The Foreigner | Teen Ink

The Foreigner

January 25, 2019
By MovieReviewer_18 ELITE, Short Hills, New Jersey
MovieReviewer_18 ELITE, Short Hills, New Jersey
678 articles 0 photos 8 comments

 The Foreigner is an action-packed thriller that manages to surprise audiences at every inch and corner. The movie revolves around Quan Ngoc Minh, who happens to be a humble, down-to-Earth businessman with a dark, depressing past. Although he has done his best to forget his long-buried past, all of it comes charging back at him after the death of his daughter that he feels responsible for. Quan had taken his teenage daughter to a prom store after school one typical day, but because she was in a hurry to get in the store, he dropped her off as he searched for a parking spot. However, a group calling themselves the authentic IRA placed a bomb right outside the shop and set if off, destroying the store and killing those inside of it, including Quan's daughter, who was his last remaining family member. Because Quan feels that he has a need to avenge his daughter's death and get revenge on the people who did it, he constantly searches through news sources to figure out who did it, waits at the police station for the chief on multiple occasions, and ends up going to a government official who has a past that includes working for the IRA. Quan feels that the officer, Liam Hennessey, is the key to getting the names of the bombers, and although he kindly requests for the names and Liam claims to not know them, Quan begins to toy with Liam in a game of cat and mouse as he begins to let him know that he can get to him, including setting off various bombs, running away from police officers to the point that no one can find him, capturing photos of Liam that he wouldn't want others to see, and finding him everywhere that he runs away to. As Quan to shows off what he is truly capable of, numerous different government officials search for the terrorist group and Quan refuses to quit until he finally is able to give payback to those responsible for the death of his daughter. 
 The Foreigner is actually a relentless adventure that has a rich story and a complicated plot that is nothing but delightful enjoyableness. The beginning of the movie brilliantly sets the stage for the rest of the film, and viewers immediately know that this is a revenge story about a man trying to avenge everyone that he has ever lost. The middle of the movie marvelously progresses things along, and as the movie continues, things get substantially more interesting to the point that audiences feel incredibly connected to the film and can do nothing but highly anticipate what comes next. The enticing ending of the movie proves to be filled with intensity, sophisticated battle scenes, and is definitely one of the movie's main highlights, since it is able to capture everything that the rest of the movie tried to accomplish and then some, as the movie amazingly concludes and ties up all loose ends, both literally and figuratively.
 The Foreigner appears to just be a typical Kung Fu flick that just serves as an excuse for people to watch Jackie Chan beat up people, but, in reality, the movie is actually so much more complicated and intelligent. Almost all of the characters have motivations for their actions and have rich backstories. The entire conflict between Quan and Liam is an exhilarating one and truly is something special to watch as Quan literally picks apart the man, in an attempt to showcase what he is capable of. The actual fight scenes in the movie are actually quite elaborate and creative, since Quan finds new, original ways to take down others that involve common items, such as groceries. The relationships between all of the characters is complex to the say the least, and this adds a significant amount of drama to the movie. Very few of the characters are actually one-dimensional, and almost everyone serves a purpose to the rest of the film. 
 The Foreigner greatly benefits from having a tremendous performance from Jackie Chan. His role in the movie is crucial and essential to the movie's entertainment, and he is able to basically carry the entire movie on his shoulders. However, his fabulous performance isn't the only great one. Pierce Brosnan does a terrific job of playing Liam, and he is really able to capture the essence of a multi-dimensional character that has mixed emotions on two different sides of the same coin. 
 Not only does The Foreigner sit well with viewers, but critics also feel a great deal of satisfaction with the movie. Rotten Tomatoes gave the movie a solid 65%, which isn't fantastic but certainly could be worse, and IMDb gave the movie a high 7/10, which is actually a lot better than it seems. However, an outstanding 90% of Google users liked the movie, and those who didn't like the movie were probably just saddened by the fact that the movie wasn't just Jackie Chan showing off his talent. 
 The Foreigner is a superb movie and is absolutely worth watching, since the movie depicts the shear awesomeness of Jackie Chan and is also able to involve a clever plot that has loads of physical fights as well as political ones, helping to allow the movie to showcase many different conflicts and one man's journey to avenge his loved ones in an outrageously captivating manner that is sure to please. 


The author's comments:

"You have no idea who you’re dealing with." - Liam Hennessy


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