The Foreigner is adapted from English author Stephen Leather’s The Chinaman, which he wrote while working for The Times during an IRA bombing campaign. The director, Martin Campbell, a veteran filmmaker, wastes little time getting going, and I appreciated it. We’re introduced to Ngoc Minh Quan (Jackie Chan) and his daughter Fan (Katie Leung) and not 10 minutes go by before the shop Fan enters explodes, killing her instantly. A grief-stricken Quan languishes about his home and business in a daze before leaving his friends behind and vowing to find and punish the people responsible for Fan’s death.

The film itself is little more than a ‘Dad Movie’ update; defined by Movie Bob as

“...hard-bitten action dramas starring gracefully-aging older male stars as omnicompetent badasses who solve their problems through methodical masculine determination and nigh-superhuman fighting prowess implicitly the result of their life experience and having survived into the weak and wimpy present from an age When Men Were Men. See also: The Expendables, Jack Reacher and the recent filmography of Liam Neeson.”

That’s just fine! I like The Equalizer and I like this movie. However, it's not perfect. The film is incredibly predictable and I called the film’s plot beat by beat from its halfway mark. The film hits its stride when showcasing action. Martin Campbell (Goldeneye, Casino Royale) effectively gets the most out of the action set pieces. The narrative itself consists of forays into English-Irish politics, specifically with regards to the IRA, and Quan’s dogged search for his daughter's killers. A subject I know little to nothing about, I found the film’s exploration of the IRA’s organization and politics intriguing. Besides the Irish politics, and it’s slick action scenes, the only other area of the film that really shines is the two leads characters.