| View Larger Image | Perfect Stranger (Widescreen Edition) | DVDStarring: Halle Berry, Bruce Willis, Giovanni Ribisi, Richard Portnow, Gary Dourdan
Directed By: James Foley
| List Price: | $14.94 | | Price: | $5.49 | | You Save: | $9.45 (63%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | DVD | | Rating: |  | | Run Time: | 109 minutes | | Format: | AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC | | Studio: | Sony Pictures | | Number of Discs: | 1 | | Aspect Ratio: | 2.40:1 | | Release Date: | August 21, 2007 | | Sales Rank: | 7,529th |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
When her friend’s affair with married ad exec Harrison Hill (Bruce Willis) ends in the woman’s murder, investigative reporter Rowena Price (Academy Award® winner Halle Berry; Best Actress, Monster’s Ball, 2001) vows to bring the killer to justice. Suspecting Hill of the crime, she goes undercover by posing as two highly alluring women: Katherine, a sexy temp who works within his agency, and Veronica, a seductive temptress he chats up online. Engaging in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse, both Rowena and Hill begin to realize things may not be what they seem. For some people will go to great lengths to protect their secrets, even if it means risking everything. |
Amazon.com
Perfect Stranger is saved from conventional starlet-in-distress mediocrity by a certain refreshing unwholesomeness, a tawdry strain that runs all the way through its climactic series of kickers. Halle Berry plays a "gotcha" reporter, currently undercover to nail a famous advertising tycoon (Bruce Willis)--not for a story, but because Berry thinks he might be involved in a friend's murder. The distasteful nature of Berry trying to seduce the married exec adds some spice, and so does her pervy assistant (Giovanni Ribisi), whose voyeuristic tendencies indicate more than customary comic relief--at the least, he's a hefty red herring. There are other red herrings, mostly beginning to smell, in the rather ramshackle script. Director James Foley, who has a talent for hothouse intensity (Glengarry Glen Ross, At Close Range) gives this material more edge than it probably deserves, although he can't make Berry convincing, and she and Ribisi are completely wrong as simpatico best friends. Willis looks good by comparison, turning a one-note role into a subtle act of professionalism. --Robert Horton |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.0 based on 104 reviews)
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love it by David A. Smith (Webberville, Mi, USA)  5 Stars
October 17, 2009
This is a terrific movie. Halle Berry & Bruce Willis are awesome in this movie. i recomend it to everyone
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america's critic by David R. Lingard (memphis tn)  1 Stars
September 12, 2009
ahh ooohh!!! boo!!! so boring i napped during it got this one for $5 and still felt robbed a class actors in a remake that sucks---- i got it sit on ur hand and thats the perfect stranger!!!!
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Hack this movie by K. Hughes (Milwaukee, WI) 1 Stars
July 25, 2009
Is hacking computers really this easy?
In Perfect Strangers, Giovanni Ribisi can hack employee files from a high powered New York advertising agency with ease, and manipulate AOL accounts with about three strokes of his keyboard. So I guess that's why he has enough time to build a kinky photo shrine to Halle Berry in a secret back closet in his lime green apartment.
Which sounds fun. But this movie takes itself too seriously.
***SPOILERS***
Basically, Halle Berry's character is a b!tch. She's an investigative reporter. And uses her colleague (Ribisi) as her pu$$y whipped intelligence expert. He's (not so secretly) in love/lust with her. Which creates some decent tension. He's believable. And Berry exploits his obsession. She's quite the domme, ordering him to hack files and fetch coroner's reports. But every time he fulfills her demands, she gets irritated and plays a mind game, mentally beating him into submission (which he seems to get off on.)
The plot...
really doesn't matter. Halle goes undercover as a temp at Bruce Willis' ad agency. One of her duties is stuffing pink gift bags for a Victoria's Secret event. She's really sloppy, getting the bags and delicate tissue paper on top all wrinkled. And thank goodness the office gossip is helping her. This colleague gives Berry a rundown on the entire office, including who the boss (Willis) has been sleeping with. For an esteemed investigative reporter, Berry seems to get all her info handed to her on a silver platter.
