Review of The Foreigner (2017) by Adam B — 13 Oct 2017

It was fine. It was a fun, by the numbers action / intrigue movie.

Plot was pretty linear, the story wasn't really the important part, although it was serviceable. It was very contained in scope, which I like. Reminiscent of NOT Marvel but older action movies that just pit two characters against each other and the entire world isn't at stake. I liked that they didn't have to make it a nuclear threat that has to be stopped.

Kinda like John Wick, very much about personal revenge / justice.

Very realistic modern combat. Much less about guns and QCC than it was about making and planting explosives. Not only was that realistic but it was extremely bold and interesting for them to expose mainstream audiences to. Our hero is basically a terrorist who happens to be fighting for a good cause. In case you're wondering, yes, that is how most real world operations are. There is so little risk for the user (relative to storming a place with a rifle or something) and the destructive force per individual is so high, not to mention that if pulled off properly you get to maintain plausible deniability. Timed and trap explosives really are how stuff gets done in the modern era, which is what's so scary about the concepts being bandied about in this movie. The film is sorely missing the Jackie brand stunt team though, coordinating all the action to his signature rhythm and long, wide takes to show all the impressive action. I couldn't help but notice all the modern, western jump cuts and purposely shadowed lighting to obscure and let the mind fill in the details. This film could definitely have been elevated by the old energy and time inputs into the action that I know Jackie is capable of.(edited)Decent Performances. Pierce Brosnan and Jackie Chan both ham up their accents a little bit, but for the most part they're very believable in their roles. Which is great because both of these characters are interesting and you feel like they could exist. They carry you through the movie on the fact that it feels pretty real, like this could happen. Jackie Chan isn't a super human fighter, and Pierce Brosnan isn't a evil for the sake of evil political dictator. They're more complex and relatable. Even the "antagonist" if you can call him that is, in his own twisted way, trying to go the right thing.

The book was originally titled, "The China-man" but I think "The Foreigner" is a better title, because it has more meaning within the context of the film. The plot is basically driven forward by the real world conflict between the British government and the IRA. The title asks you to look at the United Kingdom and recognize that they're not necessarily all unified. Jackie Chan's character is a foreigner, but he's been a British citizen for 20 years. The ideological Irish probably feel as if they're prisoners in a foreign kingdom, lashing out to get their freedom back. Very compelling stuff.

All that aside, I'd probably give the film a 6 out of 10, 7 tops. The trailers show every moment of classic Jackie Chan action, and there's hardly a drop left for the film to wow you with. This is unfortunately very disappointing. The film was marketed as if it is the return of the action stunt-man king, which it is not. While the film is still serviceable, promising to give back to us something precious that is most likely gone forever is wounding. To make matters worse, the films (accidentally?) rubs this fact in our faces by showing black and white photos of young Jackie in a manila envelope, in the entirely too cliche "bad guy finding out that his one-man nuisance is a highly trained field operative" scene. I would have preferred if they had let it be assumed that that fact was true. Why does the antagonist need to know exactly how the man who's killing all his goons was trained? He already knows that he needs to kill him and that he needs to be very careful about it. Those scenes add nothing to their respective films.

Which brings me to my main critique of the film. It doesn't do anything really too terribly wrong, but nor does it particularly excel in any particular way. Like I said, it was a contained, by the numbers action movie with pretty basic writing, solid structure and decent pacing. Which I LIKED... but I will never be able to love. No matter who you cast in these roles or hire to write the script or whose eye you put behind the camera, this movie will never be a 10. It doesn't risk anything to try and aspire to greatness, it merely attempts adequacy... and achieves what it sets out to do.