government (and even if they’re not, deserve to be treated with the same respect as other citizens).įinanced mostly with Chinese money, but directed by two-time James Bond helmer Campbell (who reunites here with “GoldenEye” star Pierce Brosnan), “The Foreigner” offers Chan a unique chance to emote before shifting into more conventional vigilante territory. The message here is unmistakably not to underestimate or ignore Asian immigrants, who just might be elite human weapons, trained by the U.S.
#The foreigner jackie chan film movie#
equivalent of someone upsetting an innocent vendor’s fruit cart during a footchase through a crowded bazaar? Could it be Chan blowing up the lavatory of a shady bureaucrat? Or perhaps punching holes in the walls, windows and roof of a cozy Irish bed-and-breakfast? Beyond that novelty, “The Foreigner” amounts to an above-average but largely by-the-numbers action movie in which Chan does battle with generic thugs and shadowy political forces. For starters, practically everyone in “The Foreigner” still refers to Chan’s character as “the Chinaman,” which is the kind of description that one associates more with episodes of “Deadwood” than modern-day Belfast or London (the epithet is by no means equivalent to the more specific labels of “Frenchman” or “Englishman,” in that it has traditionally been used as a blanket term for Asians of all nationalities).īut - and this is a key distinction - the movie is keenly aware of the West’s long tradition of white-on-Asian racism, and “The Foreigner” flips the script on the tradition of Hollywood studio movies in which a white hero kicks foreign butt in some exotic country.
And while the title, time and a few small details may have been altered or updated, the result is nothing if not dated, even if its premise clearly echoes the edginess of living in Europe today.
That book would be Stephen Leather’s “The Chinaman,” whose name has wisely been changed (although not that wisely, because who really wants to see a movie generically called “The Foreigner”?).
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