Customer Reviews

The Foreigner [VHS]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

If you, like me, ever wonder what happened to Steven Seagal, you need to run right out and pick up "The Foreigner." In the late 1980s and early 1990's, it looked as though Seagal would join the ranks of Hollywood's top action stars. You would hear his name in the same sentence with Arnie and Stallone, no small feat indeed. And to a large degree, Seagal's films deserved the comparison. "Under Siege" was a winner, as were "Hard to Kill" and "Above the Law." The actor's greatest appeal isn't hard to fathom; Seagal embraced a brutal form of martial arts that, at least onscreen, allowed him to slap down thugs, break bones, and wreak massive havoc without batting an eye. Literally, Seagal would stand in place and put down one goon after the other with an ease that looked not only natural but also realistic. I still enjoy watching that pool room scene where Seagal's character used pool cues, billiard balls, and whatever else he could lay his hands on to put out the trash. Alas, how the mighty have fallen. The early 1990s may as well be ancient history as far as Steven Seagal is concerned. Although he's still capable of making a few moderately entertaining films, far too often we're seeing movies like "The Foreigner" and "Ticker."

Steven Seagal is Jonathan Cold, aka "The Foreigner," which we learn toward the end of the film is a highly trained government operative who works overseas under deep cover. During the film we discover he's now working for some sleazy Polish goon who wants him to carry a package to a client somewhere in Europe as his final assignment. First, he has to pick up the package from a couple of Russians out in the countryside with his boss's other hired hand, the nefarious Dunois (Max Ryan). Predictably, the two engage in macho banter on the car ride out to the cottage, which allows us to learn that Dunois is a rather shady character, before the two narrowly survive a huge gun battle and fire at the house. Cold isn't happy about dealing with such dire circumstances, but he's a professional and won't give up on fulfilling his mission. Perhaps he should have since that would have saved the audience from enduring the rest of this amateurish piece of dreck. Anyway, Seagal heads off to do what he does best, unaware that his old boss from the CIA, Jared Olyphant (Gary Raymond), knows all about the box and wants what is in it. At least I think Olyphant is Cold's former employer; the movie's so convoluted that it's hard to keep track of the various characters.

Before you can hit stop on your remote, all sorts of unpleasant people are gunning for our hero. Cold discovers that the package contains references to an air disaster in the 1980s, and also learns that wealthy industrialist Jerome Van Aken (Harry Van Gorkum) has something to do with the whole thing. While Cold scopes out the Van Aken estate, Dunois doggedly tracks him with the sort of persistence I wish I had as I tried to get through this movie. There's also a black assassin named Mims, hired by Jared Olyphant, gunning for the box. Cold eventually figures out, with a little help from Jerome's wife Meredith (Anne-Louise Plowman), that there's a huge conspiracy linking the information in the box with a corporate plot to create...well, I won't spoil it for you, but I ought to if it will prevent people from watching the film. Before we learn the shocking revelations that blow the evildoers' plans wide open, the movie treats us to several poorly edited action sequences that find Seagal's character infiltrating the Van Aken estate in order to blow away several beefy Slavic guards. He does it again later with Dunois, entering the compound by the SAME route he went in before. You would think the crack security team in charge of a billionaire's private residence would figure out a way to shore up the cracks, but you would be wrong.

Absolutely nothing works in "The Foreigner" beyond a few exceptionally bloody squibs. Director Michael Oblowitz, who should now personify that age-old mantra "you'll never work in this town again," simply doesn't know how to make a coherent movie. In the place of intriguing, deeply developed characters and original action scenes, he falls into the deadly trap of blaring techno music, cool dialogue that is neither cool nor makes sense, and continuity holes you could sail a battleship through. Even worse, the film relies way to heavily on speeding up or slowing down the speed of the film. I can understand using slow motion to show a body cartwheeling from a shotgun blast, but why do we need to watch Seagal's character sit down in a chair in slo-mo? It's one of those examples of a movie elevating style over substance. Problem is we've seen so many movies overuse these techniques that we recognize when it's poorly used. By far the most ridiculous aspect of the movie has to be how many times Dunois bites the bullet only to bounce back up for another round. I could go on and on.

