The Foreigner (2003)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Don't Believe the Hype

Better Late Then Never

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Big man Seagal takes another step into oblivion with this dull and derivative thriller shot in Poland. The biggest problem with this one is the plot, which is so caught up in its own conspiracy/murky characters/lack of explanation that you won't know what the hell is going on most of the time. Characters pop up to die, people who die come back to life, people disappear and are shot, people fight each other. It's a lot like Lundgren's HIDDEN AGENDA in this respect, in that you have no inkling what's happening and don't really care either. On the plus side, the film is well shot, with some admirable effects at style (which don't always pay off). There's a lot of violence, people being shot, and 99% of it involves guns and gunfire.As for Seagal – well, unfortunately he's growing his hair long again, and he's hiding beneath a big coat throughout the movie. You get the impression at this stage in his career that he's no longer trying; that he's just in it for the money, nothing else. Watching him mumble and stagger his portly frame through the film is a little tragic for those of us reared up on the likes of UNDER SIEGE and its sequel. The martial arts sequences are few and far between, and you never see his face during these, which implies that a stuntman was used for every scene of action. Sometimes, like in TICKER, you get the impression somebody is pretending to be him, mimicking his voice, or when you see the back of his head you get the idea that it isn't really him. Even a stuntman is used when he climbs over a steel fence, which shows how far he has fallen from his glory days.The rest of the cast is made up of Polish people in bit parts and a few imported British actors, nobody that famous. The best performance in the film has to come from Max Ryan as crazed assassin Dunoir; he's having a field day here as the chain-smoking, grey-haired bad guy who keeps getting "killed" and coming back to life; he's the best thing in the movie and adds another star to the rating alone. Otherwise, it's typical straight-to-video fare, lacking in interest and impact. Come on Seagal, don't you have another good film in you?

*MINOR SPOILERS* How in the world was this ever conceived, let alone be considered for a theatrical run?! Yes. It is true. Seagal's star was staring to wane, but after Segal made a brief comeback with Exit Wounds, Seagal had a chance to become a top action star again; well. He blew it big time with Half Past Dead, and they decided to send this movie straight to video; smart choice geniuses! I'm actually a fan of Steven Seagal when he's motivated, and that is very rare these days. The movie looks and feels incredibly cheap; despite that it had a healthy budget of around $16,000,000 it takes place in Warsaw Poland, and the atmosphere feels absolutely miserable. It's dull as dishwater to watch, since there isn't much action to speak of until the end and when it happens, most of it is in slow motion with very poor editing. It came off incredibly corny. It also tries to throw in a half-assed subplot with a Mother & Daughter to no avail. Not convinced on how bad this is yet? I'll continue. There is a scene where Steven Seagal is forced at gun point, and he and a villain head to the bathroom with a package. The package explodes while Steven Seagal is relieving (peeing) himself in a urinal Seagal manages to hurl himself threw a glass window with fire from the explosion engulfing him, and he escapes completely unscathed (!) Steven Seagal is god awful here. He is completely out of shape, and has a baggy trench coat on to hide all the flab in his gut. Not only is his voice dubbed on occasion, but he is blatantly annoyed about the whole thing, with a look on his face that screams "Let's get this over and done with!" Seagal has never been great at emotion, but at least he had solid intensity. He shows off emotion here with plenty of inconsequential mumbling. He was sleepwalking here, and was very lazy to boot by doing minimal fighting scenes; I don't blame him for being unhappy with this film, but show some professionalism! Max Ryan is way too OTT as the villain. He has a cigarette dangling from his mouth in every scene! He was extremely annoying. Anna-Louise Plowman is pretty to look at, but that's it. The film didn't do enough to make me care about her, or her daughter. Note: I couldn't resist adding some memorable cheesy linesMeredith (Anna-Louise Plowman): May I ask Who's Calling? Jonathan Cold (Steven Seagal): No thanks. I'll call back laterJonathan Cold: I'd say the only thing unexpected is that I'm still aliveJonathan Cold: You kinda look like Ray Charles (referring to Mr. Mimms Sherman Augustus) then again… Ray probably can't shoot as good as you, right?Final Thoughts: Seagal has done many terrible DTV films over the years, and this is undoubtedly one of the worst. It's not as bad as Attack Force or a couple others, but it's still abominably bad. Even if you're a die hard Seagal fan, I can't on good conscience, recommend this to you. It has very little action, and you'll most likely be bored to tears. Stay away!1/10

If I could have given this film 0/10 I would, and this is the first film I have wanted to rate so low. Its worse than awful. If I went to see it in the cinema I would want the cinema to pay ME for watching it (at least minimum wage). Some of the camera shots were quite effective, but a lot were rubbish eg. villains reflection in a mirror that separates his head and shoulders side-ways from his body (seeing is believing). Several totally pointless killings of innocent civilians. 2 murders that made me laugh out loud due to the victims actions/facial expressions when they were shot. I only watched it to the end (fast forwarding about 10 mins of the boring pointless dialogue) hoping to see Seagal in some decent hand to hand combat, but there was almost none of that (should have known that when at the beginning he threw someone while going down an elevator and it was shown in slow motion with music - end of 'action' scene). In one scene we see Seagal hand chop someones neck in slow motion which makes it obvious that his hand never even made contact). The chief villain keeps coming back to life. He gets shot in the chest on 2 separate occasions. The 1st time its with a shotgun which blows him out the 2nd/3rd floor onto the street. To sum up, this film is a total waste of time and a total joke. It looks very low budget (even for Seagal). The colour is dull and grey. I could go on and on....just like this film, but I wont. Watch this film if you've got insomnia. Its guaranteed to put you to sleep.

Well I watched this last night with my brother, and to our amazement we both ended up thinking it was not too bad at the end of it....Yes its pretty close to most of his movies with a lot of holes through out and bad supporting cast.... however what made it so different from most of the others is the shooting scenes I thought were quite enjoyable, and at times the slow motion shots were pretty cool as well, however to be honest after a while it just got annoying... I don't want to say to much and give out spoilers, but I do think if your a Seagal fan you should watch it.Of course I am not saying it is one of his best or even close. But I know a lot of you out there have seen a lot of his straight to video movies such as Out For A Kill, Kill Switch, Attack Force, Submerged etc.... and compared to those bunch this was quite enjoyable. I also watched Black Dawn last week which I didn't know was a sequel till just now, and it was HORRIBLE!!! I actually think it was Seagal's worst movie yet!!!! The Foreginer on the other hand was nothing like it and was a lot more exciting. I give it a 6 over all, and would actually watch it again with a friend.I guess it just depends what your comparing it to. If I saw this right after watching Hard to Kill, or Out For Justice then I would find it horrible.... however the past week I watched Kill Switch, and Flight of Fury and this was a breath of fresh air compared to those two haha... I might just be being to generous though.