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Richard Patterson - Matters of Life and Death

Paul Moorhouse, Matt Price, Jane Neal and James Cahill

(0 Ratings) Rate It

Book

Matters of Life and Death is a limited-edition publication documenting the remarkable new and recent...

Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated The Foreigner (2017) in Movies

Jul 11, 2019

The Foreigner (2017)

2017 | Action, Thriller

6.9

(42 Ratings)

Movie Rating

STX Films is releasing the film The Foreigner this weekend, and stars Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan. It is directed by Martin Campbell who also directed Casino Royale.

This film is full of action from the first few minutes on. It made me actually tear up within the first 20 minutes, when Quan, the main character, loses his daughter in a bombing.

The bombing is politically motivated, and is under investigation by British officials both in London and in Ireland. Quan just wants the names of those responsible, in order to exact revenge on the death his daughter.

Quan zeros in on Liam Hennesy (Pierce Brosnan), an ex IRA leader and current high ranking official Irish Diplomat who answers to the British government. Hennesy claims to have no knowledge of who committed the crime, but investigation reveals that the parts of the bombs are stolen from old weapons stores that only his group would have knowledge of.

Quan demands names, Hennesy repeatedly refuses, and Quan reverts to desperate and ingenious measures. He rigs up bombs out of what looks like regular groceries, inside Hennessey’s business offices and rattles Hennesy into fleeing / retreating to his farm in the countryside.

Quan follows and consistently picks off Hennessey’s men, always beating the odds in creative ways to come out ahead in the fight against men that are younger and outnumber him, at times 10 to 1.

Hennesy, meanwhile, is actually actively trying to figure out who set off the bombs, and sets up a plan to try and catch the bombers the next time they attempt a bombing, but somehow the next bomb goes off without any of the given code words that were assigned, which leads Hennesy to discover that at least one of the perpetrators is in fact directly tied to him, and helping the terrorist group.

Hennesy and the British police track down the bombers holed up in an apartment building, but Quan gets to them first and takes care of business, leaving one bomber to be able to tell the Brits where the last bomb is, and where its headed.

Whether they manage to get to the last bomb I will leave for you to find out……

I really liked the film, as did my husband. I thought that some of the Irish accents were a bit horrid, but overall the film was enjoyable, full of action, and we thought that it had a good storyline too. It had enough twists to be interesting and a few “AH HAH” moments, but not so convoluted as to be annoying.

The fact that Jackie Chan is still able to pull off hose stunts was amazing to us and we loved watching him get his revenge and overcoming seemingly impossible odds.

The only part we both we taken aback by was how “quiet” the very end of the film was. It wasn’t a big deal, but after the action of the movie it was definitely a different “feel”

Kudos

JT (287 KP) rated The Fall Of The Essex Boys (2013) in Movies

Mar 23, 2020

Violent (1 more)

Acting is OK

Yet another version of this tale (0 more)

British grit

Loosely based on a true story surrounding the brutal shooting of three infamous drug dealers from Essex in December 1995, it’s a surprise that this is the fourth film to tell the tale.

After films such as Essex Boys, Rise of the Footsoldier and most recently Bonded by Blood you’d wonder why director Paul Tanter chose to helm this version, had this not already been done? Then you sit down to watch it and you realise that it’s a film in its own right, with powerful performances from British actors that need to be seen and heard in their delivery.

If you don’t know the story by now, and it’s one of underworld folk law, it follows three of Essex’s toughest and hardest drug-dealing criminals, who came to a gruesome end when they wanted to go one step too far.

Pat Tate, Tony Tucker and Craig Rolfe want to corner the drug trafficking market, they’re in it for the long haul and to make serious cash. The trio is vicious to the point of no return and will stop at nothing to get what they want and no one will stand in their way.

The film is told by Darren Nicholls (Nick Nevern) who himself narrates for a portion of the film, giving us the story as it unfolds before us. He’s up to his neck in it, and he wants a way out, seemingly with nowhere to turn he has to go into the lion’s den while keeping himself close to a friend on the outside that is looking for a similar end game.

It’s violent but then you have to expect that, the acting is genuinely disturbing and Tanter’s sharp direction keeps the viewer on tenterhooks. It’s a film that is not going to be for everyone, but fans of the director as well as the genre will love it.