Quan is a humble London businessman whose long-buried past erupts in a revenge-fueled vendetta when the only person left for him to love — his teenage daughter — dies in a senseless act of politically motivated terrorism. His relentless search to find the terrorists leads to a cat-and-mouse conflict with a British government official whose own past may hold the clues to the identities of the elusive killers. – STXFilms

The Foreigner is based on the novel The Chinaman by Stephen Leather and was directed by Martin Campbell and written by David Marconi. Campbell’s two most recent films are Casino Royale and Green Lantern, one of those is really good and the other one is probably not his fault. It’s funny my last review was a movie written by the Green Lantern writer. Both the directer and writer of Green Lantern have been able to bounce back. David Marconi’s Wikipedia page list The Foreigner, Live Free or Die Hard and Enemy of the State as his most notable work. I quite enjoyed Live Free or Die Hard. Bruce Willis literally throws a car at someone because he ran out of bullets, if that’s not entertaining I don’t know what is.

The marketing for this film wanted everyone to think this was a Taken like film. If that’s the vibe they were going for it didn’t really work. The film shares a similar like plot with the Taken series but it isn’t really anything like Taken. The Foreigner is a much more serious film, it’s fun to watch but it’s not a dumb action movie like Taken. I love dumb action but I hate the Taken series. I get the first one but after that why do people keep messing with him. I digress. The Foreigner is more of a political thriller than a straight up action movie but there is plenty of action in the movie to keep action fans entertained. Even without a ton of action this film is paced while enough that you’ll be on the edge of your sit the whole time.

As you may have guessed Jackie Chan is Quan aka The Foreigner. Jackie Chan is awesome in general and in this. I’ve always been a fan of Jackie Chan films, especially like Rush Hour and Shanghai Knights. I used to watch Jackie Chan Adventures everyday after school. Quan is a much more serious role for Jackie than I am used. I now have the urge to go back and watch some of Jackie’s earlier films because I am told they aren’t goofy action comedies. Jackie is obviously older now but he still kicks some serious ass in this movie. The fight scenes aren’t as plentiful as I’d like but I ate them up like a fat kid eats candy on Halloween. Jackie still has the moves and I’d like to see more of him in the future.

You know who else is in this movie? Pierce Brosnan, I like him. He was my first James Bond. He is the bad guy in this movie, kind of, you have to watch it to really understand. I’ve never really seen him as a villain before, I liked it. What’s really neat about this movie is it is split like 50/50 between Jackie and Pierce. You really get to see both sides and it enhanced both characters especially Pierce’s as it helps understand why he does what he does.

The Foreigner isn’t some groundbreaking action movie but it’s a really compelling political thriller with some solid fight scenes.

I give The Foreigner a 7.9 out of 10, would watch again.

“Politicians and terrorists, they are just 2 ends of the same snake.”

**Fair warning the trailer spoils most if not all of the fight scenes.**