Tripfall

Ridiculous implausible heist/ransom caper that I still found some enjoyment from thanks, in no small part, due to the late great John Ritter's sheer charisma. Even in a film as stunted and borderline absurd as this one was, his likability still shines through, here as normal everyman Tom. Tom goes on vacation with his family hoping to reignite the spark of his dying marriage, if for the kids sake if nothing else. However that gets put on the back-burner when he and his family get abducted by a trio of baddies headed by Eric Roberts in dreads. What follows is entertaining enough ridiculousness. By the by, and totally unrelated, but I'm starting to do a six-degrees type spin on what films I review so the next one will also star Mr. Roberts

Two very bad guys and a gal hold a family for $1.2 million to be withdrawn from a bank. Father (Ritter) has several chances to contact cops, doesn't, decides to be a hero by himself. He makes several decisions about saving his family that no reasonable person would make. The others watching with me were moaning and saying, "How can he be so stupid?"

Eric Roberts is in full psychopath mode, yet strangely there is only a couple trickles of blood. He and his accomplices seem to be driving around a beach resort for almost the entire film. John Ritter is good in the first part of the movie, but once the family is snatched, he really struggles with the underdeveloped script. Rachel Hunter as his wife doesn't have much to do except look scared. The two kids are just plain annoying. The ending is too convenient, and not to be believed, with Ritter suddenly morphing into the hero type. Eric Robert's performance is worth a look, but do not expect to be enthralled with the overly simplistic plot, and numerous lapses in logic. - MERK

**SPOILERS** Totally implausible kidnap thriller with Eric Roberts as Mister Crazy Eddie doing what he does best, playing a psycho killer, The late John Ritter, Tom Williams,as his victim together with his wife Gina, Rachel Hunter, and two kids Michael & Angela, Tyler Cole & Christina Ann Moore, are the one's being held by Eddie & friends for a ransom of 1.2 million dollars. Grabbing Tom after he was taken to this strip-joint on the boardwalk by Eddie & Franklin, Michael Raynon, who who together with Lonnie ,Katy Boyer, kidnapped the Williams family. Holding the Williams' hostage for 1.2 million dollars Mr. Eddie & Lonnie take the reluctant Tom to the local California branch of his bank back home in Ohio to get the cash by wire transaction. No one at the bank has the presences of mind to call the police to check why such a large transaction in cash is being ordered by Tom and even his lame excuse. Tom claims that he's into real estate and does this all the time to buy land on the spot at the local auction house is just a bit too off-the-wall. All that the bank has to do is check on Tom's past transactions and see that this is a first for him. There's this scene in the bank after Tom picks up the cash where the bank administrator is suspicious of what's happening and tells one of his aids to call the police to follow Tom in the streets and see what he does with the money. But later, like the very next scene and for the rest of the movie, there's not a cop car or cop around? We see the kidnapping trio murder a family at the start of the movie and later Eddie gleefully murderers a nature watcher that he kidnapped at the beach and a pizza delivery boy that he kidnapped at the motel, where he was holding the Williams' captive. All this on Eddies part just to show Tom how easy it is for him to murder someone. Yet for some strange reason he fails to kill the Williams even when Tom escapes from him and his cohorts and later beats him over the head with a sack full of bills to make his getaway! You start to realize that Mr. Eddie is more interested in murder then in money, he really gets a big kick out of it, but he gives Tom and his family all the leeway he could in not murdering them. The kidnap trio later fall into disarray when Franklin takes it on himself to deal with the on the run Tom for the money as Mr. Eddie is lost in the crowd looking for Tom after he got belted outside the bank by him. Getting back to Franklin's van Mr. Eddie plays along with him until he turns his back on him and then blasts away. With Tom putting the cash in garbage cans, $300,000.00 a can, in order to have his family released, one at a time. Tom finally meets up with the remaining kidnappers, Mr. Eddie & Lonnie as well as his hostage family. True to his character Mr. Eddie takes the remaining cash and instead of releasing Tom's family attempts to murder them, and him only to end up shooting himself to death. Lonnie now all alone without her Knight in shinning armor and afraid of being put behind bars for life put a gun to her head and pulls the trigger! what a happy ending. Tom battered and exhausted from his ordeal can now live to talk about it to anyone who would be crazy enough to believe him.

I am a huge fan of thriller movies, and this one was standard, but not great. Eric Roberts seems to always stick to his Low-Budget films, he could do so much better then that. Poor old John Ritter has his good and bad films, this was a good movie but the budget was far to low, which made it a bit less bearable, give it a go, see what you think. 5/10

I caught this movie on late night, I was working on my wife's computer and it was the only thing on. (famous last words) This movie was horrid! The only thing worse was 'Space Mutiny' which had been on the night before. I read here about Eric Robert's great performance....it was horrible! His entire performance reminded me of the title character from all the 'Ernest' movies. The only saving grace was John Ritter's performance, although he was straddled with an absolutely HORRIBLE plotline, where he did (or did not do) things that no sane human would. Everyone else in the movie was given so little to do or act as, it was almost pointless to watch unless the only other thing to watch is an hour long advert for nose hair trimmers. Run away from this movie.

