Theme: Terrorists

The Commuter (2018) – Liam Neeson

This movie kicks off with some terribly tedius non-plot quasi drama scenes that attempt to build backstory but are executed in a seeminly intentionally messy muddled way.

Within 10 minutes, things start to get real, as Liam Neeson‘s NPC type character gets a rude awakening in the form of an unexpected termination from work. But the movie goes straight back to muddled drama mode.

20 minutes in, it starts to get interesting, as Neeson’s character meets a strange woman who sets him a challenge with a large cash prize, and the core concept of this movie begins to reveals itself.

Around half way in, Neeson’s character gets framed for the murder of an FBI agent, all the while staying on a commuter train where he’s been for most of the movie already. At this point, this movie looks set to be rated Watchable – no more, since the first half has been so boring with such little going on. Sure, there’s a vibe of mystery among the semi-helpless angst but that’s literally the entire movie thus far summed up already, so it’s not a great fit for an action hero movie fan but not completely off the mark either.

Unfortunately, this movie doesn’t get any better until the last half hour. The angty stress & tension takes a long time to subside. It turns into a bit of a horror train ride in the secod half, and takes forever to let up. It’s a very one dimensional movie in this respect, and falls short of the ideal vibe us action hero movie connoisseurs are most interested in. But it’s not completely off the mark – Neeson still plays a bit of an adept hero – kind of. He especially comes into his own in the last half an hour, when he takes the lead and starts telling everyone on the crashed train what to do, to help them survive. From that moment on, he gets more dominant as the movie goes on, until in the closing scene he’s full re-instated as a cop and re-finds the woman behind the phonecalls.

In the end, I rate it So-So. A couple levels down from Bang Average, and just a few levels up from utterly Unwatchable. But this doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it at all – it’s still a level above Watchable.

Non-Stop (2014) – Liam Neeson

This movie begins with Liam Neeson‘s character acting rather stressed and dazed in an airport, ignoring random people who speak to him, and looking at everyone suspiciously, especially a man dressed like a traditional muslim. Within 5 minutes you can probably guess where this movie is going, and why it’s been commissioned – to make everyone look at everyone suspiciously in public places, especially airports and train stations etc – and especially muslims. And the speech by the actual hijacker in the last 15 minutes is really pushing this narrative hard, so much that if you’ve ever seen this movie before, you might be tempted to switch off at that point in order to skip that nonsense while knowing you’re not missing anything special in the ending. Anyway, there’s nothing new about Neeson pansying to this kind of agenda, so let’s get back to seeing how the movie goes down.

In the 11th hour, ahem, the 11th minute, things finally start to get the slightest bit interesting, as Neeson’s character texts a message to someone saying “we are go” when the plane’s about to go. This tells us he’s probably doing some kind of job on that plane, but we still don’t know quite what it is.

In the 15th minute we see he is indeed an air marshall, or at least, he has the gun and badge of one while on the plane. Then one minute later, someone starts texting him, to mess with him, and the movie really kicks in, as the anonymous texter threatens to kill someone every 20 minutes until 150 million dollars is paid into his account.

The movie proceeds into a session of scrutinising all the passengers, trying to figure out who is the killer. In the real world, of course, bank accounts get frozen very easily, so this whole “wire me the ransom money” concept that’s so common in movies like this, is utter nonsense.

This one a very gritty, suspenseful action mystery movie with an extremely simple yet still confusing plot until the last 15 minuts. I have to rate it Below Average, and even that’s complimentary considering the BS it’s pushing. First time viewers may rate it more highly, but when you remember the vague outline of the story, there’s not much left to rewatch it for, until several years later by which time you’ve mostly forgotten how it goes and can kind of enjoy it again until it get ridiculous near the end in which case you might want to switch off early.

