Don't Talk to Strangers (1994 TV Movie) User Reviews

Pretty Good, Deserves A DVD

[ccthemovieman-1 · 7/10 · 18 August 2007]

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.

You want a veggie burger?

[sol-kay · 6/10 · 1 April 2009]

(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.

Lawyer Fight! :D

[SusieSalmonLikeTheFish · 7/10 · 22 December 2014]

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.

Don't talk to Strangers

[coltras35 · 7/10 · 1 August 2023]

During an acrimonious divorce and custody battle, Jane Bonner meets and marries Patrick Brody (Pierce Brosnan). When Eric, Jane's son, goes missing, suspicion immediately falls on her alcoholic cop ex-husband who has been stalking the couple. But Jane uncovers a secret that every mother dreads.

Pierce Brosnan puts in an excellent performance, transitioning from charming to ruthless with ease as the plot unravels. It's a neat thriller which fools you into thinking it's a typical "husband stalks son and wife" but it smoothly twists into something else. There are some dull bits but that's kept to the minimum and it's quite tense at times with some clever misdirection.

Particularly in public bathrooms

[TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews · 6/10 · 12 February 2009]

Scenes that cut from dramatic-seeming build-ups to something that may or may not show the conclusion. A speech or two from the strong, nearly independent main, and of course female, character, to one of the weaker, and in general lesser, men. Crying, if however brief, in the shower. This really has all that makes a Lifetime flick, though I don't know if it actually is one. I don't have a problem with women being empowered, or a lot of airtime being dedicated to it, I just think that the films can be less clichéd than I understand they are. With that said, the twists in this are pretty unexpected and interesting, if not necessarily all credible. Also, that's about where the above-average qualities end. The writing sacrifices realism and consistency for victimization and aforementioned surprise occurrences whenever they saw fit to do so. The "action" tends to be so half-heartedly put on the screen that you can't tell what's going on. The cinematography ranges between passable and just plain uninspired. The acting varies, O'Quinn outshines the rest, and not all of his fellow performers are awful. The kid actively appeared daft, both real life and his character. The language is fairly limited, a couple of moderate strength words here and there, and nothing else particularly objectionable, apart from perhaps the thematic material and a little violence. The entire thing is "fine". Could do worse, won't be difficult to do better. I recommend it to big fans of those involved, and those absolutely famished for a crime-thriller they haven't yet watched. 6/10

STRONG EFFORT BY SHANNA REED CAN NOT COMPENSATE FOR A STALE SCRIPT.

[rsoonsa · 5/10 · 17 November 2004]

A conventional genre for filmmakers may be titled Theatre of Paranoia, within which are copious examples, this piece being one, wherein a protagonist is stalked or harried or wrongly envisioned or trapped or prejudiced against, i.e., in some way made to suffer by, generally, one person distracted by jealousy or some other mania. The victim here is Jane Bonner, splendidly played by Shanna Reed, who is tormented by her former husband Robert (Terry O'Quinn), a police detective with an extraordinary amount of free time who is maddened due to the disbanding of a joint custody agreement for the ex-couple's eight-year-old son, during divorce proceedings, Bonner's harassment becoming so acute that Jane and her new spouse Patrick (Pierce Brosnan) decide to leave their Saint Louis home and drive to California to start life anew, only to have Bonner trail them. Director Robert Lewis paces the film solidly during its initial scenes only to have his efforts hamstrung by excessive cutting along with a disjointed screenplay that is heavily reliant upon fancy, in addition to below standard post-production work (e.g., a car following Jane and Patrick is seen being driven from both sides of the front seat by its sole occupant), and a garish lack of knowledge concerning law enforcement procedures is only too evident.

Throughout this foolish affair that the film becomes, Reed shines, easily gathering in acting honours with a subtly layered and credible performance, and O'Quinn also acts well, especially in light of his written dialogue. Richard Leiterman's cinematography is expert as always and fitting underscoring is contributed by Joseph Conlan, but the scenario's collapse into nearly total incongruity and odd character metamorphosis becomes too great of a handicap.

Pierce Brosnan makes Vegeburgers in it

[inhisblazer · 4/10 · 6 January 2003]

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.

Pierce

[MaxHush · 11 January 2003]

The first thing I'll say about the film is this. Pierce. Yes, the mighty mighty Pierce. Don't be fooled though, just because of Pierce factor it doesn't mean that this movie is good, far from it infact. From Pierce demonstrating his culinary skills at making vegeburgers, to Pierce being violently assulted while sitting on a stool eating said vegeburgers this movie is poor, and believe me, it could have been better but for the directing. Pierces acting is nothing short of grade A, but the entire film seems pushed along quickly, and that, combined with the bogstandard plot makes it seem like the director wanted the maximum amount of Pierce in the movie, hoping that that alone would hold up the movie, sadly it didn't

Verdict - Bogstandard plot(0) + rushed scenes(0) + Peirce(4) > 4/10

Well made, bad experience...

[miaoppoak · 4/10 · 8 December 2023]

I don't usually watch crime thrillers as i find that genre upsetting. However, YouTube presented the option to watch and i watched the whole thing.

After letting the movie jerk me around for 2 hours (maybe less, as it is a quick paced film) i decided to check the wiki to clear up plot details.

I couldn't find much information online. Probably because the plot twists are arbitrary & not worth documenting.

I'm pretty eclectic in taste, tho i prefer rom-coms. There is nothing romantic about this film; most comedic are probably the car chase stunts!

In summary, there is not a single character in this film that i sympathised with. (The most heart-warming image is the male heavy smiling appropriately after playing the perfect asshole cop throughout most of the film.)

Nice to watch at 2 in the morning

[zeo1 · 10/10 · 23 June 2002]

I enjoyed watching this film because it had a good twist to it, just when you tought you had every thing worked out something new came along.

I like Keegan Mactinosh, as I have seen quite a few films and shows with him in.

Most of the other actors are well known and provide good roles in the film too.

WOW!!!

[Sissel · 8/10 · 7 December 1998]

This movie had a surprising end! But I loved it anyways! A nice movie to relax with...especially when my fav. actor Pierce Brosnan is in it!!

Two fathers, a sore tried mother, a family mess and a boy

[clanciai · 9/10 · 8 November 2023]

You will be surprised by Pierce Brosnan in this film a number of times, but the other actors are also excellent, Shanna Reed as the mother and Terry O'Quinn as the drinking father. It's a complicated family drama, beginning with divorce procedures in which the mother (Shanna Reed) gets all the custody of the boy, which the father (Terry O'Quinn) refuses to accept, which is why he from the beginning appears as the villain of the play. However, as matters develop, you learn that he is a policeman, and his objections against Shanna Reed's new husband (Pierce Brosnan) should be quite normal for a natural father, but he is not. Things really get complicated when the boy is kidnapped, and no one can understand by whom or why, since there is no demand for any ransom. Finally things get really heated when the kidnappers are located with a resulting shootout, but both Brosnan and O'Quinn also carry guns. Meanwhile the whole mess of the family business lying behind it all is gradually sorted out, and there are some final settlements. It's a great thriller, great acting performances, a very well written script revealing only morsels at a time, so there is no chance for any naps of boredom. You will stick to it till the end even if the final solution will occur afterwards.