Restraining Order (1999)
Robert Woodfield is a criminal defense attorney, and he has defended a lot of criminals, many of whom are guilty, but has maintained that everyone deserves a competent defense, which he provides whether they are guilty or not. Currently he is defending Martin Ritter, a killer, whom he gets off. Later he has dinner with a friend, and his friend tells him that he needs to talk to him about something important. He is about to leave when some masked men go to his friend and kill him, when one of the men takes off his mask; it's Martin Ritter. Now being his lawyer, Robert can't say anything about what he saw. But that doesn't stop him from investigating what his dead friend was so worried about. It seems that he has stumbled onto something big, and instead of killing him they frame his wife for murder to get him to back off. But he doesn't and both his wife and him are now in danger. And still has no idea what's going on. Will he find out before they get to him?
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Simply A Masterpiece
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
One has to wonder if Eric Roberts is appearing in dreck like this just to pay the rent -something anyone can be forgiven for- or whether he consciously chooses these vehicles. If it's the latter, he needs to let someone else make these decisions and stop his once-promising career from spiraling ever more downward. The plot is so preposterous as to turn this film into near-parody. Fortunately, the warning signs are manifest early on, and most viewers will mercifully change the channel before wasting much time on this. It's a truism that it's as much work to make a bad movie as a good movie, and there's not much that Hollywood turns out that doesn't have decent technical standards. But none of the crew's efforts can transcend a stinker of a story.
I have used IMDb countless times to query information on movies, stars and reviews. I have never commented on a movie before. I decided to register on IMDb and comment on this movie because I believe it is the worst movie I have ever seen!The plot is very poor as is the acting - in all roles! Mr Roberts seems obsessed with getting his shoulder length hair looking 'just right', rather than lending his poor character any semblance of reality.The beautiful actress that plays Eric's wife (Tatjana) would be better off concentrating on her supermodel career and giving acting a miss if this is the best she can do.Dean Stockwell's portrayal of the arch villain is comical and better suited to a comedy movie.The guy that plays the investigative journalist is another unbelievably hollow role - he looks like he would be better off selling newspapers than writing them!Even editing errors jump out all over this movie, and you don't need to pause and rewind it to find them - they are that obvious (bodies moving from shot to shot and they're supposed to be dead or at least unconscious!)This movie is almost worth renting for the laughs, only it is supposed to be a drama.I can't work out whether this movie has been made as some kind of tax dodge and is meant to return a commercial loss, because I have never seen anything quite so bad.Do yourself a favour and give it a wide berth on the video store shelf.I gave it 1 out of 10 (and that was only because IMDb doesn't permit a score of '0' which would be more appropriate!).
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...
This is a lawyer/mob flick, and the only name among the main players is Eric Roberts, who is rather sappy. It's like a TV movie, has a pretty good plot, but the acting is not great. Not much suspense, sort of like Random Encounter in quality. Not really worth the rental bucks. -Bob