Unexpectedly well done and filled with great action and a hell of a story line, THE FOREIGNER is pure, highly polished thriller fun.
Jackie Chan is unexpectedly strong in a dramatic role as Quan, a British citizen and single father, nervous about his only daughter getting ready for a big dance.
He's the definition of a helicopter Dad as he drops her off at a London dress shop. When a terrorist bomb explodes moments later and his daughter dies, Quan's sole focus becomes finding the men that killed her.
Pierce Brosnan is terrific as Liam Hennessey, an Irish government official who's worked the past several decades to maintain the peace in the UK.
When Hennessey's distant past seems to tie to people involved in the bombing. Quan begins a clever and quickly escalating cat & mouse game of retaliation, adding more and more pressure on Hennessey to reveal the people's identities that he worked with many years before.
Director Martin Campbell is a OO7 favorite, having helmed both "Goldeneye" and "Casino Royale", along with "The Legend of Zorro".
He knows action and proves it here, ramping up the attacks and the drama as Quan's and Hennessey's pasts emerge, proving that they are both formidable men committed to their cause.
Charlie Murphy is very good as a female terrorist hell bent on her cause, Orla Brady (Fringe) is surprising as Brosnan's wife and newcomer Rory Fleck Byrne is very good as Hennessey's special forces nephew, a last resort option brought in to track Quan.
Chan is not a young man, but he still performs all his own stunts and fight scenes and they are incredible. As he mops the floor with many men decades younger, the bad guys are as stunned as I was. Chan can still kick some serious movie hero ass and this is the first movie that I've seen him perform in a purely dramatic role. He's surprisingly good.
With a solid story and political chess game behind all the action, THE FOREIGNER is a world class thriller that surprised me in its depth of character, its strong supporting cast and story.
If you love action movies, get THE FOREIGNER today. It gets an unexpected B+.
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