Did I hear you ask about extras? A bunch of trailers for other action films, including "XXX," "I Spy," "Half Past Dead," "The Foreigner," and "The One." They probably shouldn't have included some of these trailers on the disc, though. I kept thinking how much I would rather watch a few of these other films than this one, even the other Seagal low budget actioners. Actually, I also recently watched two other Steven Seagal films, "Exit Wounds" and "Belly of the Beast," and both were much better than "The Foreigner" Perhaps this movie is an anomaly. I certainly hope so for Seagal's sake as even diehard fans will want to skip this clunker.

'The Foreigner', along with 'Ticker', is just about the most hated Seagal flick by both the casual movie fan and the most devoted, dieheard Seagalogists. So, I went back and pulled it from my Seagal DVD collection and gave it a repeat viewing. I have come to decide that 'The Foreigner', while no where near the Lordly goodness of 'Belly Of The Beast' or 'Out For Justice', is much better than some of, in my opinion, Seagal's worst: 'Out Of Reach', 'Ticker', and 'Today You Die'.

The plot goes a little something like this: Lord Steven plays ex-CIA agent Johnathan Cold(by far the worst character name Seagal has ever had)who i guess is supposed to be in the same line of work as Jason Statham's character in 'The Transporter'. So the Lord is hired to deliver a package to some rich business tycoon, but of course is turned on by the people who hired him, the rich business tycoon's wife tries to steal the package, and there's other bad dudes out to get the package as well. Its all a little vague but if you don't concentrate too hard, you can ignore all the gaps in plot, and sorta kinda understand whats going on.

Anyways, the Lord is pretty sick looking in this film: he's tubby, his hair is nappy, and he has his arms crossed in front of his gut for approximately 80% of the film. There are a couple decent fight scenes, but the majority of them is obviously done by a stuntman who looks nothing like nor weighs nowhere near as much as Seagal. The only time the Lord appears during fight scenes is in close-up shots where it appears to be playing paddycake. Oh, and about a third of Seagal's dialogue is dubbed by someone who sounds nothing like him. But on the flipside, the cinematography is nice, the camera work is very well done, some very brutal shootings, and the acting is pretty good for the most part(especially by the black British guy who tortures Seagal near the beginning of the film; that guy is very good).

Overall, 'The Foreigner' is not a good film but its definitely not the Lord's worst. So I declare: it is not as deserving of the venom that films like 'Ticker' and 'Out Of Reach' deserve. Give it a second viewing and I don't think you'll hate it as much as you think you do. You won't love it, but you might realize, like I did, that it does have a few good points.

Oh, and as a little sidenote: Seagal's next flick, entitled 'Black Dawn', is a sequel to 'The Foreigner'. Go figure...he could have made a sequel to 'Under Seige' or 'Belly Of The Beast' or even brought back Gino Felino for 'Out For Justice 2' but he decides to bring back Johnathan Cold? Weird.

Once upon a time there was a Steven Seagal who was interesting to watch, even if he could not act. He frowned, he regularly broke the law that he was often sworn to uphold by stomping on the rights of street trash, and he used a brute force variation to Aikido that imbued him with bone-breaking power. That was the Seagal of his first films:ABOVE THE LAW, HARD TO KILL, and MARKED FOR DEATH. The audience did not particularly care that his acting abilities even then were non-existent. They responded to his take-no-prisoner attitude toward law enforcement. This Seagal liked to wear long leather coats, but he took them off often enough to show that he had a long and lean look that emphasized his rapid open handed punches into a slimeball's face. Beginning with UNDER SEIGE, ON DEADLY GROUND, and culminating with FIRE DOWN BELOW, a newer, paunchier Seagal emerged. This Seagal involved himself with social and environmental issues. He still managed to beat up hoods, but one could see that he was shifting gears from action hero to action hero with a conscience. Unfortunately, to have pulled this off would have required more acting skill than to ossify on command an already ossified countenance. But as I saw this second Seagal try to remake his image, I could still get some diminished pleasure in watching him do what he did best, even if it became increasingly clear that an ever expanding girth required camera trickery to simulate what the earlier Seagal used to effortlessly do. Now Seagal is truly no more than the fifty plus overweight talent challenged actor that perceptive critics labeled him as even back in 1988. In THE FOREIGNER, he is Jonathan Cold, a government agent of some sort, who is supposed to deliver a mystery package of some sort, to ill-defined criminal types of some sort. It is no exaggeration to say that this film makes no sense, whether one examimes it on the physical, metaphysical, or spiritual level. Seagal kills his partner no less than three times, with no explanation provided for these resurrections. At no time was I able to figure out even the glimmering of a logical plot. What I did see were frequent shootings, explosions, and body counts, all of which, I suppose, is sufficient for the film's executive producer to justify as the movie's basis for existence. Seagal, by the way, was the executive producer. For the true fans of Steven Seagal, the brute who entertained thrill-seeking audiences is no longer to be found. That Seagal is just as much a foreigner to today's audience as Jonathan Cold would have been fifteen years ago.