Unknown (2011) – Liam Neeson and Diane Kruger

This movie is a bit depressing to begin with. In the first half an hour, Liam Neeson‘s character, Dr Martin Harris, gets ruined by a car accident that all coincides with an elaborate scheme to steal his identity that even his wife plays along with, and this situation somehow manages to gaslight him into admitting that he’s not really who he says & knows he is, after only a few minutes of argument – or so it seems, until we see it was just an excuse to avoid arrest. But then by 35 minutes in, he seems truly gaslighted – even calling himself insane and asking a doctor for help, who only gaslights him further and drugs him up, which is sad to see but is an accurate reflection of how such a person is likely to be dealt with by such an other person in the real world.

Some folks might think this movie were commissioned to scare people into getting maximum IDs & verifications, in theory for their own protection, but in fact making them most easily scrutinised & controlled. The caving in to gaslighting, and the medical preprogramming, probably appeal to the same sponsors too; as does the GMO promotion at the very end, which I would say is quantity-minded and quality-ignorant on top of short-sighted – but that’s just a bluff – these folks know what they’re doing and it’s quite nefarious.

Fortunately, the real action picks up by 40 minutes in – if it didn’t get going soon, this movie wouldn’t appeal much to action movie fans like those who enjoyed Neeson’s performance in Taken (2008). Bearing in mind this movie was made prior to Taken 2 (2012).

In the end, Unknown (2011) paints a powerful but depressing story. It has some good acting, some good action and some good plot substance, but is still a bit thin on all these fronts, and it’s a bit heavy on dispiriting drama and the BS pushing, so for conscious connoisseurs of slick action hero movies, I have to rate this one Below Average at best. About equal to Taken 2 which was released just 1 year after this one and was pushing a similar amount of BS but of a different sort.

Diane Kruger does a decent job in the main supporting role here – as a woman called Gina who drove the taxi that crashed, then saved Dr Harris’s life, then when he found her again, she helped him some more, and they became quite close. She’s not a bad actress here – she helped make the movie what it is. Several other decent actors contributed too, but didn’t get so much screen time.

There’s an interesting plot twist half an hour before the end, which explains where Dr Harris’s combat skills come from, but it’s not until the final few minutes of the movie when he gets more of his memory back, that he really becomes an omnipotent fighting machine reminiscent of Liam Neeson’s performance in Taken.

Canary Black (2024) – Kate Beckinsale

This movie begins with the lead character wearing a white wig, not dissimilar to Atomic Blonde. She then goes on a bit of a killing spree, to obtain something from someone’s safe. There’s a lot of John Wick style shooting, stabbing and general hand-to-hand combat. But it’s lacking personality – all that grunting doesn’t make it any more charismatic – it’s really quite shallow in the opening scenes. The monotonous yet fast paced opening ends just about soon enough before I feet the need to fast forward, which makes for a respectable start.

After the opening action scene, we get a bit of domestic drama & romance which really shows the lead character Avery Graves (played by Kate Beckinsale) and her boyfriend David Brooks (played by Rupert Friend, from the Agent 47 sequel) as both having a serious lack of credible acting ability and a serious lack of action hero quality on top of that. Their acting is really emotionless, not even skin-deep, but in an irritable way, not in an ice-cold slick action movie star way. It’s like they’re both sleep deprived, numb zombies concentrating on something else and going through the motions while half asleep. The acting could hardly be any worse even from an indie B-movie, and come to think of it, the cinematography is pretty weak too, but it took a bit longer for me to clock on to this. Kate and Rupert both seem better suited to some kind of argumentative soap opera drama series. They’re both droning out their lines with terrible timing and zero sentiment early on – it’s really quite strange how random it is. Maybe AI made it up? It’s got a similar level of lifelessness as AI generated pictures. Maybe the audio is poorly synchronised with the lip sinking. Maybe the accents are a terrible choice. The outfits too. But the facial expressions and body language are that of sleepy grumpy teenagers while pretending to be hotshot secret agents having interesting and romantic chats. I blame the casting first & foremost, and by 10 minutes in I’m confident this movie is going to be rated Below Average at best. Aside from their individual flaws, the chemistry between the two of them couldn’t be any weaker if it tried.

