THE FOREIGNER (2017) Three stars

There’s a scene in Cameron Crowe’s SAY ANYTHING (1989) when Ione Skye’s Diane accuses John Cusack’s Lloyd of ageism or “prejudice or discrimination on the grounds of a person’s age.”

That was nearly three decades ago and you’d think we’d have progressed beyond all that, given Mike Gundy’s epic “I’m a man! I’m 40!” rant from several years back and the fact that Donald Trump’s over 70 years old, although Trump’s not a good example of aging gracefully.

Perhaps we have progressed generally, but not specifically in the realm of the action movie.

Hell, I don’t know, maybe it’s just me who’s guilty of action movie ageism.

I last liked an Arnold Schwarzenegger action spectacular all the way through, why it’s been since TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY and that’s 1991, folks. For what it’s worth, LAST ACTION HERO, TRUE LIES, and ERASER all had their high points but their lows outweighed their highs. BATMAN & ROBIN is just a disaster of epic proportions and COLLATERAL DAMAGE and TERMINATOR 3 are just weak retreads of previous Arnold hits. Arnold’s THE LAST STAND from a few years back did very little for me, though Johnny Knoxville’s presence certainly did not help and especially not when he’s wearing that damn goofy hat.

I’ve had trouble with Sylvester Stallone outside ROCKY and RAMBO movies. It’s been several years since I watched it, but I had great difficulty taking THE EXPENDABLES (2010) seriously or even appreciating it as preposterous action comic strip and now that I’ve admitted that I just might have my “man card” revoked. That’s why my mind was blown when CREED (2015) turned out so damn good. It’s one of the very best ROCKY movies, right behind the original in my estimation. Arnold and Sly teamed up for a prison escape flick named ESCAPE PLAN (2013) and I escaped from watching it with somebody else by taking a nap.

Bruce Willis branched out to PULP FICTION, THE SIXTH SENSE, and UNBREAKABLE, not to mention the absolutely ridiculous COLOR OF NIGHT made the same year (1994) as PULP FICTION. He’s not as pigeonholed to the action genre as Stallone and Schwarzenegger.

Guess this all brings me back around to THE FOREIGNER, starring Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan. Honestly, I had no great expectations one way or another coming in and I finished the movie feeling pleasantly surprised.

I’ll be the first to admit that I lost interest in Chan during the more American stage of his career. RUSH HOUR 3 can do that to a person and I skipped THE KARATE KID remake just because it seemed like a lame movie to watch in the 21st century. Over the years, though, I have sought out and watched several Chan spectaculars from earlier in his career, including RUMBLE IN THE BRONX, FIRST STRIKE, SUPERCOP, and THE LEGEND OF DRUNKEN MASTER, that succeeded in making him more of a star in America.

I thought Brosnan made a couple solid James Bond pictures, TOMORROW NEVER DIES and THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, but I honestly believe that he’s become a better actor with age, just like fellow pretty boys Robert Redford and Richard Gere. A couple days after consuming THE FOREIGNER, I saw Brosnan play basically the same “powerful man with dread secrets” role in Roman Polanski’s THE GHOST WRITER (2010). He’s good in this role. Maybe we’ve seen him become like Hal Holbrook or Dabney Coleman, who created archetypes for themselves decades ago.

The plot: Chan plays a London restaurateur (yes, he’s the foreigner or make that “The Foreigner”) whose daughter’s killed by a bomb in an early scene. Of course, it turns out that it’s a terrorist bomb and the terrorists responsible are, of course, the Irish Republican Army. Think it’s been a while since I’ve seen the IRA in the movies. This leads Chan’s protagonist Quan (after he’s been shooed away by the authorities) to the Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, Liam Hennessy (Brosnan), who’s a former IRA member. Quan wants Hennessy to give him names and he cannot believe Hennessy knows nothing. Quan seeks revenge.

Basically, we have two movies for the price of one: Quan’s single-minded revenge and Hennessy’s now chaotic life. We go back-and-forth between story lines. Of course, sometimes Quan and Hennessy meet in the middle.

Quan’s a departure for Chan. He’s not high energy like he’s been in everything from DRUNKEN MASTER to RUSH HOUR. There’s no slapstick and no mugging that distinguished Chan from other action movie stars, namely Schwarzenegger and Stallone. With his character in mourning, Chan plays it more melancholy than we likely have ever seen him before. Chan plays him quiet and we see all his pain.

Quan also takes advantage of the fact that all the other characters underestimate him.

We are fascinated by watching for that exact moment when Brosnan’s cool disintegrates in the face of plot developments, all those heavy machinations involving his nephew, his wife, his mistress, and his former IRA associates. Of course, there’s Quan, that fly in the ointment. Granted, this is a fly with special ops training.

Seeing Brosnan in THE FOREIGNER, I flashed back on THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY, where Brosnan played an Irish assassin and one-half of that film’s incredible ending. What ever happened to Harold Shand (played by the late, great Bob Hoskins)?