Author: Wyatt Sanderman Day | Published: January 27th, 2009

    

One Man's Pointless Pleasure is Another Man's Really Crappy Movie

    Bryan Bettino's "The Strangers" is a long, pointless journey toward the resolution of unequivocally proving that if one combines in unequal parts poor dialogue, senseless storyline, uninspired acting and loud sound effects for effect against a low budget backdrop one can produce a painfully poor film that is, without question, a total waste of the audience's time.

    I normally grant a wide berth to most movies providing they at least make an honest attempt to transport me past my perpetual state of disbelief so that I can care about the characters and identify with their predicament. I may not find entertainment in the film, but I will discover a sense of identity if the film has some semblance of truth. "The Strangers" had none of it: just an inane experiment as to how much an audience could accept on faith without expending any art or talent.

    Liv Tyler was the ill fated heroine and Scott Speedman played her jilted boyfriend (some silly subplot that had no bearing upon the movie's outcome). Neither actors were ostensibly bad in their roles, they just did not take the terrible material and rise above it. It was just a movie that served no artful purpose, was not entertaining, was not frightening and should have never been made.

    At 85 minutes of runtime, "The Strangers was a supreme waste of time and barely worthy of my rating of 1/2 stars. Just so I will not waste any more of my precious time, I will sum up the movie and my rating as such: you know how one may leave a bad, bad waiter a pitiful gratuity, when rather none at all was more than fair? Such is 1/2 stars 1/2 just 1/2 star out of five possible 1/2 really sad, so sad and so very crappy.

    Released October 21, 2008. Rated PG13.

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