Shadow Men
USA 1998. Director: Timothy Bond
Cast: Eric Roberts, Sherilyn Fenn, Dean Stockwell, Andrew Prine

Eric Roberts might have fallen a long way since his days of glory, but he still manage to give compelling performances from time to time. So it's a shame to see him doing these cheap movies. Here he's really going through his motions with minimum of effort, in what is essentially an attempt at cashing in on Men in Black and, obviously, the X-Files phenomenon. On their way home from vacation Roberts (in beard) and wife (Sherilyn Fenn) has an extraterrestial encounter. When they awaken from their experience they are soon visited by the mythic men in black (all looking like Dan Aykroyd in Blues Brothers) who tells them to forget all about it. Obviously they can't let it go and begins to investigate the truth behind their encounter. Well, hardly original. And not too exciting. The only thing scary with the film is Sherilyn Fenn's performance. I know she isn't the world's greatest actress but this is so bad it hurts. It's only really when Dean Stockwell enters the movie that Eric Roberts gets interested in his part and their scenes together at least resembles some kind of acting. But by then the movie has gone so far into self-parody that it doesn't help. The ending shoot-out plays like Night of the Living Dead, with all the MIB guys hanging on the doors and windows drooling stuff. If the movie had held that tone from the beginning it might have passed as camp, now it's only pointless beyond belief.