The Foreigner

Welcome back Jackie Chan!  I sure have missed you and your inventive, choreographed fight scenes. And the return was worth the wait.  Yes, he is older (aren’t we all?) and perhaps not as energetic as he was in movies past, but I loved this new Jackie Chan.    He plays it totally serious in this one, and is surprisingly moving.  Chan plays Quan Minh, a Chinese immigrant living peacefully in England.  But then, his only daughter is killed in an IRA bombing and Chan is out to bring the perpetrators to justice.  The IRA presence is a bit dated, and it’s part as a plot device is a little tenuous, but it at least is a change from the continual mid-East based villainy.  And of course, the greater, hidden, plot sets him to solving the basic question…what are the names of the men who killed his daughter? Apparently, he has a certain set of skills (ala Liam Neesen) and sets out to do what Scotland Yard is failing at.  There is less fighting and humorous action than you may be used to seeing in a Jackie Chan movie, but there is more character development and plot.  Pierce Brosnan  is satisfactory as  a dubious British government official who may have clues to the identities of the killers.  I look forward to seeing this new, older and serious Jackie Chan in future movies!