The Foreigner Review

So I just watched The Foreigner. A shockingly misleading title.

In case you’re unfamiliar, The Foreigner is the latest film from Martin Campbell, the director who brought us the stone cold classics like Goldeneye, Mask of Zorro and Green Lantern and it stars Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan.

The basic premise is Jackie Chan’s daughter gets killed in an IRA bombing. He has reason to believe Pierce Brosnan knows who’s behind it and he wants his revenge. Cue Taken style action thriller.

The biggest problem with the Foreigner is that it feels like 2 different movies shoved together, or perhaps one movie with a revenge subplot tacked on. The thing with The Foreigner is that despite its marketing and my description of the premise it’s not really Jackie Chan’s movie. The meat of the story belongs to Pierce Brosnan. Pierce Brosnan has his own plot where he’s trying to figure out who’s behind the bombing for his own political ends. More than half the movie is a political thriller dealing with England and the Internal politics of the IRA. Then Jackie Chan shows up occasionally, kicking ass and asking who killed his daughter.

That being said I actually liked both plots even though I don’t think they meshed perfectly. Jackie Chan brought his all both in acting and in the ass kicking. I was rooting for that character. They did spend sufficient time at the start of the movie establishing that character and his motivations. I also really enjoyed Pierce Brosnan juggling his political ties with the British government and his old ties with the IRA. I feel like this plot was a script the studio had, but they thought it needed more action so they wrote in Jackie Chan and his revenge plot (also to get that sweet, sweet China revenue.)

Overall I did enjoy the Foreigner despite its inconsistencies. I give the Foreigner 4 out of 6 laptops.