Not that any of this starts to add up to anything.
***THE REAL SPOILERS***
Much later in the movie, thru flashbacks, you learn that Berry was molested by her father (or possibly stepfather), a white man. Her black mother finds out, and kills the man with a fireplace poker. Berry and her mother bury him in their backyard. And Berry's friend witnesses it from her window.
Near the beginning of the movie, the friend, who has grown up to be a trashy Melanie Griffith prostitute/drug addict/swinger type, tells Berry she's been sleeping with the married Willis. And that he's a kinky SOB. Then the friend is found murdered.
So the movie is all about finding out who killed the friend.
Is it:
WILLIS (motive: didn't want his wife to know about affair)
WILLIS' WIFE (motive: jealousy)
RIBISI (had secret s/m sex with the victim)
BERRY'S BLACK BOYFRIEND (had impregnated the victim three months earlier)
But no. HALLE BERRY DID IT!
Why?
Because she was afraid the friend would tell everyone about Berry and her mom burying the father in the backyard.
This all could have been a fun plot. But the movie doesn't take it far enough. And it denies us scenes. With all the build up between Berry and Willis, they should have had a sex scene together. A playing out of the father/daughter dom/sub thing. They hinted that Willis, the powerful businessman, liked to be dominated in the bedroom.
In one of her flashback/dreams, from the child Berry's point of view, she imagines her molesting father to be Willis. They really could have played this up. Her subtext could have been that she sees Willis (and all men) as molesters. Which is why it was easy for her to set up the innocent Willis for the murder rap. And why it was easy for her to stab and kill Ribisi at the end when he discovered Berry was the murderer.
There's also a tall, severely beautiful woman who plays Willis' assistant. I kept mistaking her for Milla Jovovich. Her character is a lesbian. Her primary function is to make sure Willis doesn't have affairs with women in the office. So you'd expect a great catty scene with her and Berry. But it never happens.
Oh, and there's a scene where Willis picks up Berry to take her to work. And remember, he thinks she's just a temp. But her apartment building looks like the Waldorf Astoria. But it didn't raise any red flags for the shrewd Willis. Weird, huh?
I would definitely watch a sequel. A lower budget, direct-to-video production. But who would replace Berry? Tyra Banks? Vivica Fox? Or better yet, a no-name actress with a lot of spunk. And a director with no shame.
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Surprise by M. Mason (Chi-Town) 5 Stars
July 06, 2009
I was very surprised that I really enjoyed this movie, don't ask why, I just was, anyway it was very good, definitely one for the movie volt, to be watched over and over again
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A good thriller, but one that takes time to develop and get into! by Dr. Metal  4 Stars
April 27, 2009
This isen't a run of the mill type of thriller. But it may be difficult to like while viewing it for the first time because there are many relevant things in the plot that are not shown in the proper time sequence. By that I mean that there are essential plot developments missing that take place very early in the childhood of Rowan (Halle Berry). That is the missing link to the whole story which only becomes apparent at the very end, when Rowan's journalist partner Miles talks about them and other important event that happened later. For that reason most of the movie has this strange feeling to it that the viewers will probably feel that they are missing something. But it all becomes clear in the end, in a very drastic and suspensful way. It is at the end when we are finally told why certain things happened, and why people acted the way they did.
Like I wrote the movie may seem and is rather slow in its development towards explaining what is really going on, but you just have to stay with it until the end to find out what it is all about.
What really surprised me was the end to this movie, and also the many negative reviews that this DVD got. I can't agree with those that claim that this is a bad or boring movie in anyway. I think its rather an unusual thriller, that takes a bit of time to get into, but today's audiences are so caught up and weaned to quick action TV series that they apparently can't appreciate a good thriller anymore, even if it means staying focused on it until the end.
This is a good thriller, and especially one that just seems to get even better when seeing it again for the 2nd or even 3rd time.
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