Customer Reviews

Never Talk to Strangers [VHS]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

NEVER TALK TO STRANGERS is what is commonly referred to as an "erotic thriller", although it's eroticism is skimpy and the thrills don't come too often. Rebecca DeMornay (Risky Business, Trip to Bountiful) plays a repressed psychiatrist who is evaluating alleged serial killer Harry Dean Stanton to see if he should stand trial for his accused crimes. Stanton claims he is a multiple personality disorder victim and therefore can plead innocent due to insanity. DeMornay has a chance encounter with sexy Antonio Banderas and starts into a relationship with him. This alienates her best friend Dennis Miller who has been carrying a torch for DeMornay for some time. DeMornay starts receiving strange things in her mail: dead flowers, her dead cat, etc., etc., and soon it seems DeMornay may be the victim herself of a dangerous stalker. Is it Banderas? Miller? or perhaps even her estranged father (Len Cariou). Once all the secrets are peeled away, things aren't quite what they seem. While definitely not in the league of truly suspenseful films, NEVER TALK TO STRANGERS offers a sharp performance from DeMornay and Cariou particularly, and Banderas is effectively smoldering. Astute viewers, however, will see the end coming a mile away.

Rebecca DeMornay plays a beautiful but serious(note the reading glasses) psychologist who has a mysterious background concerning the loss of her mother as a small child. Dennis Miller is the suspicious ex-boyfriend and neighbor. Antonio Banderas is the sexy guy she runs into while shopping and begins dating. Lots of disturbing things begin to happen to her and she suspscts someone is going to try to kill her. The ending was a surprise twist to me. There are some steamy scenes between her and Antonio which are worth the purchase of the DVD in my opinion. You can watch it in English, Spanish or Portuguese and it also has subtitles in Chinese, Korean and Thai. The DVD features full or widescreen format, trailers and chapter selection.

After watching this movie you will want to slap the actors silly and ask them-- what were they thinking when they hopped onto this sinking ship?

Never Talk to Strangers focuses on a court-appointed psychiatrist, Dr. Sarah Taylor (de Mornay) who-- in deference to that painfully overused cinema-shrink stereotype-- is thoroughly more whacked-out than any of her patients (if she actually *had* patients!). Taylor is evaluating an indicted serial rapist, Max Cheski (Harry Dean Stanton), with multiple personality disorder. Meanwhile she runs into a former cop, Tony (Antonio Banderas) with a pony tail, a wall of tattoos on his arm, and a blatant rip-off of the loft apartment in Fatal Attraction, who takes Sarah to his House o' Lovin' for some overwrought and mildly entertaining sex scenes. Sarah at the same time is confronting her creep father (Len Cariou) and her friendly neighbor (Dennis Miller) who has a thing for her and-- drumroll-- suddenly someone seems to be stalking her. Wilted flowers are sent to her; her house is broken into; an electric heater nearly kills her in the bathtub; and, not to be outdone by Fatal Attraction's dead bunny scene, some poor cat winds up as a pawn in a death threat in a disgustingly exploitative scene. Sarah hires a PI to check up on Tony but he only seems to become more enigmatic as the film stumbles along. So how does the mystery unravel? Who's doing the stalking? I won't tell because, well, you'll figure it out anyway after the past 20 minutes.

This has to rank as one of the top 10 or 20 most awful scripts of the entire decade. It's got such zingers as (Tony speaking) "If you never talk to strangers, you'll never meet anyone new" and (Cheski) "The Buddhists have a saying. If you ever meet your master in the road, kill him." Yep. That's characteristic. The implausibility level is forehead-slapping. When Sarah finds her apt broken into she does not call for help; no, she goes in and *takes a bath*. And the ending-- oh, my, it makes that resolution in Sliver seem like a cinematic masterpiece! The conclusion to this movie alone is so ridiculously idiotic, nonsensical, boring, poorly acted, incoherent, and abysmally accomplished that you will want to attack your TV set for having wasted your valuable time and money so appallingly.

