The Foreigner (2003) is an OK movie starring Steven Seagal. Not to be confused with the far superior movie from 2017 that goes by the same name and stars Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan – that version of The Foreigner was one of the best martial arts packed action hero movies ever made, not because the plot was very busy, but because Jackie’s performance was outstanding and the simple plot was executed like a work of art. Seagal’s movie, however, is somewhere between run-of-the-mill and boring, with occasional spikes of the good stuff, so far as movies from the likes of Seagal or Jackie are concerned. But it’s not all bad. It’s got several cool bits. Several helpings of a post-prime Seagal in his element.
Much like Steven Seagal’s last movie (Half Past Dead), this movie loses steam about half way though – not that it was ever very exciting to begin with, but the plot was building up and Seagal was looking cool. But from around the half way mark, things became a bit gritty and not much happened except a bit of storyline entanglement, and only a few simple action scenes to show for it, aside from frequently irritating music as the movie regularly tries to create a vibe of suspense during slow drama scenes. It’s like they were trying to be clever, and trying to turn it into a thoughtful legal drama like NCIS, but they only ended up getting boring like Law & Order. Or maybe the director left half way through, since in the second half there was much ado about nothing. Action was happening, but it wasn’t making much sense in the end. I tuned in for the Glimmer Man and I ended up getting a poor man’s drunken Columbo with a gun. The only reason I rate it higher than barely watchable is because it starts off stronger than it finishes.
It’s also quite strange how another man is clearly dubbing over Seagal’s voice for much of the last few scenes. Maybe Seagal has a dispute with the directors or the producers over his lines. Or maybe they realised how poor the script was and tried rewriting it after filming was already finished.
Script aside, the supporting main cast are actually not bad. They include Max Ryan as the main adversary. If he’s not the illegitimate child of Bruce Forsyth (who seems to have given him his first big break on The Price is Right) then I’m a monkey’s uncle.