"What the paper says and what the truth was are two entirely different things. "I remember The Daily Mirror, literally on the front page, said something about it being 'moronic.' It was a huge headline," says Campbell. The city's tabloid headlines screamed, which took Campbell by surprise.
Others were disturbed that the stunt recalled London's 7/7 attacks in 2005, when coordinated suicide bombings targeted the city's public transportation system, including one on a double-decker bus. "Next time you blow up a bus on Lambeth Bridge maybe tell us first so children in park aren't freaked? She was part of a flurry of angry tweets from residents. The local fire department filmed the scene, commenting on Twitter: "Just another day on the river" before showing the moving bus going up in flames.īut some Londoners, such as My Not So Perfect Life author Sophie Kinsella, didn't get the heads-up. The area was closed off to the public with large signs placed well in advance. Residents were warned with letters as well as postings on elevators and in building lobbies about the pending controlled explosion. Filmmakers worked with local councils to get permission, with assurances of stringent safety precautions. "That took four months of negotiations," says Campbell. “The Foreigner” feels like halves of two different (and probably good) movies pasted together.It wasn't an easy process. We never dig deep enough to truly care about any of the characters or even the plot twists. The IRA revival storyline hampers the father’s revenge plot and vice versa.
This vigilante justice story - standard fare for the aging action star - could have signaled a new turn in Chan’s career, but he has to share this movie with Brosnan’s far more fascinating plot about dynasties of terrorism. With all this going on at once, why does it feel so dull? Meanwhile, a likely terrorist seduces a reporter. There’s a lot happening in “The Foreigner.” One sequence intercuts Chan being stalked through the forest by Hennessy’s special ops soldier nephew, while Hennessy chats with the British police who are watching him with drones, while also torturing the truth out of one of his own pals. When he isn’t in motion, he stares vacantly, communicating his shock and trauma, his character merely a violent automaton. It’s a refreshing change of pace to see Chan in this more serious role, but he isn’t given all that much to do. Brosnan talks out of both sides of his mouth to British politicians and his cabal of former (or are they?) IRA militants. His fighting style in the film is brutish, resourceful and extremely effective. All just to get some face time with the minister.Ĭhan, now in his 60s, isn’t the energetic tornado of whirling kicks and punches he once was, but he’s still got it. He plants nasty jungle traps, ensnaring Hennessy’s thugs.
He detonates homemade bombs with notes just reading “NAMES” all around the environs of deputy minister Hennessy’s stomping grounds of Belfast. Rebuffed by the police and government, he relies on his old bag of tricks, developed in the jungles of Vietnam, honed by U.S. He wants names of those responsible for his daughter’s death.
ETA?Ĭhan’s role is brooding, serious and simple.
the Irish Republican Army? That could work. Despite its literary origins, the film feels a bit like a writer tossed a few darts at a board labeled with aging action stars and various terrorist groups and just decided to make it work. Chan’s character Quan Ngoc Minh is mostly referred to as “the Chinaman” throughout, even though he’s ethnically Vietnamese. His counterpart is a grizzled former 007 himself, Pierce Brosnan, growling his way into a meaty and morally ambiguous role as former IRA member and Irish Deputy Minister Liam Hennessy, attempting to maneuver his way around the aftermath of the bombing, which is claimed by a rouge IRA cell.Īdapted from Stephen Leather’s novel “The Chinaman,” “The Foreigner” is only so-titled because the alternative would have caused an outcry. Chan co-stars as a man seeking vengeance for the death of his daughter in a bloody London bombing. Legendary action star and martial arts maestro Jackie Chan gets his “Taken” moment with the terrorism thriller “The Foreigner,” written by David Marconi and directed by frequent Bond director Martin Campbell.