The backing sound of this movie early on is a lot of white noise and screeching – it really makes me want to turn it off by the 13 minute mark. There’s very little going for this movie at all, in the beginning, and it’s really quite irritating, but it lasts over 100 minutes (including time for rolling credits). So far it’s on course for a rating even weaker than Below Average, but if the plot and action pick up in a good way, and the terrible background sound sorts itself out, then Below Average could surprisingly still be on the cards.

Fortunately, the movie does get a lot more real & interesting when the lead character’s boyfriend gets kidnapped and the kidnapper calls with his ransom demand in the 15th minute. Impressively, this energy is sustained for most of the movie, making it deserve of respectable rating of just Below Average. If it had a more advanced plot, and better actors, and more dynamic action, and higher budget cinematography, it would be easier to rewatch, but as it stands, it’s not so rewatchable until you’ve totally forgotten how it goes, and this is a big factor in why its rating remains Below Average as opposed to Bang Average – a score it only just falls short of.

Other key cast members, who are also slightly familiar faces from other movies, include Ray Stevenson who does a decent job as Avery’s boss Jarvis Hedlund (Ray passed away in May 2023 due to heart problems); Ben Miles as Nathan Evans who has a superior position to Jarvis, and Jaz Hutchins as Agent Maxfield who works directly for Nathan and has no problem outcasting & interrogating Avery and even her boss Jarvis as if he holds a more senior role or is at least on the same level. Apparently they’re all meant to be CIA agents, and I think Nathan is meant to be the director of the CIA, but it seems like Nathan & Maxfield are working for a superior agency to Jarvis & Avery, and at one point Nathan answers the phone seemingly calling someone else ‘Director’ so who knows. Their exact roles and agencies are not clearly defined in this movie, but their roles in relation to each other are clear enough.

Cleaner (2025) – Daisy Ridley

Although it stars a celebrity of massive Star Wars fame in Daisy Ridley, this movie sits somewhere between Hollywood and B-movie level. It reeks of indie-level production. It seems like a British production with mostly sub-par acting. The camerawork ranges from not bad, to annoying – there’s too often too much zoom on emotional faces doing bad acting, which makes for an uncomfortable viewing experience at times.

The plot starts gaining momentum from around half an hour in, when a building gets hijacked. Prior to that it’s little more than irritating drama. Once it warms up, the action is a bit thin, and drama is a bit OTT, and the quality of acting is mostly weak. Daisy Ridley’s character doesn’t actually enter the building to properly tackle the baddies until 45 minutes later. That’s a massive fail of this movie, from an action hero movie point of view – how the lead star never actually gets inside the building to properly fight the baddies until the last 20 minutes of the movie! What a non-descript drama-fest.

The autistic guy namedropped Piers Morgan a few times, including asking “what would Piers Morgan do”, which makes me think he may have personally sponsored this movie in an attempt to improve his own public image.

I rate this movie Barely Watchable. It’s several levels down from Bang Average, and just one level up from Unwatchable. I’m really surprised to see Daisy Ridley get involved with of movie of this calibre. Maybe she’s struggling to find work these days. Maybe she’s being blanked by Hollywood for walking away from their darker antics – if ever I found that to be the case, she will have earnt my respect, but as it stands, this movie is bad – real bad, and barely watchable at the best of times. I honestly recommend just giving it a miss – it’s a desperate waste of time unless you’re tragically bored stiff already. Would you believe it actually had a Box Office release, grossing over 1 million dollars? It even had a budget of 25 million dollars – I wonder where that money went. Maybe this movie was really just a money laundering exercise. They successfully managed to make nearly 24 million bucks disappear. I almost feel embarrassed for wasting my time sitting through this movie and taking the time to review it on this site. The things I do so you don’t have to!

