TripFall (2000)

"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

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

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

Two very bad guys and a gal hold a family for $1.2 million to be withdrawn from a bank.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?"