How does this movie suck? Let me count the ways. 1. Eric Robert's hair is styled into 5 inch long dreadlocks. 2. Robert's also affects one of the most annoying Southern accents you'll ever hear. It's like a cross between Truman Capote and Sheriff Buford T. Justice from Smoky and The Bandit. 3. Every time Michael Raynor speaks, it sounds like he's swallowing a frog. 4. Pairing John Ritter and Rachel Hunter as a married couple is like an homage to all those sitcoms where the fat guy has an impossibly hot wife. 5. Ritter's character is supposed to be a petro-chemical engineer, but he must also be the World's Fastest Fatman. He's not only able to outrun men who weigh about 40 pounds less, he's actually able to run 15 feet faster than someone can squeeze the trigger on a gun. 6. There's a moment in the story that is physically impossible unless one of the characters has the power of teleportation (and no, this is not a science fiction story). 7. The "hot girl" in this story's criminal gang has to be pushing 40. She's nice enough to look at, but come on! 8. Roberts, Ritter and Raynor spend most of the movie wearing shirts that look like a salad threw up on them. 9. Rachel Hunter does NOT get naked. 10. The movie starts out by focusing on a normal family, then switches it's attention so thoroughly to a criminal gang that three members of the family have essentially no dialog at all for the last 35 minutes or so of the film. They're thrown in the back of a van with duct tape over their mouths and never heard from again. 11. Eric Robert's sunglasses are so prominent in his scenes they deserve their own mention in the closing credits. 12. In a scene in a strip club, we're shown two of the fakest-looking breasts you'll ever see. Seriously, it's like the woman has two flesh-colored Tupperware bowls glued to her rib cage. 13. When he's not wearing a shirt that looks like a salad threw up on it, Robert's character wears overalls. He's apparently a vicious killer who loves Osh-Kosh-B'gosh clothing. 14. This is probably the only dramatic "thriller" you'll ever watch that has a fart joke in it. 15. There are about 5 times in the story when the family-in-peril has to act like complete morons so they can't get away and save themselves. 16. All throughout the movie there are these terrible camera shots from a helicopter. They're shaky and too far away and just look awful. I guess the producers decided that since they hired the helicopter anyway, they were going to get their money's worth, no matter how bad the footage looked. 17. Writer/director Serge Rodunsky appears to have written this film to indulge his * for lobotomy by ice pick. 18. John Ritter spends most of the dramatic scenes acting less like a man whose family is threatened with horrible death and more like a guy worried the airline is going to lose his luggage. 19. Did I mention Rachel Hunter NEVER gets naked? If you're still interested, the basic plot of Tripfall is a family on vacation gets taken hostage by a gang that demands all their money of they'll kill the family. There's a whole bunch of poorly thought out twists and turns and a seemingly endless game of cat-and-mouse between the dad and the criminals at the end that is laugh out loud silly. The script feebly tries to give two of the gang members some inner conflict to deal with, but it's pretty lame. The one noteworthy thing about this film is the performance of Rachel Hunter. Even though she stays frustratingly clothed and is playing a character that's a fairly unlikable bitch, she does a pretty entertaining job. I'm not sure if that means Hunter is any good or not. Angie Everhart did some strikingly good work in the David Caruso bomb, Jade, and I'm not sure she's done a single bit of decent acting since then. Hunter does well enough her that I'd be interested in seeing her in another film. Hopefully, one that's good. Even more hopefully, one where she gets naked.

Are you ready for a sunny California setting? Made in the year 2000, the movie's mood is a happy one at the beginning; and how we love John Ritter. Many times he made us laugh and feel good. Here he pleases again in a drama playing a nice, normal, millionaire dad and husband. Rachel Hunter added a touch of class to the film with her delightful New Zealand accent and statuesque beauty. We found ourselves on the edge of our seats with excitement as the suspense started early on and never quit. Eric Roberts always wins when acting the bad boy; you will hate him and his small gang. We are glad we saw the DVD and recommend it for 16-Adult.

Great acting by Eric Roberts (and okay with John Ritter, too) but everybody else is forgettable. It's got some genuine terror moments and makes you think twice about giving out personal information to strangers on vacation. However, the ending didn't really work for me. It was all too convenient and made to make John Ritter look like a hero and the cops to look incompetent. I caught it on TV late night, and that's where it should stay.

source: Tripfall