Seagal has a dozen films that I enjoy and some of them were made in recent years. He can still deliver and has a pretty good record when you consider that the duds are only four movies in 16. Sad to say, this one is a dud. Skip this and Out For A Kill, The Patriot, and Ticker. The rest of the films he's been involved in I enjoy and think it's impressive he's made that many fun films.

It is a shame to see what Steven Seagal has been reduced to. His claim to action fame was his martial arts and there is hardly any in this movie. Instead there is senseless shooting. Unbelievable gun fight scenes. Like the one where he walks through and army of body guards on an estate and kills them all. Or the one where he kills a man shooting at him with a machine gun with one shot while not even looking. I had not heard of this movie when it was a theatrical release and now I see why. It must not have hung around long.

The movie made vain attempts at intrigue and deception but only succeeded in confusion. It was a dissapointment and you would do well to chose another movie. Unless of course you are a die hard fan of his that thinks he can not make a bad movie, ever. This one is headed ...

While Steven Seagal looks better in this film than he does in his later ones ("Out of Reach" made me dub him "the kung-fu Meatloaf") his statuesque features cannot save this movie. Neither can his amazing ability to keep every facial feature above his lower lip stiff. And though his adult diapers and ensure cannot stop the fact that he's not much of an action star any more, Steven has the help of horrible editing and directing to make it look like he's beating a guy up. Yet even this Kurosawa-like filmmaking cannot save this movie. In the end, all you get is a bad action movie.

One problem is that this movie makes it look like Europe is the size of a small village. One minute we're in Warsaw, then Germany, then suddenly everyone's British, then we're in Poland again, then Germany, then Norway, then Atlantis...where the heck are we? Were there wormholes that the characters used?

While plotholes abound and storyline is almost nonexistant, the writers have filled in the gaps with explosions and dead bodies. And lots of the latter. I counted three destroyed buildings, but lost count on the bodies. I do know, however, that the Department of Water Management funded this movie, because many characters die falling into a river or stream that happens to be nearby. This is true in the (second) attack Seagal makes on the industrial tycoon's headquarters. Almost every villain shot happens to fall backward, toppling into water. Perhaps it was to drown them, because Seagal seemed to like shooting the guards in the shoulders (unless Europeans have a vital organ in the shoulder I don't know about). The important thing about these deaths is that they give us emotions because we CARE about the characters! Like the black guy who dies since he's the black guy, or the spare black guy that dies because...well, he's the black guy.

There is one character I especially liked, the hitman that turns on Seagal. He had an actual name, but eventually my roommate and I dubbed him "Killer McDeath" because he kills everyone he comes across. I also couldn't help but noticed he killed off all the hot girls in the movie too: the cute maid at the mansion (shot), the young secretary at a business (shot), and the beautiful receptionist at the hotel (stabbed with a banana - oh no wait, he shot her). It got to the point where any time a cute girl appeared my roommate and I would say, "Uh oh, she's not gonna last long." I also have to say he was a tough guy - he's shot, blown out a window, shot again, hit by shrapnel, cut on the face, and smokes, but our friend Killer McDeath just shakes it off and keeps on tickin'. The sad thing is that in the end Steven Seagal kills him by a simple [...]-slap of doom. Surely the great Killer McDeath deserved a more suitable demise! Ah well, Killer McDeath will live on forever in "The Foreigner 2: Back to America."

