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Post by mikef6 on Jun 30, 2018 18:13:07 GMT
The Foreigner / Martin Campbell (2017). “The Foreigner” offers us a standard movie plot, sort of a mash-up of “Collateral Damage, “Taken,” and any number of similar variations, but has some pleasures of its own to give, including Jackie Chan kicking rear-end again and what might be Pierce Brosnan’s best performance ever. In London, a group calling itself The Authentic IRA sets off a bomb on a busy commercial street. Among the dead is the high school daughter of Quan Ngoc Minh (Chan), a Chinese Nung (ethnic Chinese from Vietnam), a restaurant owner who had lost his entire family except the one daughter as refugees in the wake of the fall of Vietnam. There are no clues to the perpetrators, but Minh visits the police station on a daily basis. When he sees on TV that Liam Hennessy (Brosnan), an IRA leader from the 1980s, now an architect of the Northern Ireland peace agreement and Irish/English liaison, commenting on the bombing, he becomes convinced that Hennessy knows the bombers or could find out. This is when we find out that Minh’s background has not been that of an ordinary citizen of Vietnam as he begins to use his hidden skills to harass Hennessy. Minh had been one of the deadliest of U.S. Special Forces fighters in the Vietnam War. Chan plays his age (63) here. The years have started to wear on him. He still has his martial arts knowledge but when he is hit or thrown to the ground, it hurts. Brosnan brings to Hennessy’s leadership style all of the dedication and rage of his earlier terrorist days. I really enjoyed his work here. Also impressive are the two women in Hennessy’s life: his unhappy wife and young mistress (Irish born actresses Orly Brady and Charlie Murphy) both of whom have hidden agendas working. Some familiar movie tropes go marching by, but worth a watch anyway for the two male leads.
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Post by Primemovermithrax Pejorative on Jun 30, 2018 18:44:48 GMT
Just imagine if the story was about a British native whose family is killed by Islamic terrorists or a Pakistani grooming gang. It would probably be hugely popular with the public because it would be relevant to them (as art is supposed to be). But they cannot do something like that because that would be classified as hateful, even if it is based on reality. The white man failure theme keeps on goin.'
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Jul 1, 2018 11:01:05 GMT
Nice review you put up here mikef6, thanks for sharing it with us. I have not seen the film yet, but I have been tempted of doing so, but sadly I never really have been to fond of Jackie Chan's movies, which I kind of "hate" as I really want to enjoy them, and he always comes out as a likeable guy and all but his movies just never seems to do it for me. Brosnan sadly, seems to be another "fading" 90s action hero who far too often ends up in trashy looking and very poor b-movies, these days, but of what you have written, it have gotten me interested in seeing this film and I might just pick up the DVD of it next week, as I have went by it for the past few weeks, and now might be the time to do something about it.
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Post by taylorfirst1 on Jul 2, 2018 15:44:14 GMT
Above average action movie.
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Post by RedDeadFallout on Jul 11, 2018 13:56:56 GMT
Just imagine if the story was about a British native whose family is killed by Islamic terrorists or a Pakistani grooming gang. It would probably be hugely popular with the public because it would be relevant to them (as art is supposed to be). But they cannot do something like that because that would be classified as hateful, even if it is based on reality. The white man failure theme keeps on goin.' Depends on how you portray it of course, no one claims all Irish or Catholic people are members of the IRA.
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Post by King Conan on Jul 19, 2018 22:14:02 GMT
excellent movie.
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Post by Rey Kahuka on Jul 30, 2018 20:12:15 GMT
Saw this in the theater, surprisingly good. I thought it was going to be your basic Taken knock off, but it turned into a fun little political thriller.
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