Iron Man 3 (2013) – Robert Downey Jr

Iron Man 3 (2013)

The first 10 minutes are a mix of plot-building drama with mild humour, and a couple minutes of irritating anti-Islamic conditioning. We also get a nice little action scene where Robert Downey Jr shows off some of his Wing Chun skill, before putting on his latest Iron Man suit at super high speed.

The plot takes some refreshing twist within the first hour, and although it dries up a bit in the second hour, the action is generally decent throughout – there are some really strong scenes from time to time, and plenty more mediocre. There’s also several instances of good humour in this movie. So I have to say it outperforms Iron Man 2 (2010) as well as The Avengers (2012) where Iron Man was one of the main characters and pretty much stole that rather muddled show. But Iron Man 3 is not quite as original or awesome as the original Iron Man 1 from 2008 of course, so ultimately I rate Iron Man 3 as just Above Average for an action hero movie – just one step down from the original which I rated as Decent. With a bit more of a smooth & comfortable, confident vibe, and a bit less scary, depressing and irritating, I would have rated this movie equal to the original. It would have been nice to see at least one of the women being kind of happy but every single one of them is a tormented soul – especially Iron Man’s woman Pepper Potts played by Gwyneth Paltrow who is literally tortured throughout this movie. It’s not meant to be a horror movie, it’s meant to be a cool action hero movie, but what do you expect from Hollywood – they’re addicted to horror and usually find a way to make it ruin an otherwise pretty cool movie.

Guy Pearce plays the main villain in this movie, called Aldrich Killian. He does a decent job of it.

Ben Kingsley plays the villain early on – a terrorist called The Mandarin who’s really just an actor called Trevor Slattery who didn’t think anyone was being hurt. His acting was excellent here.

Don Cheadle also returns as a core character, Tony Stark’s old friend Colonel James Rhodes who has his own suit and calls himself Iron Patriot – formerly called War Machine. He does an alright job here.

Iron Man 3 is eventually rounded off with a strong dose of conditioning against those who preach caution toward technological advancement. I’d guess this plus the anti-Islamic conditioning earlier on were probably what got this movie sponsored.

Iron Man (2008) – Robert Downey Jr

This already feels like an old movie because it’s been around so long and was one the very first movie produced by Marvel Studios, and the first to come under the umbrella of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it’s still pretty cutting-edge by today’s Marvellous standards.

Of course it’s not the first movie based on Marvel Comics – there were over a dozen before it, including the early Blade, X-Men and Spider Man movies, and even Howard The Duck going back to 1986.

Iron Man stars Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark, the main shareholder and chief inventor for the world’s top weapons designer & manufacturer. Then he sees the damage his weapons are doing even to Americans and turns his back on the former business, instead focusing on developing his Iron Man suit that turns him into a one man army and a superhero.

Gwyneth Paltrow (in her mid 30s) plays Pepper Potts – Tony Stark’s beloved PA.

The main antagonist – initially the friendly VP of Stark International, called Obadiah Stane – is played quite convincingly by Jeff Bridges. He eventually builds his own Iron Man suit after analysing the wreckage of Tony’s prototype, and becomes known as Iron Monger.

Of course, as with any war related movie, there’s a lot of narrative pushing and conditioning built into this movie, which sickens me, but looking past that, the budget is good, the action is good, the acting is good, and the plot development is not bad either.

