Went into The Foreigner expecting vintage Jackie Chan acrobatics and left genuinely impressed with the first hour – a proper slow-burn revenge thriller with Chan playing a broken father rather than a quip machine.
The premise is cracking: quiet London takeaway owner versus ex-IRA turned politician (Pierce Brosnan on delightfully oily form). For about 70 minutes it’s tense, grounded, and surprisingly moving.
Then… well, the last half-hour arrives, and it’s as if someone remembered this is meant to be an action film after all. Suddenly everything turns predictable, drawn-out, and oddly dull. A shame, because what came before had real bite. Brosnan looks like he’s having the time of his life, and Chan’s dramatic chops deserve a better ending.
Ended up at 6.5/10… started like a 9, finished like a 5. Frustrating, because it was this close to being brilliant.
