He plays a duplicitous politician with former comrades thinking he has gone soft. Brosnan plays a thinly disguised version of Gerry Adams with the beard, glasses and the Ulster accent. Hennessy finds out that he is not the only person to have had a violent past as Minh was in the special-ops. When Minh gets short shrift from Hennessy, he takes a violent path. He targets Liam Hennessy (Pierce Brosnan) a former IRA commander now a deputy leader of the Assembly. A distraught Minh wants to find the people responsible and he does not take no for an answer. In The Foreigner, directed by Martin Campbell (Goldeneye) Jackie Chan holds back the comedy playing Quan Ngoc Minh whose daughter dies in a bombing campaign started by an IRA spin off group. A traffic jam and a wrong turn meant I avoided being in an area where an IRA bomb went off some years ago. It is not always been in the background for me. I have still lived the majority of my life from the time I was born in the background of 'The Troubles' where indiscriminate bombing affected people in mainland Britain. Chan's performance is far from his usual work, but he has always been a physical actor, more than one who works with words or facial expressions, and he lived up to my hopes as a long-time fan.Īlthough The Good Friday agreement was signed in 1998, almost 20 years ago.
Pierce Brosnan offers a fine performance as what can only be described as the Minister for IRA Relations in Northern Ireland. It's a world of lies, corruption, violence and betrayal under a facade of peace and smiles that Jackie's single-minded pursuit of answers reveals: he's almost an anti-MacGuffin, appearing to matter very little to any of the people in the movie, who causes all the fuss. Jackie is not whom he appears to be, but neither is Brosnan, nor, in the end, are any of the main players, kindly, platitudinous politicians. He tries to comfort Jackie, but can't help him, when Jackie demands names. Jackie's search for the people who killed his daughter lead him to Pierce Brosnan, an old IRA hand, now the British Minister in charge of keeping the peace in Northern Ireland. That's how the other characters see Jackie Chan's character: as an old Chinaman whose daughter had been killed by an explosion in a dress store, from a bomb planted by a wing of the IRA, breaking 19 years of peace.
JACKIE CHAN FILM WHERE HE LIES TO A BRITISH GUY MOVIE
This movie is based on Stephen Leather's novel THE CHINAMAN. They should have simply done a period piece which would be even better. It's a throwback to the 90s including the IRA replacements. Brosnan is a great foil playing a two-faced character. This is good for his career and hopefully, somebody has a good franchise for the man. I'm more convinced than ever that he should be doing a seriously dark Death Wish reboot. He replaces his fun style of kung fu fighting to deliver some darker fights and a more dramatic performance. Quan confronts Hennessy in his own way demanding names. He fears upcoming pardons being endangered and an unraveling of the political peace accord. Northern Ireland government deputy minister Liam Hennessy (Pierce Brosnan) is a former UDI leader who knows nothing about the bombing.
In London, Quan Ngoc Minh (Jackie Chan) takes his daughter dress shopping and she's killed in a terrorist bombing claimed by the Irish UDI. Jackie's vengeance-fuelled scenes are hugely satisfying, while Brosnan reminds you of what a fine actor he is outside of the Bond franchise. There are only three fight scenes here, but the non-action is every bit as engaging as the on-screen physicality, a mix of high-level politics, treachery, betrayal, and zealots willing to die and kill for the cause. Pierce Brosnan plays a thinly-disguised Gerry Adams, proclaiming his innocence but somehow involved in the terror attacks. Jackie, who still kicks ass at the age of 62 and who seemingly still does his own stunts - even if wires do help him out these days - plays a grieving gather who goes gunning for the goons responsible for his daughter's death in a bomb blast. And it just so happens to be Jackie Chan's best movie of the last ten years, a thankfully serious political thriller about IRA terrorists bringing chaos to Britain's capital once more. It's very similar to his film before that - the exemplary EDGE OF DARKNESS remake with Mel Gibson. As a film, THE FOREIGNER couldn't be any more different from director Martin Campbell's last movie, the ludicrous and ludicrously overblown Hollywood blockbustere THE GREEN LANTERN.