Kung-Fu Yoda.
114 Mins. Starring: Jackie Chan, Pierce Brosnan, Ray Fearon, Michael McElhatton, Liu Tao, Charlie Murphy, Orla Brady & Katie Leung. Director: Martin Campbell.
Ni hao! Now if the streaming service Netflix is foreign to you old school, red letter multiplex cinema head purists, then it's time to no longer be lost in translation like Murray on 'Groundhog Day' over and over again. They say there's more than one way to skin a cat and you old dogs better believe there's more than one way to release a big, mainstream movie this forlorn fall. No matter what 'The Last Jedi' is telling you in cinemas now. It's not just big blockbusters that are zapping each other this time of the year in a time were the legendary 'Jumanji' is a video game and Hugh Jackman is still 'The Greatest Showman'. There's a star wars on the small, smartphone screen too. And in all these streaming wars, despite Amazon being in their prime and Apple taking a bite out of T.V. aswell as music, all the competition really chills in the face of Netflix. The new multimedia giant who even survived the fall of Kevin Spacey and their very own original origin show 'House Of Cards'. The exclusive content channel that even has scores of series' of their very own street-level Marvel heroes. Not to mention somethings you may have heard of like 'Orange Is The New Black', 'Narcos' and 'The Crown'. Let alone rights to the laughable likes of Jerry Seinfeld and Dave Chappelle. But how about their movies for those who want to lazy stay in on date night? Well after groundbreaking ones like Idris Elba's 'Beasts Of No Nation' started the Oscar so better pay attention ball rolling seasons ago, more movies made for Netflix only have appeared with some of the biggest, most exclusive names in Hollywood. This year especially were we have seen a 'War Machine' from Brad Pitt, a 'Mudbound', ground up Oscar favourite and another Academy acclaim starring the actor...erm Dustin Hoffman. And even this Christmas to New Year period one of the most famous faces in the world Will Smith can be found illuminated on your phone for the critically slated but commercially underrated 'Bright' that itself cops a battle with Smith's sons former 'Karate Kid' mentor Jackie Chan, otherwise known as 'The Foreigner'.
And like 'Jane Got A Gun', Natalie Portman playing the widow of JFK, Jackie is acting his heart and soul out. Chinaman legend Chan goes hell by the Stephen Leather 1992 book as 'The Foreigner', but unlike that 80's rock of ages band he isn't wanting to know what love is. But who the hell the bomber is that took his daughter. And for the ageing Asian action-hero who is far from 'Expendable' (yet...make the call Sly!), this is more Neeson, 'Taken' then Keanu, 'John Wick' in the closing chapters of this legends still legacy making career. His iconic fighting style still palms up with fists of rougher housing fury in brutal, but brilliant fight scenes dyed with more 'Atomic Blonde' powerful peroxide, raw realism over polished perfection. Sure this greats kicks these days are more Charlie horse than Chuck Norris roundhouse, but like Ali past his prime he can still deliver a knockout blow because he'll always be the greatest. And just you wait until he unloads with a home made shotgun in a handyman visit to your home, in a buckshot bullet, blunderbuss of bumbling action that is more forcefully real than reality-less funny. One stove to living room apartment set-piece that doesn't just throw the kitchen sink at you...but the flash flat-screen T.V. too. Sure the 'Police Story' legend doesn't move at a 'Rush Hour' pace anymore (even 'Rush Hour 3'), but it's even more incredibly inspired and impressive that he still puts his body on the line even more. As the man who always does his own stunts and is always O.K. shows and proves to us running and falling down a roof with the rest of the sliding tiles that if there's a bone in the human body that he hasn't broken yet in his laundry list of hospital gown sick notes then our skeleton's haven't evolved to it yet. But it's more than the power of the physical here. As psychologically a salt and peppered Jackie is at his personal best here. At least his most influential since Tokyo, Japan's martial art-less, in house drama, 'Shinjuku Incident'. Forget a broken pelvis or back at a break neck pace. Chan nurses a broken heart here and a forever bruised soul with a deep and dark portrayal of a man powerless in pain, but ready in a revenge soaked return for retribution. Jackie Chan has an honorary Oscar from the Academy for a reason more than the high-wire highlights. He's always been willful and able to actually act. But here the nuance amongst all the noise, eye of Chan see's so much more inside the very being of a man who has lost everything he lived for. And still soldiering on, it doesn't get realer or genuinely felt in true thespian testament than that. The Academy may just invite this lovable actors character back this mid-February. Because this is heart.
Yet Chan isn't the only formidable one in 'The Foreigner'. Cue 'November Man' Pierce Brosnan this December. Yes Bond...that James Bond. Who reunites with 007 'Goldeneye' director Martin Campbell, who also dealt the cards in Daniel Craig's 'Casino Royale' takeover hand and...erm the bright 'Green Lantern' movie (which technically gave us Ryan Reynolds 'Deadpool'...so thank you Martin!). Playing a Gerry Adams lookalike with his homegrown Irish accent on two fingers whiskey high potency. Playing an ex member of the IRA, seemingly playing it politically straight, but also in the way of Chan's arrow hearted desire to bring the terroists who took his daughters life in the explosive crossfire of making a "statement" to justice. Campbell's gritty ashes to dust movie from London to Northern Ireland is closer to the marrow than the bone, as this isn't just raw and relevant for history, but right, damn now especially too. And thankfully a piercing Brosnan on the brute best of his career doesn't let up like this movies terribly tense and terrifyingly taught tone, in both his characters ignorance and refusal to yield to both the power of information and peace. The cruel and contradictory confliction of a coward and a corruptor is captured perfectly by the former action hero himself who shares a surname with Charles. Never have you seen a character who refuses to admit or accept, yet forget or give up on his buried but dirt knee rubbed past. And never in his great career has the actor ever been better and perhaps ever will be. His own convincing conflictions setting of a catalyst of events and sub-plots that almost unfairly sidelines Chan somewhat, all until his karmatic conclusion matches the ante of his explosive entrance. Sub-stories that include characters and actors like 'Thrones', 'Zookeepers Wife', 'King Arthur' and 'Justice League' familiar face Michael McElhatton. Former police procedural actor now commander of counter terroism (via a 'Beauty & The Beast spot) Ray Fearon on fearless, offical form. Emotionally widowed wife Orla Brady. Charlie Murphy (not the late, great comedian brother of Eddie, but a 'Peaky Blinders' leading lady of tomorrow) and amazing Asian actresses Liu Tao and Katie Leung. But this clever cast still has nothing on the man whose had every risked limb of his life in one until he finally found the part that is set to (re)make him instead. The streaming supernova Netflix between Bronsan back catolouging also shoots many a Chan classic. From the 'Drunken Master' to 'Kung-Fu Yoga'. And all 'The Tuxedo's', 'Young' and 'Railroad Tigers' and exclusive 'Skip Traces' with 'Jackass' Johnny Knoxville inbetween. Yet it's this 'Foreigner' that you will really relate to...no matter where you come from. Still dancing and kung-fu fighting like those boys that were as fast as lightning at 60, Chan is still the man. Yeah Jackie! TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Further Filming: 'Shinjuku Incident', 'November Man', 'Terror In Resonance'.
No comments:
Post a Comment