time around. Finally, there is a post-credits animated sequence called “The Lost Chapter: Yuki’s Revenge” where Gogo Yubari’s twin sister tries to get revenge on the Bride. It lasts about ten minutes or so, but honestly, it didn’t add much to the overall experience for me, and I doubt I’ll ever watch it again. As a completist though, I am glad that I stuck around and watched it. These are the only big changes I noticed while watching THE WHOLE BLOODY AFFAIR. I’m sure there had to be some more changes, but I don’t think they were significant.
I did want to share some final thoughts I had while watching KILL BILL: THE WHOLE BLOODY AFFAIR this afternoon. I noticed on the opening title card that the movie is dedicated to the great Japanese director Kinji Fukasaku, and you can definitely see his influence all over this film. It also affected me more watching Michael Madsen’s excellent performance as Bill’s brother Budd. Tarantino just knows how to get the best out of Madsen, and considering that he passed away a few months ago, I just really appreciated his work while watching the film. I also enjoyed the multiple shoutouts to my movie hero Charles Bronson in the film. First, there’s a MR. MAJESTYK poster hanging on the wall in Budd’s trailer that is featured often throughout the various shenanigans and fights that take place in the trailer. Second, Charles Bronson passed away in 2003, the year that Volume One of KILL BILL was released. In the final credits of the film, Bronson receives an RIP credit. I’ve always loved the fact that Tarantino loves Charles Bronson, and that’s on full display in KILL BILL: THE WHOLE BLOODY AFFAIR. I would have given anything if Bronson had been in better health as Tarantino was coming into his own as a filmmaker. I have no doubt that he would have been offered a chance to appear in one of the director’s films.
At the end of the day, I had a great time watching KILL BILL: THE WHOLE BLOODY AFFAIR. The four hours flew by, and I truly appreciated seeing Tarantino’s full vision realized on screen. While I do think this should be the definitive version moving forward, I loved the KILL BILL films before today. THE WHOLE BLOODY AFFAIR improves the overall flow of the film and adds some fun new stuff, but my love for the film didn’t really change that much today… it just runs a tad bit deeper.
In 2014’s So This Is Christmas, Eric Roberts and Vivica A. Fox play a married couple!
That’s really not the plot of the film but it is probably the main reason why most people will watch it. Roberts and Fox have been frequent co-stars over the past few years, thanks to the “Wrong” films on Lifetime. In this film, we get to see them as a couple and, while they don’t exactly have the greatest romantic chemistry, we do get to watch as the sing a duet of Mary, Did You Know?
Both Eric Roberts and Vivica A. Fox get to do more actual acting than they usually do whenever they appear in low budget films like this one. Roberts is the father of Ashley (Lexi Ainsworth), an alcoholic teenager who leaves the house in sparkly booty shorts and who has a best friend who is supposed to be in high school but who appears to be about 40 years old. Fox is the mother of Jason (Titus Mankin, Jr.), who has a pregnant girlfriend and a growing cocaine addiction….
That may sound like some fairly heavy stuff for a Christmas movie. What’s interesting is that the film still largely takes a Hallmark approach, even while the characters are getting drunk, cursing, and nearly getting killed as a result. Ashley starts to change her ways when a groundskeeper named Mac (Bryan Massey) recruits her to help direct the Christmas show at the local shelter. Jason learns an important lesson after his girlfriend is put in a coma as a result of his own stupid decisions….
It’s kind of an unpleasant film, to be honest. Scenes of Ashley earnestly working on the play are mixed with smokey scenes of drug dealers threatening to kill everyone. It’s a mishmash of styles that doesn’t come together and, at nearly two hours, the film drags considerably.
That said …. Eric Roberts and Vivica A. Fox! Singing!
Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:
To answer my own question, “I am!” I was checking my local movie theater listings for this weekend and came across the showtimes for the release of KILL BILL: THE WHOLE BLOODY AFFAIR, and I must admit I’m pretty excited about it. My wife is working this weekend so I have all Sunday to myself, and watching this Quentin Tarantino classic in a whole new way sounds like a lot of fun.
Check out the trailer below, and if you’re in the Little Rock area, I just may see you there!
