By Nick Lee
Copy Editor
Jackie Chan returns to the theaters in his typical action movie, “The Foreigner”, but ultimates fails to bring any foreignness to an overdone genre.
Jackie Chan did a wonderful job portraying a character we have not seen him do before, however the film’s plot was lacking and brought nothing new to the table. The motion picture also failed to focus on the star of the movie, Chan, and instead gave too much screen time to other irrelevant extras.
“The Foreigner” directed by Martin Campbell released on October 13 and is an adaptation of Stephen Leather’s novel The Chinaman. The film follows a retired Vietnam War special forces veteran named Ngoc Minh Quan. When a bomb goes off in London killing his only daughter, Quan goes looking for the perpetrator for revenge.
When Quan finds out the bombing was connected to the Irish Republican Army (IRA), he seeks out Irish deputy minister Liam Hennessey who ordered the bombing. Quan is able to prove Hennessey’s involvement in the bombing and returns to his Chinese Restaurant.
Jackie Chan carried the film with his incredible acting. We have seen him be a funny martial arts character time and time again however never a serious hollowed out man. In the film, Chan does a beautiful job conveying a washed up old man who has nothing left to lose.
On the other hand, Jackie Chan’s actually action scenes however have gone down hill. The actor is now, quite old himself, at sixty two years old. Playing an elderly man was fitting however, it seemed out of place for an old man to beat up all strong alpha males in their prime. Despite the attempt by the director show how grace and knowledge in martial arts can beat anything, it failed to be realistic in the slightest.
One negative of the movie however was the confusing and plot twist forced storyline. The director tried just a little too hard to make every moment unexpected. It every twist and turned was unnecessary and distracted viewers.
Another downside of the movie was the amount of screen time that wasn’t focused on Chan. Throughout the movie there was long stretches where Chan was absent and the film focused on British and Irish diplomats and police men talking and debriefing which made the film extremely boring at times.
In conclusion Jackie Chan in “The Foreigner” steps up to the plate in taking on a unique character and providing the viewers with creative action scenes. However it does not distract from its lackluster flop of a plot and mirroring of Liam Neeson’s “Taken”.
“The Foreigner” opened on October 13, is rated R and is playing in theaters nationwide.
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