The Stranger

This bad movie at least has a gorgeous leading lady, Kathy Long, as the stranger. Long looks magnificent in her tight black leather jeans and flowing golden locks. She also strides a motorcycle pretty well. But she is given trite dialogue to deal with. Seeking a chief biker by the name of Angel for his wrong doings[namely rape] the ultimate happens in a deserted ghost town in a sort of B movie HIGH NOONish atmosphere. Where did they find such a place? I'm curious. It truly looked deserted. Add to this melodrama, a bunch of villains, in biker gear, looking more or less like Mr. Clean, and the townsfolk looking more like Mr. Peepers [old Wally Cox TV series of a mousy professor]and you can guess the rest. Our heroine wins the battle, hands down. Along the way she hops into bed with Sheriff Cole [a nice guy played simply by Eric Pierpoint in a helpless sort of way - but, hey, he tries] even getting knocked out with one punch by our gal Kathy to keep him from harm as the gang of villains approach the town [ala Frank Miller]. Andrew Divoff provided Angel with the proper tattoos and evil grimaces. It was Robin Lynn Heath as Cordet that missed the boat. This barefooted barbie doll babe runs around in almost a dress, looking like she needs a bath. She becomes increasingly annoying as the picture progresses. Can't understand the point of this role. And I don't think the actress did either. One expression "like duh" and blank stares. That was the limit of her performance. I do believe she finally took a bath. In the end the stranger leaves town waving goodbye to our sheriff and the barefooted ragmuffin and who cares. But still a pleasure to watch Kathy Long. Hope she gets more offers to show her stuff. A perfect replacement for Sheena, if anyone's listening. Directed by Fritz Kiersch with a deft touch. You could see some artistic attempts of his work if only he had a better scenario than writer Gregory Poirier offered him. I give it 3 out of ten rating. And the 3 goes to Miss Long for being born so gorgeous.

Didn't know there was so much feminist cringe in the 90s, heh. They really abused the straight-to-video scene with bitter garbage like this. It is sad, as straight-to-video should be used as a haven for hidden gems, not as everyone's dumping ground for their own little twisted ideas. At least not too much money and resources were wasted, which I'm glad for. Rather use that for something that improves the world, instead of spreading feminist bitterness 🙂

... that this piece of jiggle/ghost/biker/martial arts exploitation is primarily an uncredited remake of "Once Upon a Time in the West", with a little "High Plaions Drifter" thrown in for good measure.

The soundtrack even quotes Morricine's "Once Upon.." soundtrack.

Proving, once again, that it's not so much the material as the idiot (or genius) who films it.

I caught the last fifteen minutes on satellite some time ago, thought it seemed familiar, and managed to catch the last complete run on that cycle, and sure enough, it was.

If it wasn't so darned expensive -- it was intended for the rental market, not the consumer "seel through" market -- i'd buy a copy just to show to people who would be able to appreciate the sheer effrontery of the people who made this travesty.

And the thought Caesar had gall.

The storyline of this movie goes that a small town in the American southwest is ruled by a evil biker gang that has already killed the sheriff's finance and has pretty much made him unwilling to take on the gang himself.

Enter Soccer Mommy on a her motorcycle and also carrying a whip.She comes in and beats up all those mean biker dudes all by herself beating them up with no trouble at all.The movie suffers from the four p's,it is predictable, preposterous,phoney,and putrid.

The star,Kathy Long,is no beauty to look at.She seems like many of these female martial arts B-movie types who do movies like these,they look beat up and have next to no sex appeal to them.Not to mention her lack of acting skills which need no mentioning anyway.

The women of this film are made to be the heroes here,the star,the murdered finance of the sheriff(She was going to give the FBI pictures of the bikers doing their crimes but was killed before she could do it.),while the men of the film are made to be the villians of the film,the cowardly sheriff,the bikers.Hollywood liberal politics at work again.

Made for feminists and girly male types,who like to see men beaten up by a woman for the sake of it,The Stranger is an action film loaded with violence, short on common sense,and hardly entertaining.High Plains Drifter it is not.Leonard Part 7 it is.

Forget Diana Rigg, Cynthia Rothrock, Karen Sheperd, the two Lucindas (Dooling and Dickey) and even Jillian Kesner. Kathy Long is the toughest of them all, and this is her great film. She kills bad guy after bad guy in "The Stranger," most of them with her bare hands, and just looking at her swagger and those unbelievably powerful arms of hers, you know she could do absolutely anything she wanted with you in real life. ("Are you going to kill me or make love to me?" one man asks her. "I'll let you know," Kathy replies.) No wonder this film is selling for so much on EBay: for those susceptible to this kind of fantasy, it doesn't get much better than "The Stranger."