Don't Talk to Strangers (1994)

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Don't Talk to Strangers has everything in it you wouldn't expect to see. The story is basic enough; a mother divorces her controlling alcoholic husband and meets a new man, but when her son goes missing in a new town, both her new husband and ex-lover get together to hunt down the kidnappers. There's a strangely hilarious "veggieburger" scene. There's a fight where a lawyer named Huddleston gets attacked by the controlling ex-husband (I've never heard the name Huddleston before). There's a mom with some crazy driving skills. And there's a stereotypical fat county sheriff. Holy cow, why aren't movies today like this one? Well, another interesting thing is the appearances of two actors both in popular 1990's television shows: Dave "Squatch" Ward (Ned Bell from Disney's So Weird) plays the minor but distinctive role of a character named Tiny. A younger William B. Davis (the Cigarette Smoking Man from The X-Files) plays the role of the unfortunate lawyer named Huddleston in the movie's intro scene.There isn't much else to say, although Don't Talk to Strangers seems to stand out from other movies in the same genres (Lifetime-type movies). It had decent soundtrack, good acting (although the blonde child with the bowl-cut, he was awful) and it manages to hold your interest 'till the end, not bad for a movie of its type, although I don't see it winning an award any time soon.

(There are Spoilers) Things aren't what you think that they are in "Don't Talk to Strangers" with a build up that keeps you guessing just who's trying to kidnap little Eric Bonner, Keegan Macintose, from his divorced mother Jane, Shanna Reed.It's when Jane got total custody of Eric that her ex-husband Robert Bonner, Terry O'Quinn, started stalking her day and night making Jane's life miserable. It's not that long after her divorce that Jane, and aerobic instructor, got romantically involved with one of her students the handsome and dashing health food addict Patrick Brody, Pierce Brosnan. In what seemed like a matter of day Partick not only made himself a permanent guest at Jane's home but got very friendly with Eric, who at first didn't like him, and had Jane fall in love and marry him!Robert a police detective realizing that his ex-wife Jane left him for another man started to check up on Patrick and started smelling a rat in his not so perfect past. Patrick spent time in prison for forgery and has been planning to marry Jane not because of love but because of Eric whom he has a great fondness for. A fondness that he had for Eric well before he found out where he lived and who his parents, Jane & Robert, were!The movie has both Jane & Patrick traveling to California and being stalked by Robert the entire way. It's not until almost half the film is over that we, and Jane, finally realize why Robert is so determined to keep Eric from being Patrick's step-son as well as keeping the real circumstances of Eric's birth from his wife Jane. It's the real reason that Robert started to drink heavily just after Eric was born which was one of the main reasons that he lost custody of him! Well acted movie that has a number of surprises in it that don't get out of hand and look ridicules in trying to shock its audience! The biggest surprise of all is the that it's able to stay on focus and still be believable even with the sudden turn of events in the films final five or so minutes.

This was decent film, not worth getting totally excited about, but still very much recommend. The problem is that if you haven't seen this film by now, you probably won't unless someone puts it out on DVD. It's been over 10 years since I saw this, and the photography was good enough to make want to see this again, this time on a widescreen DVD format.For a film that isn't well-known and stars an unknown actress (along with the known Pierce Brosnan), this was a well-acted, nicely-filmed movie. It movies well and has some nice twists to it, guaranteed to keep the first-time viewer interested. It will keep you guessing.Terry O'Quinn played the best role in here, in my opinion. Reed did a nice job of acting but I didn't care for her persona. Kudos to Richard Leiterman for his photography.What I didn't understand was the movie's "R" rating. There was very little profanity in here, very little blood and no nudity. What gives? It did read "R" on my VHS tape.

It's interesting to see what shape Pierce Brosnan's career was in before Bond arrived on the scene. In this "tense" thriller, Pierce Brosnan plays the gentle Patrick, who works leading ghetto kids on "confidence courses". He romances a woman, who has a bog-standard mop-top mid-90s kid called Eric. The woman's drunken ex-husband soon arrives on the scene and begins to mess with Pierce.At one stage Pierce is innocently making "vegeburgers". The husband enters. Pierce resumes making vegeburgers. The husband then assaults Pierce. Little chunks of half-eaten vegeburger call fall from Pierce's mouth. The fight abruptly ends without showing the outcome. This is as good as the film gets.