Delayed Reaction: The Foreigner

Premise: After his daughter is killed in a terrorist bombing, a Chinese restaurant owner reveals his special set of skills and goes on a rampage to get revenge.

A very specific but very satisfying subset of movies is the "you messed with the wrong guy" movie. That's when a villainous organization commits some random act of violence against someone, and he or she turns out to be the world's biggest badass. These are movies like Taken or John Wick where an aging action movie star is trying to have a peaceful life then gets dragged back in. It can be a random person too though who has their inner badass awakened like Jodie Foster in The Brave One or Blake Lively in The Rhythm Section. The key is that the person didn't ask to be part of this. Sure, it's also fun when it's Chris Hemsworth in Extraction hired for a job that he's well-trained for, however there's something extra fun when the hero doesn't want to be in an action/revenge movie. It's the thrill of First Blood vs. all the Rambo sequels.

Before The Foreigner, I thought Jackie Chan had softly retired. Once he took on the teacher role in The Karate Kid (2010), I figured he was ready to finally give his body a break, and he never struck me as someone to act for the sake of acting if there wasn't a physical component to the role. Of course, I was just being myopic. He didn't retire. He just went back to making Chinese movies now that the Chinese box office is as big as it's ever been. I was excited to hear that Jackie Chan was getting the Taken-treatment though. Jackie Chan at 50% of what he once was physically is still better than working around a lumbering Liam Nesson.

The Jackie Chan bits of The Foreigner were great. He's still shockingly nimble at 63. Chan has always been great as an action hero because he looks unassuming. It's not Arnold Schwarzenegger pretending he's an accountant in True Lies. At his age, Chan is even less threatening. That makes his explosions of movement even more exciting. He's clearly lost a step, but the movie does well by making him more of a general badass, making bathroom bombs just to make a point.

It kept feeling like they were trying to sneak in another movie about Pierce Brosnan navigating post-Troubles Irish politics. Really, Chan is a supporting character in Brosnan's movie by the end. I didn't care for the Pierce Brosnan role. Jackie Chan revealed himself as a 90s Action movie icon pretty early. I kept waiting for Brosnan to reveal himself as 007, and it never happened.

Perhaps it's my own fault for expecting something different, but this movie ended with a whimper. That this movie doesn't end with Chan opening the door to Brosnan's office, leaving behind him a hallway of a half-dozen knocked out henchmen is a real disappointment. There's enough of the version of The Foreigner that I liked to make up for the parts I didn't care about, so ultimately, I came out of this movie pleased.

Verdict: Weakly Recommend