Iron Man has some slightly stomached churning moments, bordering on horror, such as when Tony realises his heart has been replaced with a device powered by a car battery, and when the main antagonist pulls out that device later on. This, and the rotten America vs Middle East typecasting, also brings down my overall score of the Iron Man movie, causing me to rate it about equal to the likes of Doctor Strange, Venom, Black Panther and Blue Beetle. I rate it slightly weaker than the likes of Aquaman, Black Adam and Wonder Woman, mainly because their most thrilling moments are a bit stronger and/or their plots are a bit richer, and/or their downsides are less of an issue – but there’s not much in it. I rate Thor even higher. If we compare the best moments in Iron Man (such as when he makes his escape from the terrorists’ cave, and when he has a run-in with the F-22 raptors) vs the best moments in Thor (such as when Thor infiltrates the black site to go after his hammer, and when he regains his powers just in time to deal with the Destroyer robot that Loki is controlling) – they’re not massively dissimilar in terms of entertainment value. Thor’s scenes – especially the one where he goes after his hammer – may possibly be more credible, relatable and built up with better momentum, but the general entertainment value including good humour and healthy vibes throughout the movie Thor go a long way towards its ranking too.

From Paris With Love (2010) – John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers

In a way, this movie is consistently quite entertaining. The basic plot concept is very simple but kind of works, although it could easily benefit from another layer of sophistication. In its current state it’s like an episode from a series like NCIS and could have been wrapped up in an hour.

From Paris With Love stars John Travolta as Charlie Wax – an obnoxious, unorthodox hotshot government agent; and Jonathan Rhys Meyers as James Reese – the pen-pushing agent who gets his first job in the field as he’s assigned to working with Wax, which initially seems unbearable but he soon gets used to it and soon learns to appreciate Wax’s mad methods of getting the job done efficiently yet wildly & savagely.

Acting wise, they both do a decent job – quite convincing except for Travolta’s overweight physique (which his heavy coat and fluffy scarf are constantly trying to hide).

Secondary characters include Kasia Smutniak who quite well plays Caroline – Reese’s fiancée who has a dirty little secret; and Richard Durden who satisfactorily plays Ambassador Bennington – Reese’s boss.

Another actor also does pretty good as the near-robotic agent driving Wax around towards the end, but I can’t put a name to his face after checking in Google & IMDB for quite a while. He makes a great semblance of a typical order-following, speak-only-when-spoken-to elite-level national security professional which contrasts nicely with Wax and his renegade methods even though they’re on the same side and working well together.

The fight scenes that begin after 20 minutes in, are shot with unpleasantly jittery camerawork accompanying aggressive noises etc, presumably to mask the lack of real martial arts or athletic ability of John Travolta. He also wears a very chunky coat, scarf and distinctive facial hair presumably to mask his podgy belly and neck – not the most convincing look for a rope-swinging rooftop-jumping special forces hotshot.

Some of the slower drama scenes get rough & radical too, such as when Wax & Reese snort coke from the vase that Wax told Reese to carry around with him.

There’s a blasphemic theme throughout, mainly coming from Travolta’s character, so this movie is not so suitable for young family viewing or when you just want to see & hear things that are pleasant & respectful, especially from the lead protagonists. But if you’re feeling numb or patient enough to be immune to its blasphemy, you may be able to enjoy the fast action and mild humour found throughout this movie.

There’s an awesome plot twist after an hour in, as Wax & Reese discover Reese’s fiancée Caroline may be harbouring a dark secret. Why did it take till the movie was almost over to get really spicy though?

It’s disgusting, but not surprising, to see this movie intentionally convoluting Islamic Dua (invitation to the religion) with terrorist grooming, towards the end. I guess this was the real main motive behind the making of this movie. Typical Hollywood.

Overall, with all things considered, I rate it an OK action movie. Just OK – no more, no less. Just about Average in terms of entertainment value provided, considering all its pros & cons.

Thunderball (1965) – Sean Connery

Thunderball is the 4th movie in the James Bond saga and the fourth time Sean Connery plays the leading role – he does a good job as usual.

This movie gets off to an interesting start, with a cross-dressing agent trying to trick James Bond, who kills him and takes time to throw some flower over his body before running away and escaping from the rooftop via jetpack to his bag-of-tricks car. We then begin to hear the Thunderball theme tune by Tom Jones, all within the first 5 minutes.

It’s good to see Desmond Llewelyn back as Q, around the 1 hour mark.

