The Stranger

THE STRANGER is one of the earlier straight-to-video thrillers that wrestler-turned-actor Steve Austin made during his career. It's a nasty little digital-looking production which lacks decent photography and has only a handful of half-hearted fight scenes to recommend it. It's below the quality of most of the other Austin movies I've seen, which tend to be mildly entertaining, average-quality pictures enlivened by decent fight scenes at least. Austin is once again a wronged man who has to go up against various corrupt and nefarious criminal types, but you'll be asleep long before the credits roll.

This picture was financed by 8 "executive producers" , and I doubt if they got their investment back ! Not to deny any other talent, this garbage masquerading as a 2010 film was written ( if that is the right word ) by none other than Timothy Scott Bogart (yes honest !) who also wrote stuff like "The I Inside" and "The Extreme Team" etc .. Yes. Do I need to say more ? Only this .. Humphrey's grandson is alive and doing well in Hollywood..

This was actually an okay movie, and Steve Austin (I guess we can't call him "Stone Cold" anymore) actually does a pretty good job. He plays an FBI agent who goes undercover, but has a traumatic event where he has a dis-associative personality disorder where he invents a new personality every few days after engaging in some act of mayhem and destruction. The movie has its silly points, where he's being chased by a SWAT team who apparently learned to shoot from the Imperial Stormtroopers of Star Wars. But once you get past the initial silliness, you have a pretty good mystery plot about who the bad guy really is, since the pretty Doctor lady doesn't know and Austin's character forgets everything every few days. Worth watching. Yeah. Austin is a pretty good actor as long as he plays that kind of character. The other actors, including Adam Beach from L&O:SVU, play their roles well and Erica whatshername is easy on the eyes.

One of the things that I have found a bit surprising,is that whilst pro- wrestling has had some fantastic documentaries made about the subject (Beyond the Mat and Wrestleing in Shadows being two great examples.)It still seems that when a pro-wrestler tries to enter the movie world with a starring role,that they are still not to surpass the great John Carpenter film They Live.With Steve Ausin-who is currently the most successful wrestler in history,due to his amazingly charismatic anti- authority street-punk character of the late 90s to early 2000s.Which,not only struck a chord with the wrestling crowd,but also the mainstream media. With having found Austins last straight-to-DVD movie,to be very good fun,and with having enjoyed the teaser trailer to the film,I was looking forward to seeing a gripping Death Wish style revenge film.Disappointingly,the story of the film is a very damp plot: The plot: A man who is unable to remember who he is,or any of his activates of the last few months,goes on the run from the FBI and what seems to be, some very angry Russian and Mexican gangster's,who are after him over a dodgy deal,that he cant remember ever happening! Unknowingly to the man,one of the FBI agents searching for him (who has met him a few months earlier)has some vital information,that can help him to remember his past.The only problem for both of them is that there are some people in the FBI,who,are going to do everything they can to make sure that they don't meet up.. View on the film: As I was watching the film,the main thing that stayed in my head was that,for a pretty low-budget film,Austin gives a surprising stunner of a performance.With a good screen presence,and doing well at showing someone who may not like to remember their forgotten past. Sadly the same can not be said for the very weak screenplay by Quinn Scott.Scott seems to really want to make this film into an enjoyable mix of the Bourne and Death Wish films,(though it has to be pointed out,that the director created the terrible open-ending)Though the main part of the film,seems to hold over the flashbacks showing the strangers past,and,whilst this type of plotting has been used very well in the last few years,to revel some very surprising things about the main characters,(from the video-game The Suffering to the epic TV series Lost.)the flashbacks in this film don't feel anywhere near as surprising as the film makers seem to think they are,and are actually rather predictable. Final view on the Film: A disappointingly written story,saved by a entertaining performance from Austin.

