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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i must have seen a different film!!
A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.
It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.
It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film
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!
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!).
Eric Roberts has fast become one of my favorite actors. Not only is he talented but he is versatile. I recently saw him in "Race Against Time" in which he played somewhat of a dramatic role. Ever since I saw Roberts name attached to "Restraining Order" I wanted to see this movie because I heard of his reputation of being the best action star and I knew I was in for a real treat. What I got out of it by the end was a lot more than I was hoping for from him. He proved he has what it takes to become better than best. In "Restraining Order" he portrays a lawyer who witnesses a murder of a close friend and sees the killer. However, there is nothing he can do. He soon learns that evidence indicates that his wife may be involved. What follows is an awesome movie that combines action with drama.Dean Stockwell is up to usual tricks as he lends his support to Roberts... or does he? Anyway you cut it the whole cast works really with one another to put together a movie that is very very good.With each scene that came and went, I got more and more interested in how Roberts was going to take down the crooks. "Restraining Order" was a movie that got me involved and I'm glad it did because it lived up to my expectations.
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