The Stranger (2010) Steve Austin, Erica Cerra, Adam Beach, Ron Lea, Viv Leacock, Jason Schombing Movie Review

The Stranger (2010)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Steve Austin and Erica Cerra in The Stranger (2010)

A Forgettable Experience

FBI agent Mason Reese (Adam Beach) has been working with psychiatrist Grace Bishop (Erica Cerra) to try and track down a man (Steve Austin) who Grace has treated on and off for a while. According to Mason the man is wanted in connection with a series of crimes whilst Grace is concerned for him as he has a form of amnesia which means even events just 24 hours can escape him, leading to him taking up various names and jobs as he ends up travelling around. But it seems this mysterious man might hold crucial information connecting various gangs to a group within the FBI which means his life is in danger.

"The Stranger" was the second movie in a space of days which I watched which appeared to go out of its way to be disjointed, giving us scenes which don't follow a linear narrative whilst also throwing in some abrupt flash backs in to the mix. And of course the whole point of this is to try and create a thick layer of mystery as we try to make sense of who Steve Austin is playing whilst also trying to work out what it is he knows which puts him in danger. There is no denying that it is messy and makes "The Stranger" an incredibly difficult movie to get in to especially when a lot of people watching because of it being a Steve Austin movie might not be too concerned with plot complexity. Although in fairness it does do a nice job of leading us down a certain path when it comes to one of the main characters and whether we think they are good or bad.

Now I did say that "The Stranger" is a Steve Austin movie and it is a movie which every now and then sees him take down a few bad guys, often taking on a group as a one man wrecking ball. But the action is far from spectacular and disappointingly it has that feel of being hacked about in the editing room and put together in a way which makes a cut ever second or so. Truth be told the action is simply too generic as are the characters which is a combination which does little to make the movie come to life.

What this all boils down to is that "The Stranger" rather than being an entertaining, action packed Steve Austin movie ended up a messy one with a disjointed narrative, generic characters and sadly generic action.


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