|
|
 |
The Stranger
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Anchor Bay Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Andreas Petersen (6th June 2010). |
|
The Film
 For the longest time, I’ve prided myself in my ability to sit down and watch anything. No matter how terrible a movie was, I would be able to watch it uninterrupted without skipping ahead or just stopping the film. Over the past month there have been two main contributers to the erosion of this ability. The first is streaming Netflix. The second is crappy “action” movies starring WWE wrestlers. "The Stranger," starring Steve Austin is the newest addition to my collection of crap, and I feel like the dam is about to burst. "The Stranger" follows the titular character (Steve Austin), a man who has no memory of his real life, but only holds onto made-up lives he has created. One day he’s a smuggler, then the next he’s a dock worker. All the while his former doctor and psychologist (Erica Cerra) as she follows a path of bodies behind her former patient. Also, there is this corrupt guy (Adam Beach) for whatever reason hates the stranger. This is what I’m talking about. I’m not the kind of person who just glazes over a movie. I always do my best to pay attention, not matter how hard it is. I always believed that if someone took the time to make a movie, it is worth watching. However, at the end of "The Stranger" I was having a hard time piecing together what shreds of plot were offered. In the end I just felt sort of blank. The movie is just too vanilla. You have the anti-hero who kills people, but it’s OK because they are corrupt. You have the attractive doctor. You have the corrupt FBI agent. The dialogue is dull as dishwater and the action, while superior to films like "Wrong Side of Town" (2010), leaves much to be desired. This is all strung together with terrible camera work and terrible camera quality (this film looks as though it were shot on a consumer-grade home video camera). I just feel like the movie took no effort to conceive nor execute, and that makes it hard for me to give any sort of rat’s ass about it. It’s funny how a little over half a year I was so enthusiastic about the idea of professional wrestlers acting, and now the very notion just makes my head hurt. With the exception of Dwayne Johnson, I have yet to see a successful leap into film from the WWE. The same problem plagues every WWE film I have seen to date, and it is thus: What makes the WWE fun is never implemented in these films. Take the idea behind the heel and the face and apply it. The bad guys are never bad enough, and the good guys are never good enough. These movies try too hard to be “real” and I think they should just embrace what they actually are. I hate to sound like a broken record, but I don’t care. I still feel like there is a good WWE movie out there yet to be made. The film is fun, doesn’t take itself seriously, and captures what makes the WWE appealing to a guy like me. "The Stranger" is the furthest thing from what this movie will be. I’ll still be here waiting. Also, the video took a jab at the Utah Jazz, so this movie can burn in hell for all I care.
Video
The film is presented in 1.78:1 high definition 1080p 24/fps picture mastered using VC-1 compression, and like the film itself, there isn’t much to boast here. Most of the night scenes in the film is sprinkled with noise and grain, while the daytime scenes are semi-clear. The biggest problem though is that since the film was shot with such lousy cameras, there are numerous instances of ghosting or trailing, and it takes you right out of a movie that I was already struggling to hold on to.
Audio
The film’s one mediocre (aka its strongest) aspect may be it’s English PCM uncompressed 5.1 soundtrack. I’m not saying it has the complexity of sound design that "WALL•E" (2008) had, but for how crappy this movie is, the audio stood out. The action scenes nearly felt legit because they were accompanied by a decent mix of sound effects, and all the while I could hear the dialogue clearly, even in scenes accompanied by a terrible public-domain-sounding rock song. The movement worked well, and was definitely the crown achievement of this mess. Optional subtitles are in included in English for the hearing impaired and Spanish.
Extras
"The Stranger" doesn’t offer much in the way of extras, serving a short making-of featurette, a theatrical trailer and a few bonus trailers, all of which are discussed below. First up is "The Stranger: Behind-the-Scenes" featurette, which runs for 5 minutes and 55 seconds. There are moments in this making-of that are legitimately interesting to watch. We get to see Rob Liberman direct the film, and there is one segment where a scene plays out with a picture-in-picture of the behind the camera footage in the corner. However, there are parts where Liberman talks himself up, saying he got this gig because the producers wanted “someone who could make interesting cinema on a budget.” I have never heard the term “cinema” used so loosely. Next up is a theatrical trailer for the film, which runs for 1 minute and 45 seconds, along with bonus trailers for: - "Brooklyn’s Finest" which runs for 2 minutes and 33 seconds. - "Frozen" which runs for 1 minute and 52 seconds. - "Lies and Delusions" which runs for 1 minute and 43 seconds. - "Streets of Blood" which runs for 2 minutes and 3 seconds. - "UFC on DVD" promo which runs for 33 seconds.
Overall
|
|||||
|