Double Features starring Eric Roberts


How many minutes was Eric on the Screen?


Two tapes at a time, I'll let you know.

  • The Shadow Men & Restraining Order
  • Dear America & Quitters, Inc.
  • Options & Love is a Gun
  • Heaven's Prisoners & It's My Party
  • By the Sword & Best of the Best
  • Prophecy II & Descending Angel


    video The Shadow Men

    Eric is in the whole movie The Shadow Men. The Wilson family is being stalked by "men in black" who will stop at nothing to silence them. The men in black are alians from outer space and the Wilsons have only one friend (Dean Stockwell) who will help them. This is a slightly weird film but I always like the ones where something bizarre happens and a normal person's life is turned upside down. The suburbs in this film were really upscale. It made me feel even sorrier for the Wilson's because you could tell they weren't prepared for dealing with trouble. BTW, Eric has the beard in this one.

    video box Restraining Order

    Eric is in the whole movie Restraining Order. He and his wife are being stalked by "men in black" who will stop at nothing to silence them. This time the men in black are mob hitmen and their best friend (Dean Stockwell) betrays them.

    Eric plays Robert Walters, a lawyer who defends a guiltier-than-hell Mafia hitman and gets him off scott free. One of his points of defense was that his client couldn't be a Mafia hitman because he drives a 1975 Datsun B-210. I had one of those and I must admit that if I had been on the jury I would have voted "not guilty."

    Anyway, Eric witnesses the hitman murdering a nice old man and realizes that he has put a dangerous murderer back on the streets but, when he decides to rat, his wife is kidnapped. I would have found this part of the movie more frightening if I had liked his wife better. His wife was played by Tatyana Patitz who is too tall, blond and supper-modelly for me to get real fond of. Maybe it was the see-thru blouses or video taping their sex..... I felt a lot sorrier for his girl friend in Hitman's Run because she was so sweet and wholesome that she obviously didn't deserve to get mixed up with the mob. Perhaps if Tatyana had volunteered for "Meals on Wheels" or taken in foster children I would have liked her better. The fight scenes in this movie were pretty rough - Eric gets punched, kicked, bopped with a board, shot, dunked in a water fountain and pushed off the Santa Monica Pier! No beard in this one but his hair is kind of long for a lawyer.


    Dear America Letters Home from Viet Nam Well, he's not actually on the screen at all in this one. The film is sort of a documentary on the Viet Nam conflict showing film of soldiers with voice-overs of celebrities reading letters and music that was popular then. Eric reads about 3 letters or parts of letters. I'll have to listen to it again and make sure. There are other voices you'll recognize -- Robin Williams, one of the Baldwin brothers, Sean Penn, etc.

    cassette box Quitters, Inc.

    This is an audio book of a Stephen King short story so Eric Roberts is not on the screen here either, but this time it's his voice on the whole 60 minute tape doing all of the voices (EVEN THE GIRLS!). Stick your favorite photo of Eric to the front of your cassette player while you listen.


    Options

    I watched the whole movie without finding him. His name was in the closing credits so I couldn't figure out how I had missed him. I was just getting ready to rewind, because I intended to watch the movie as many times as it took to find him, and there he was. He was on screen for less than one minute after the closing credits! And, since about 1/2 of the sceen involved swinging on a vine (a la Tarzan) which was undoubtedly a stuntman, that leaves about 30 seconds of Eric Roberts. Fewer lines than in The Grave and even less time on screen than Cable Guy.

    Love is a Gun

    Eric really stars in this film. He's in the whole thing -- beginning to end -- 92 minutes. As an extra added bonus, not only is Eric in the whole movie, but Eric's wife, Eliza, also stars. Warning for the uninitiated: This movie is rated "R" but it could have been rated "TW" for "truely weird".


    Heaven's Prisoners Well, he's on the screen for a while. There's the scene with the cornrows near the beginning and there's the scene in the silky bathrobe near the end and there's a silly bar fight in between. Eric just wasn't on the screen enough. I didn't time it but Eric was on screen about 15 of the 133 minutes.

    In an interview, Eric said that this movie had a very realistic fight scene. He can't be referring to the fight in the bar, can he?? Oh, puleeze! In that fight, Eric hauls off and gives Alec Baldwin a punch that would fell a charging rhino but has no effect on A.B. and then Alec Baldwin pokes Eric Roberts with this sissy little rabbit punch that (only because it is in the script that Alec Baldwin wins) knocks Eric to the floor. That first punch probably would have ended a real fight.

    video box It's My Party

    I may be the only person on earth who thinks that this is a "food movie." Every time I see it I have to bake pastitsio. It's hard to eat while I'm crying but somehow I seem to manage. 109 minutes of Eric Roberts.


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