Lord have mercy! Why was this film made? Why did Seagal and rising star Max Ryan agree to be in it? The Foreigner is so excruciatingly bad in every conceivable way that it boggles the mind.

The film has an ultra-cheap look to it. Like a budget of a couple of bucks was far out of their reach. What's worse is that the makers know this and try to make it look slick to compensate. The result is a film that just don't look right.
The fight scenes are so dull and edited 'discretely' to hide the fact that Steven Seagal is not in good shape anymore. None of them are engaging or exciting. The plot is nonsense that doesn't interest in the slightest way or have any uniqueness to it. The Eastern-Europe locations (a sly move by the producers to keep the budget down, or non-existent) look unpleasant and should not be serving as the backdrop for an 'action' film (what action?).

And what is the deal with the title? As far as I could tell everyone in the movie was foreign. Which ONE does the title refer to?

The DVD is in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and in Dolby 5.1 sound. Neither are remarkable enough to warrant even a single rent. The Foreigner is not worth one second of your time. Gotta love that tagline tho! 'If they think they can stop him, they're dead wrong.' Sheesh!

Seagal is back and better than ever in this 100% action movie!!!
He plays as an awsome agent that doesn't take anything from anyone, not even his old boss or the CIA. He agrees to take a package from an old friend to Germany that gets him shot at, punched at, blown up, almost consumed in 2 fires, choked, and betrayed by his partner. But he doesn't give up!! He finds the truth about the package, but he still doesn't give up! This is what makes a true action here. Like Steven Seagal.

You might not believe me, but I am probably one of the few (I wish very few) viewers in the world who actually went to theater, paying money at box-office, in order to watch this dreadfully bad movie. Right, I am living in Japan, and they for some reasons I don't care decided to release it theatrically. Think of the dismay we (well, I was not alone, among twenty or more people) experienced. Please.

"The Foreigner" is a direct-to-video film in USA, I now know, but that is no surprise. The story is non-existent, concerning some mystery about a 'package' with which Steven Seagal's character, a sort of no-nonsense professional transporter, gets involved, but that's only an excuse for many body counts. In fact, the film is just about pointless killings of mainly innocent people (two women included) or some mobsters who do not have even a chance to shoot at Seagal. These guys somehow want to get this mysterious package, and under very occassional crossfires Seagal tries to reveal the truth about it and a beautiful wife of another mysterious owner of a big company.

Seagal's character sees so many plot twists, and so many unconvincing situations too are inserted in the story that we start to lose interest after its opening 30 minutes. One guy changes side; another guy also changes side, it seems ... before the first guys changes side again (sort of), and the blonde woman starts to mumble something that confuses Seagal. And us too. But without logical development of the story, the film is just a mess. Most unaccountably, Seagal the hero of the film doesn't know what he really wants to do, so why should we care?

Everything is shot in Poland in a modern noir fashion, but that photography doesn't salvage the film from the dire misery. Sorry to say this fans, but Seagal's career after surprise hit "Exit Wounds" has nosedived obviously, and I don't know what to say about him. Warner Bros. was wise in telling him to join force with popular rapper DMX, who has shown more charisma to attact the audience. At least those rappers (from LL Cool J to most successful Will Smith) know how to show themselves on screen. And Seagal? He needs either an acting coach or shape up. None of them he seems to have had, judging from this messy film.

Michael Oblovitz, who got a back-to-back contract to shoot Seagal films, is famous for creating moody atomosphere in his films (like vampire flick "The Breed"), but as far as actions go, his way of showing them is little better than that of amateur. Excuse me for this harsh review, but when Seagal throws a guy from an escalator, or shoots some thugs, the film uses very flashy techiniques -- jump-cuts, slow motions, you name it -- as if to suggest that this is a very cool action no one can imitate. Come on, the trick is too obvious.

I could find nothing recommendable about this film, which is a rare case for me. But that is true, and no one even his avid fans should not deny that. This is really bad.

What a waste of money. I like S. Seagal, own most of his movies, but this one...I would not call Seagal an actor, but his performance in this movie is below all he has done before. He seems to be in the wrong place. He is getting old, his moves are slow. The story (is there really a story?) so bad and constructed. The co-actors are so faceless, the actionscenes are boring.... really, if you do not watch this movie, you don't miss anything!