I don't know about Peter Hall's films in general but he *cannot* direct a suspense film, at least certainly not this one. Everything seems jagged and forced. The musical score is awful, totally overdone. The cinematography is O.K.-- there are some nice outdoor scenes here. And the acting? Well, I genuinely like all 3 main actors here (de Mornay, Banderas, Miller) but this film makes you yearn to see *anything else* they've been in. De Mornay was wonderful back in Risky Business, but nothing works for her here; she cannot infuse any nuance into her part as the psychiatrist, and the juxtaposing of her scared-victim scenes with the loft-lovin' scenes fails. Miller is generally peripheral, which if anything is a good thing in this film; what scenes he is in, are laughable. And Banderas? He tries hard, honestly, but it's obvious that there is a mismatch between his talent (which is considerable) and the woefulness of the script. And that's the heart of the problem-- the script and the direction sink the actors before they had a chance to even remotely shine. So if you're looking for a suspense movie to check out, do yourself a favor-- rent Hitchcock, DePalma, Ron Howard, anybody-- but stay away from this.

I thought it was a very good movie. To the viewers from Denver and the other place, I bet neither one of you have ever been naked with areal woman before or even know how to treat a real woman. I thougt Rebecca DeMornay was outstanding especially at the end when she relapsed back to her childhood and then came back to the present. I think Rebecca DeMornay has more guts to try different roles than any other actress in Hollywood. You have to look beyond her good looks and appreciate her range and ability. The other "quote hot actresses" are just damsels in distress packaged in different outfits. Rebecca's range and guts are unmatched in my opinion. I'd take Tonya over Julia Roberts any day. Rebecca's the best in my book. Jim.

Viewed: 12/08
Rate: 1

12/08: Hm, I guess the crap hit the fan, right? Since the film is really about trust, then why not just title the movie as Never Trust Strangers? Rebecca DeMornay gets her money's worth by appearing naked with her Spanish Latin lover co-screen star Antonio Banderas regardless the fact if she knew what she was getting into or not. Antonio Banderas helps make this film to be cringe-worthy. Harry Dean Stanton gives a very hammy performance as usual. Dennis Miller brings back the bad memories of Monday Night Football moments. It gets worse when I had to follow the story to the end. The F bomb got dropped by the time I see how the ending unraveled. This makes it all easy for me to give Never Talk to Strangers a rating of `1'. Peter Hall tries too much in his attempt to make the film look slick enough, and there are doses of poor camera work as well. Thinking of the initial meeting between Tony Ramirez and the psychologist, how implausible was that? And that was a dead giveaway that something is certainly up. All in all, Never Talk to Strangers is your typical nonsensical picture that requires a huge amount of suspension of disbelief.

This thriller is a bit rough-edged, but a lot of people like that sort of thing. Rebecca DeMornay was the at the top of her game around this time (early to mid '90s).

On the plus side, this is an interesting and involving story, especially in the second half of the film. The movie is capped by a surprise ending I defy anyone to guess correctly. There are a few steamy scenes, too.

The bad news is that there are no likable characters, too much profanity; a few minor holes in the story; and an obvious as sexist bias against men. DeMornay's foul mouth and morals are pretty rotten for a psychologist, the character she plays. The guys, played by Dennis Miller and Antonio Bandaras, are pretty sleazy characters, too.

This is one of Antonio Banderas' best movies. He and Rebecca DeMornay have a a strong chemistry between them, and it shows. The movie was very interesting and had a very unexpected ending!! There was a good combination of mystery, suspense and sex. I recommend this movie to anyone who wants a thrill!!!

Good to excellent drama & acting. All around a good flick, a little dated, but good. Enjoy.

If you are tired of those predictable "thrillers" where the bad guy is overly obvious and the plot is over done than see this movie. I don't want to ruin the movie for those who haven't seen it so I'll just say this, you may think you know what's going on but you're in for a big surprise. What would that surprise be? You'll just have to wait 'til the end to see. One of the best movies I've seen in a while.

How can that evil blonde woman kill her own orange cat? The dead cat looked like a silly stuffed animal with ketchup on it. Terrible effects.

By the way, the blonde lady killed the kitty and she was stalking herself cuz her daddy killed her mommy when she was little.

waste of movie.