10/7/18 - The Foreigner (2017) - 5-/10

Solid genre effort but it wants to play more like a political thriller and less an action film. That is fine, but it consists of 2 concurrent stories that careen on the edges of eachother rather than a driven through line where the main character (Chan) is instrumental. From his silent mystery to his plot device exploits and especially his “Chinaman” (I think that is all he is known as throughout the film) side-character brush offs by toughs, he is our surrogate rather than a driving character with intention/action. He had all of these in some supply, but his “foreign”-ness just rubbed me the wrong way.

The limited action is decent, especially at Jackie’s age. Too many modern quick cuts though. Just let me follow Jackie’s awesomeness. The photography overall is slick and budgeted, which makes it feel more “theater and less direct to video”.

But, besides being an ok way to spend an hour 53, there isn’t much there. Even the dramatic emotional moments just felt routine. I wanted more Jackie. Perhaps I wanted emotion and development when I shouldn’t have, but we got lackluster versions of that just not with “the Chinaman”. I think I wanted it to be more of a “The Equalizer” or “John Wick” kind of film, a film that’s sole purpose is following them and their path of aggression/justice/revenge. I didn’t care about how the bad guy might be a bad guy.