Restraining Order

The plot of "Restraining Order" is very straight forward, and in a peculiar way reminds me of any number of B grade westerns. It's easy to tell the good guys from the bad guys. There is a land grab motive being exploited by the mafia, instead of the railroad barons. There are plenty of frame ups, and of course Eric Roberts gets to single handed take the law in his own hands and save the day. The only thing missing is his horse. "Restraining Order" is no better or worse than a lot of other Eric Roberts low budget films. It has plenty of action and should please his fans. ........................................................ - MERK

Stiff acting and sappy acting. Slow story...action too canned. Really weak premise. Almost insults your intelligence. Right at the beginning the killer exposes himself so the lawyer can identify him and then the rest of the movie the killer spends trying to frame people, and force the attorney not to be a witness...really stupid.

The frame up seems far fetched and it would seem to be too unbelievable in real life that anyone would believe it. The mob must have had the whole town on the payroll. There'd be no reason for any of the movie if the whole premise wasn't so stupid. Boring...waste of time. Don't even bother to rent this yawner. However, if you waste your time on this...watch the facial expressions of the extras and minor characters when they are breifly shown...strange eye movements, wierd stiff facial expressions. It's almost as though they look bored, out of place, or like they are lifeless and trying to stay awake.

I really wanted to like this movie but it was so boring that not even my favorite actor of all time can't save it! It's really nothing to talk about but a crappy plot and very unrealalistic characters. I mean it was that bad. Just try to rent something else. Eric Roberts is still a great actor but rent other choices from Eric's video library. Out of 4 stars I give it 1 star. Eric Roberts RULES! though...

RO is one of those movies which entertained much more than I thought it would. A great dramatic situation thriller which pitts hot show defendant Roberts, up against some real scum. When I saw this movie was directed by the same guy who made A Murder Of Crows, which I haven't seen, but have seen the trailer, funnily enough when watching this, I thought a lot about that movie, running much similar lines to this. RO is pacy and engaging, and Roberts is always an actor attention grabber. His life has become a nightmare after witnessing up close and personal, a client/mobster he has just got off, a James Russo looking guy, slay a aging friend, who owes gambling debts. As if to really reiterate to Roberts, a few times, the consequences of turning him in, and really making himself heard, Roberts fights back, and things really become personal. This is a well formulated thriller with good performances. A real slick thriller surprise moment near the end, I much appreciated, RO is wonderful thriller entertainment, which warrants unrestrained viewing.

I started planning to give this absurd film a 4. As it ground on and got steadily sillier and more violent, I downgraded to 3 and ultimately 2. If it had lasted another ten minutes, we would have been into negative territory! The plot is simplistic and absurd, the acting is at best adequate and hey gang... theres a fist fight on and under the Santa Monica pier. (How often has that been done before? Not for two months, you say?) There are any number of impossible howlers. The worst is the lone rural mail box on the lawn in an urban neighbourhood of fancy homes. Nobody else on the street has one. But then we did need an excuse for the innocent wife to go out to the curb so the bad guys could drive by and... Well, you know the plot. It's all about the mob whacking people. And thats what should be done to this movie. Whack it!