This movie is a bit slower, more monotonous and more one-dimensional and yet still messier than Goldfinger, but not devastatingly so.

The main antagonist in this movie is Emilio Largo (Spectre’s “Number 2” agent) played fairly well by Adolfo Celi although he’s probably a bit podgy and effeminate for such an active top agent in such a physically demanding role.

There are several women in this movie but none get significant enough screen time or deliver a significant enough performance to be particularly worth mentioning here, although it’s good to see the return of Martine Beswick after the strong impression she made in her minor role (in the gypsy girls’ cat-fight) in From Russia With Love – two Bond movies ago.

The Patriot (1998) – Steven Seagal

The Patriot starts off seeming like a B movie in terms of cinematography, script detail and acting quality – seemingly worse than his worst early movie (Marked For Death). But it picks up and becomes a watchable movie with a mildly engaging plot, some decent scenes and a fair quality of work from the main man, Steven Seagal.

Within the first few minutes, it reeks of him not being challenged in the slightest way as he runs rampant with his own style of acting and storytelling. While there are advantages to this, in how he can unabatedly bring his visions and persona to life in the fullest form, there are of course downsides to such lack of critical feedback.

It starts to get a bit spicy within the first 10 minutes, then it deflates, then we get a bit of a plot twist as the core concept unravels.

Camilla Belle plays Steven Seagal’s androgynous-looking child in this movie. I honestly couldn’t tell if they were playing his son or his daughter until I looked it up.

Seagal drops a truth bomb or two in this movie, for example on the topic of western medicine vs alternative ways – at first I wondered how he got away with that, but it soon became apparent that it was little more than a bait & switch, as it proceeded to push modern western contagion theory, military enforced quarantine culture, and urgent blind acceptance of injectable cures. Add to that, how this movie also encourages its audience mistake patriotism for terrorism, then what we ultimately have, is 90 minutes of typical Hollywood filth, on a B movie budget!

We’ve already Steven Seagal go from skinny in his first few movies, to a stronger build in Under Siege, to getting chubby after that. Now he’s clearly gained weight on another level for this movie since his last one (Fire Down Below). He tried to hide his belly under a long trench coat in the opening scene here, but he’s not fooling anyone with that. He also took a break for a few years after this stinker, before coming back strong with Exit Wounds in 2001, so I guess he was going through a difficult time in his personal life around about when this movie was made and for some years after. Or maybe he just felt guilty about the shameful aspects of this movie, and entered a bout of depression?

Seagal divorced Kelly LeBrock in 1996 – the same year as he got written out of Executive Decision after a dispute behind the scenes – then he had mild success with The Glimmer Man (1996) and a little less success with Fire Down Below (1997) before making The Patriot (1998) under the wing of his own production company in partnership with some others. Then he took 3 years off, and came back strong with Exit Wounds co-starring DMX, Anthony Anderson, Michael Jai White and Eva Mendes.

Honestly, The Patriot is watchable – it’s a shame about its malevolent intent, but if you can overlook that and try to enjoy the movie, it’s not too bad if you’re bored and haven’t seen it before or recently enough to remember much about it. I won’t be in any hurry to rewatch it, but several years down the line I might forget almost everything about The Patriot and then be simultaneously mildly entertained and disgusted by it all over again – who knows.

The Patriot (1998) starring Steven Seagal

Ticker (2001) – Steven Seagal and Tom Sizemore

Steven Seagal stars in this movie as a hotshot senior bomb squad technician who doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty and has a very casual borderline-delusional shallowly-serious demeanour & stride like even bombs & bullets can’t touch him.

Terrible Irish accents from Dennis Hopper and Michael Halsey are almost comical.

Oh and it’s a terror-themed movie in 2001 – what a surprise.

