Rating: 
Summary: Worst Seagal Ever Made...
Review: I've been a Steven Seagal fan for years. The Foreigner must be his worst! The "action" consists of shooting a defenseless maid, a hotel clerk, a guy in the parking lot, and a driver who passed a badguy's car (also an "action" shot I guess). Seagal walks around like he's ingested 50 milligrams of Valium and like everyone else, he mumbles. In one shoot-out scene, Seagal doesn't move when confronted with machine-gun firing hitmen. Instead, he lays his gun (unaimed) on the fireplace, fires one shot, and kills a hitman in body armor across the room. It's the ol' mystery-package plot but after watching senseless killing I lost interest in the what's in the package. Hopefully it was the pink slip for the director. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone except those folks who might have enjoyed following the DC sniper around just to watch him shoot innocent people - smile - and offer a cold-blooded-killer witticism. This movie wasn't action or drama - just pathetic. Seagal tossing in his almost-every-movie military-uniform scene didn't even help. I don't know who to blame for this work but Steven Seagal, the director, and the producer need to rethink what makes a good action movie.
It's not killing people who have nothing to do with the plot.
Rating:
Summary: Oh the humanity!
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: A Dissapointment
Review: 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 ...
Rating:
Summary: Extrememly Bad
Review: 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!
Rating:
Summary: The Three Seagals
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: ho hum
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: The Master of Action
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Good Acting, but man this movies does drag in some parts!
Review: Steven Seagal has been in some bombs like Exit Wounds. Half past dead was very good though! The foreigner is about John Cold (seagal) who is a secret agent who is hired to deliver a package from France to Germany. While he is going to pick up the package, some people try to stop him. He then starts thinking, who is on his side and who is trying to kill him, so he can't deliver the package. He does open the package, and he finds out what it is. Im not going to tell you that. Its not a surprise, but I did wonder what would anyone want with this? The story starts to pick up a little bit. A hitman is following Cold to track him down, kill him, and take the package to his boss. This movies does drag in some parts! There is one scene where a house does explode. That is one of my favorite scenes. Like I said, the acting is good. The action is OK. Not that much in my opinion. The foreigner is rated "R" for Violence, and language. Here is my final verdict from 0-10 Action- 5 or 6 Story- 4
Acting- 8 Final verdict 6 Does drag a little, but worth a watch unless you have nothing else to watch. I reccomend Half Past Dead over this movie. Much more martial art action.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Action !
Review: Steven Seagal is what in his fifties, and he still kicks [butt]. This movie is a great action movie. Even though there are some scenes that show a seagal double, and some stunts were done by someone else, the fighting scenes are all him. I recommend this movie to Steven Seagal fans.
Rating:
Summary: What Did I Just Watch?!
Review: THE FOREIGNER is a film telling the story of...uh...um...that is to say the basic plot of THE FOREIGNER involves...um...oh, forget it, I give up! This movie makes no sense at all! It's one of Seagal's all time worst. He super sleepwalks through this one. In THE GODFATHER Marlon Brando stuffed his cheeks with cotton to make his jaw line appear a little different and his voice sound a little rougher. It looks as though Seagal tried the same aproach for THE FOREIGNER, but took it a couple steps too far and shoved entire cones of cotton candy into his mouth. He mumbles horrendously throughout the entire picture making most of his dialogue incomprehensible. This is extremely unfortunate as there's A LOT of the usual Seagal direct-to-video post-production voice-over-style acting in this one with Seagal obviously recording most of his monotonous monologue and
dialogue later on from the comfortable chairs of a sound booth. For those interested in watching Seagal movies solely for the fights, this is also not the movie for you. He has only one big showdown here which doesn't last long and which can best be described as Steven Seagal plays patt-a-cake below the standards of physical coordination set by toddlers who practice the game. Stay away unless you're a true diehard fan and simply MUST see everything Seagal does. For others, this is the pits!
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