Hi, everyone! Tonight, on twitter, I will be hosting one of my favorite films for #MondayMania! Join us for The Wrong Tutor, starring Vivica A. Fox!
You can find the movie on Prime and then you can join us on twitter at 9 pm central time! (That’s 10 pm for you folks on the East Coast.) See you then!
In 1989, having already won an Oscar for recreating his Vietnam experiences in Platoon, director Oliver Stone returned to the war with Born On The Fourth Of July.
Based on the memoir of anti-war activist Ron Kovic, Born on the Fourth of July stars Tom Cruise as Kovic. When we first meet Kovic, he’s growing up on Long Island in the 50s and 60s. He’s a clean-cut kid from a nice family. He’s on the school wrestling team and he’s got a lot of friends. When he was just 15, he heard John F. Kennedy telling people to ask what they can do for their country and he was inspired. He decided he wanted to join the Marines, despite the fact that his father (Raymond J. Barry) was still haunted by the combat that he saw in World War II. (In one of the film’s better scenes, a young Kovic notices that the elderly veterans marching in the Independence Day parade still flinch whenever they hear a firecracker.) He enlists in the Marines after listening to a patriotic speech from a recruiter (played by Tom Berenger). Ron runs through the rain to attend his prom and has one dance with Donna (Kyra Sedgwick), on whom he’s always had a crush. There’s nothing subtle about the way that Stone portrays Kovic’s childhood. In fact, one might argue that it’s a bit too idealized. But Stone knows what he’s doing. The wholesomenss of Kovic’s childhood leaves neither him nor the viewer prepared for what’s going to happen in Vietnam.
Vietnam turns out not to be the grand and patriotic adventure that Kovic thought it would be. After Sgt. Kovic accidentally shoots one of his own men in a firefight, he is ordered to keep quiet about the incident. After he is wounded and paralyzed in another firefight, Kovic ends up in a Hellish VA hospital, surrounded by men who will never fully recover from their mental and physical wounds. Kovic is eventually returns home in wheelchair. The film then follows Kovic as he goes from defending the war in Vietnam to eventually turning against both the war and the government. At one point, he ends up with a group of disabled vets in Mexico and there’s a memorable scene where he and another paraplegic (Willem Dafoe) attempt to fight despite having fallen out of their chairs. Eventually, Kovic returns to America and turns his anger into activism.
There’s nothing subtle about Born On The Fourth Of July. It’s a loud and angry film and Oliver Stone directs with a heavy-hand. Like a lot of Stone’s films, it overwhelms the viewer on a first viewing and it’s only during subsequent viewings that one becomes aware of just how manipulative the film is. Tom Cruise gives a good performance as Ron Kovic but his transformation into a long-haired, profane drunk still feels as if it happens a bit too abruptly. A good deal of the film centers on Kovic’s guilt about accidentally killing one of his men but the scene where he goes to the soldier’s family and asks them for forgiveness didn’t quite work for me. If anything, Kovic came across as being rather self-centered as he robs the man’s mother and father of the belief that their son had at least died heroically in combat as opposed to having been shot by his own sergeant. Did Kovic’s need to absolve himself really give him the right to cause this family more pain? Born on the Fourth Of July is an effective work of agitprop. On the first viewing, you’ll want to join Kovic in denouncing the military and demanding peace. On the second viewing, you’ll still sympathize with Kovic while also realizing that he really owes both his mother and father an apology for taking out his anger on them. By the third viewing, you’ll be kind of like, “Wow, I feel bad for this guy but he’s still kind of a jerk.” That said, when it comes to making an effective political film, Adam McKay could definitely take some lessons from Oliver Stone. Born On The Fourth of July is at its best when it simply captures the feeling of living in turmoil and discovering that the world is not as simple a place as you once believed. As idealized as the film’s presentation of Kovic’s childhood may be, anyone who has ever felt nostalgia for an earlier and simpler world will be able to relate.
Oliver Stone won his second Best Director Oscar for Born On The Fourth Of July. The film itself lost Best Picture to far more genteel version of the past, Driving Miss Daisy.
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:
Through the Shattered Lens 