The Stranger (2010)

Directed by: Robert Lieberman | 90 minutes | action, thriller | Actors: Steve Austin, Erica Cerra, Adam Beach, Ron Lea, Viv Leacock, Jason Schombing, Stephen Dimopoulos, Dalila Bela, Anthony Harrison, Andrew Wheeler, Samantha Page, G. Michael Gray, Timothy Paul Perez, Adrien Dorval, Geoff Gustafson, John Tench, Alex Vishniakoff, Andrew Kavadas, Karly Warkentin, Calista Bashuk

‘The Stranger’ is the third film for former wrestling great Steve Austin in which he plays a leading role, having previously started his acting career with ‘The Condemned’ (2005) and ‘Damage’ (2009). After ‘The Stranger’, which already appeared in America and Canada in 2010, Steve Austin has not stopped and his resume has since been expanded with quite a few (action) films. In ‘The Stranger’ Austin takes on the role of a person on the run who is not mentioned by name in the film. With the words ‘Our guy is back’ at the beginning of the film, after a rather strange opening scene in which we see a wild chase taking place in a dark alley, we are told that someone has apparently returned. It soon becomes clear that this person has been wanted by the CIA for a long time because he would have more information about a secret investigation. However, the wanted person suffers from amnesia and is unaware that he is a wanted person, and he is not only wanted by the CIA.

The suspect (played by Steve Austin as said) flees and then ‘The Stranger’ presents us with a very simplistic thriller that actually seems to lack all the ingredients for an interesting film. Steve Austin has continuous flashbacks of events before he lost his memory. However, director Robert Lieberman seems to have made a sport of portraying these flashbacks as often as possible. Especially towards the end ‘The Stranger’ drowns in the many flashbacks, which are also portrayed in an extremely disturbing way, which makes it not pleasant to watch. After Steve Austin flees, he also comes into contact with the Russian mafia and ends up in even deeper trouble. The only one who wants to help him is Grace (Erica Cerra), his former therapist, whom he knows from the period when he was still being treated for his amnesia.

As ‘The Stranger’ progresses, it becomes clear that little can be expected from the story. The behavior of the characters also raises eyebrows and none of these extremely superficial characters make a nice contribution to the film. The dialogues are short, the twists in the story not surprising and the acting is not too convincing either. ‘The Stranger’ experiences the only highlights during the (slightly too sparse) moments in which there is fighting. Steve Austin holds his own, although it’s going too far to say that the action gets really intense, let alone that it can ultimately help the film to pass. Of the many simple action movies Steve Austin has appeared in lately, ‘The Stranger’ is really one of the lesser ones.