Tom Sizemore co-stars in this movie, as possibly the main character – a detective trying to track down the Irish terror cell. Dennis Hopper plays the main baddie. Rappers Nas and Ice-T also take minor roles in this movie. And Jaime Pressly (star of Poison Ivy III) plays a major role, as a captured member of the terror group. Joe Spano (the FBI guy from early seasons of NCIS) plays the police captain responsible for managing Seagal’s and Sizemore’s characters.

Seagal has a big belly already in this movie, making him hobble slowly when he tries to walk fast, and his action work is significantly reduced from previous movies to the point where he’s not even the clear number 1 star of the show any more. Sizemore is kind of the main guy in this movie, based on screen time and acting talent. And in the closing credits, Dennis Hopper is listed 2nd, so Seagal is officially deemed only the 3rd main character in this movie, which is weird since it portrays him as some kind of untouchable hotshot throughout, and the main hero at the end, as if it were just another show based around him, but lacking in screen time and action work compared to what we’re used to from his other movies.

The penultimate ten minutes, when the drama moves over to City Hall, is pretty poor to say the least, reminiscent of Seagal’s worst ever movies, even though prior to that things were pretty captivating, and in the very final 5 or 10 minutes things pick up a little bit as Seagal and Sizemore try to defuse a bomb each at different ends of the building. Although the very last few minutes, from when Seagal focuses on his own task, to when the movie ends, that stretch is barely watchable – it’s 99% suspense and white noise, very little actually happening.

Even though this movie is a bit of a cheap mess, its cast quality, acting quality, genre, pace of action, and its general atmosphere, make it an OK movie in my eyes, relatively speaking, if we can forgive its underlying motives which are hard to avoid in Hollywood, hence relatively speaking. It’s no worse than most of Seagal’s early movies prior to Under Siege (1992). Indeed it’s about equal to Above the Law (1988), Hard To Kill (1990), and Out For Justice (1991). And it’s not nearly as bad as Seagal’s worst early movie, which was unequivocally Marked For Death (1990) in my humble opinion.

The Foreigner (2017) – Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan

The Foreigner (1997) poster

ACTION BUSYNESS ⭐⭐⭐⭐
MOOD SETTING ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
SCRIPT COHESION ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
PLOT DENSITY ⭐⭐⭐

This movie is thoroughly entertaining – it’s one of Jackie’s slightly more gritty performances but still provides great action for his usual fanbase just with the omission of the usual comedic edge. The only letdown is the socio-political message being pushed by this movie. That aspect of it really stinks. Still, Jackie holds it down very well so it doesn’t upset the movie too much. We’re treated to a very strong performance by Pierce Brosnan too, as an Irish politician and former IRA leader who has to defend his farm-come-castle from an angry elderly Chinaman who happens to be ex special forces – a role played flawlessly by Jackie Chan with the help of a great all-round movie production.

It’s slightly minimal on plot aside from the core concept – hardly as many twists & turns as The Matrix – but that’s fine. It focuses on one theme – a slowly developing scenario – and does it exceedingly well.

We’ve previously seen how fantastic a movie can be when a top martial arts movie star teams up with a former James Bond, as happened when Van Damme worked with Roger Moore on The Quest (1996). The Foreigner is no exception to this trend – Jackie Chan makes a great team with Pierce Brosnan here, only this time they are adversaries.

There’s a good amount of combat but this movie, but the entertainment value comes more from the story. Action wise, it’s not nearly so complex or grandiose as James Bond, but it’s got a good amount of simple action throughout. Script wise, it’s a very simple story, well executed. Cast wise, there are several strong characters in this movie.

Rumour says Jackie had been craving a more serious romantic or dramatic role (minus the comedy) for a long time. Now that he’s finally had one, we can see why. He’s an outstanding actor. It’s a very moving movie. This follows the pattern of his first few American movies, where he wasn’t permitted to choreograph his fight scenes in the ways he knew would work best, because the directors couldn’t think beyond trying to imitate the old established style of screen combat, but when Jackie eventually gained enough authority to do his own thing, the world loved it, and I hope those early directors held their heads in shame.