TripFall (2000)

Lack of good storyline.

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

"Corporate executive Tom Williams (John Ritter) and his beautiful wife Gina (Rachel Hunter) take a much needed family vacation to sunny California. Unfortunately, they end up in the sights of Eddie (Eric Roberts), a career criminal, and his violent crew of kidnappers looking for their next mark. The crooks earn Tom's trust, get his guard down, and snatch Gina and their children. If Tom ever wants to see his family again, he must pay Eddie $1.2 million, his entire net worth. With only one day to comply and no one to turn to for help, Tom is in a race against time, with his family's lives at stake," according to the DVD sleeve.That is an excellent description of the "Tripfall" plot, but doesn't give you any idea about how painful it is to watch this "family in peril" movie. It could be the worst to feature two fairly well-known names - those being Eric Roberts and John Ritter. They are so mismatched, it's pathetic. If Mr. Ritter were in shape, they could have exchanged roles; then, the actors might have made it more interesting. For the record, most others in the cast are better; though, admittedly, that's not difficult to say. For skin trackers, Katy Boyer wears a barely there pink bikini in extreme close-up, and the topless bar scene occurs early.** Tripfall (6/27/00) Serge Rodnunsky ~ Eric Roberts, John Ritter, Rachel Hunter, Katy Boyer

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 fetish 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.

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.

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.