This movie wasn't too horrible, but I didn't love it. The action was okay, but didn't happen too much and the storyline reminded me a lot of The Bourne Identity. Stone Cold Steve Austin stars as a man who has no memory, and keeps being chased by the police, the FBI, the Russian Mob, and his doctor named Grace Bishop. He frequently loses his memory, and creates new personalities in order to protect himself. Throughout the film, we are given tiny flashbacks as to who this stranger was, and what caused him to lose his memory. He teams up with Grace and she tries to help him remember his past, and why the FBI want him. I would probably recommend THE STRANGER!!!

Steve Austin plays a man who cannot remember a thing, apart from how to fight and grunt a little dialogue and remember some numbers. We first meet the big man when he is disguised as Santa Claus and running away from a SWAT team. Why? because he's just saved a little girls life. Making sense so far? nope, it got me too. All the connotations and silly flashbacks indicate that Steve was in up to his neck with the bloke from Windtalkers, and didn't want to break the law. So his wife and kid blow up, and he loses his memory. It all leads to silly punch ups and Austin looking menacing at a few people every now and again. The film is too busy, and tries to be too clever for it's own good. it fails miserably and makes the whole thing too complicated, when it should be just a formulaic Bourne-lite action movie. Like the titular character, you'll soon forget this exists.

OK i own just about every DVD the wwe kicks out or that a wrestler stars in. for the most part they are OK or really good but id always say watchable, this however dear god. first of when you watch this movie you will be bored after the first ten minuets, then you will have a headache as the camera man was obviously the directors 10 year old son and had a.d.d and the characters including steve austins character are just forgettable. the plot is just none existent. all this was was some guy decide to to make a movie of a guy who hits people thats practically it. so if you are gonna watch this movie, well just don't seriously watch the trailer you will understand the plot for the entire movie and prob enjoy it more.

this movie has horrible of everything. horrible story, acting, cast, and action. this movie starts off with a guy that lost his memory and is chased by the FBI and everyone thinks what he saw he made up. they think he is crazy. but the FBI still wants him because he may know something about a mole in the mob. now we see that the fbi lied and he does know something. i got so confused.also the action. so he lost his memory but he still knows this martial art stuff. and you can barely follow the action. and then once the FBI finds him one agent and austin physciatrist go to a motel. they let him take a shower and somehow the largeness of austin he gets out of a small window. good job agent. then when the agent sees him walkin outside he points the gun at him from far away. austin and the agent keep movin forward. then as the agent is about to shoot the doctor hits the gun under the car. he doesn't run and go get austin instead he kneels down looking for the gun. and the somehow austin got it. hmm. go see the movies damage or expendables or hunt to kill with austin. not this

"The Stranger" is a routine, adequate action thriller that mostly works as a vehicle for wrestling star "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. Stone Cold plays the title role, a bad ass who keeps changing his identity and line of work as he travels cross country. The earnest psychiatrist who hopes to help him recover his true identity is Grace Bishop, played by Erica Serra. The other recurring character in his life is Mason Reese (Adam Beach), an FBI agent who also seems to know a whole lot. Stone Cold actually isn't the problem here. He has a strong screen presence, but also does not embarrass himself when it comes to acting. He gets to speak multiple languages, as well. The supporting actors - Ron Lea, Viv Leacock, and Jason Schombing as various Federal agents - are decent enough, with Beach an obvious standout. The movie can't be faulted in terms of pacing, but the story (by Quinn Scott) is patently predictable and pretty ridiculous. What makes "The Stranger" hard to watch much of the time is the overused technique of rapid fire editing and chaotic camera movement. You just wish the picture would stay still. The movie (mildly) amuses, and is instantly forgettable. Although set in the United States, it's all too clear that it was shot in Canada. Five out of 10.

Some action flick of sorts. FBI, automatic weapons, and a few explosions. The fight scenes are strangely wooden. The actor Steve Austin used to be in show wrestling (fake fighting) This shows in most action scenes where you expect Steve to go into Hulk position (hold invisible ball and shake your chin). Obviously he was hired because of his burly physique, not his martial skills. Looks like a B movie with a bigger budget. Adding: Obligatory sweaty torture scenes in slow motion. Short range shoot-out scenes with hundreds if bullets without any causalities. If you don't like it, stop watching half way. It doesn't get better.