The Foreigner (2003)

Boring

best movie i've ever seen.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

This movie essentially revolves around a man named "Jonathan Cold" (Steven Seagal) who is a courier of sensitive material and operates under-the-radar of governmental oversight. As it so happens, he is pressured by a man named "Alexander Marquet" (Philip Dunbar) to deliver a certain package from France to a wealthy businessman of questionable ethics living in Germany. Although he is reluctant to accept this assignment at first, he eventually comes around. However, it isn't long before he realizes that there is much more to this mission than he has told and that there are other parties willing to do whatever it takes to acquire this package from him. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that, other than the excessive killing happening throughout the course of this film, there really isn't much to this film. The plot was confusing, the acting was mediocre at best and the action scenes were totally unrealistic. That being said, while there are certainly some good Steven Seagal movies out there—this isn't one of them and because of that I have rated it accordingly. Below average.

Being a hardcore fan of Steven Seagal, I watched 'The Foreigner'. Though I see much hate for this film, I didn't find myself bored or disappointed. Its a decent one-time watch!'The Foreigner' tells the story of a freelance agent, who is the courier of a package from France to Germany. He soon finds that many people want to get their hands on it.'The Foreigner' begins superbly & the first-hour, overall, is classy. The second-hour does get problematic, but the climax as well as the action-sequences, are effective. The Screenplay by Darren O. Campbell has merit, but a neater second-hour was much needed. Michael Oblowitz's Direction is fair. Cinematography captures the stunning locales of Poland, aptly. Editing is alright.Performance-Wise: Seagal is truly unbeatable in his own way. He scores & excels, yet again! Max Ryan does a fine job. Jeffrey Pierce & Harry Van Gorkum are okay. Anna-Louise Plowman is sincere.On the whole, 'The Foreigner' has some striking moments.

After "Half past dead" comes a movie that was a nail to Seagal's coffin. Goodbye movie career. "The Foreigner" is a straight-to-video Steven Seagal film. It was originally intended to be released as a theatrical feature. God knows why , since it looks even more low budget than "Half past dead" and is even worse. At least "Half past dead" was laughable in some places and had some kind of plot (ripped off "The Rock", but still a plot).This one is incomprehensible . Seagal is a mysterious guy hired by mysterious guy to deliver mysterious package to another mysterious guy . Mysterious guys appear and try to stop him . Lots of mysteries , eh ? This is only thing I can say about the plot . I agree with the reviewer who wrote that the movie makers filmed the action scenes first then decided to put it together as a movie. The plot is nonsense. What is the deal with the title ? It's interesting for me that this movie was made in Poland and there are some known Polish actors in it (Przemyslaw Saleta , Miroslaw Zbrojewicz). It doesn't change the fact that the movie sucks . Seagal has done many terrible DTV films over the years and this is undoubtedly one of the worst.The film has an ultra-cheap look to it. Steven Seagal is not in good shape anymore. The fight are so obviously edited that it makes head hurt. Shootouts are done in bad slow motion. The atmosphere feels absolutely miserable. There is one scene with exploding package that is so stupid , so bad I will never forget it.ARGHHHHH ! Why I'm wasting my time with writing about this piece of s*** ?! I give it 1/10 , because I can't give 0. Enough said.

An hour into "The Foreigner",Mr S.Seagal decides to open the package he is transporting to Germany,the package that has cost dozens (maybe scores - I lost count) of lives,and at that moment it suddenly came to me that I had absolutely no idea what the movie was about.Like a great conjurer,the director - by artful prestidigitation - had kept me completely unaware of what was really going on.All the smoke and mirrors in his armoury had been employed to conceal from me the patently obvious borrowings from "Kiss Me Deadly","Repo Man" and other "Pandora's Box" movies.With a few deft strokes of his knife Mr Seagal reveals the secret to be a Flight Deck Recorder which totally confounded my expectations and fiendishly set off almost endless plot possibilities.It was a great moment in a criminally under rated film. Almost universally canned,"The Foreigner" is a brave attempt to challenge the received wisdom that a Seagal picture must be comprehensible to the average hormonal,attention deficient 14 year old boy that comprises his core audience.Here, Mr Seagal,often shot in Extreme Close Up,is playing a weary,embittered "burnt out case",not unlike Richard Burton in "The spy who came in from the cold",although the look of the movie is more "Ipcress File",with its grainy hand - held appearance.He doesn't really know who he is working for and treachery is clearly afoot.He is obviously getting too old for the physical stuff and has learned that in order to survive in his murky world you must shoot first and not ask questions.He is a wily and experienced operator rather than an all - action gung - ho hero.He is not - de facto - a "Steven Seagal" character,and I think that is what has upset a lot of his erstwhile admirers. I believe "The Foreigner" to be gravely misunderstood.Here we have a director and a star attempting to move a franchise up a gear and out of the Video Bins and their reward is to be cast even further into the "Rent two - get one free" oblivion purely because their reach has exceeded their audience's grasp.Unjust indeed.