YMMV / The Foreigner (2017)

• Complete Monster: Hugh McGrath is the one responsible for the IRA's brutal bombing campaign of London. A bloodthirsty IRA terrorist with a reputation for brutality even among his organization, McGrath grew enraged at Liam Hennessy brokering peace with the British government. After Hennessy decides to run a fake bombing campaign with dud bomb in order to gain pardons for IRA members, McGrath hijacks the plan and arms the bombs with his own Semtex. Personally directing the bombers and encouraging them to massacre as many civilian targets as possible, McGrath has the rogue cell bomb a shop and a packed bus, killing dozens, including women and children. Directing the cell to take down the British Prime Minister onboard her own plane, McGrath planned on framing Hennessy to ensure his full cooperation.
• He Really Can Act: Jackie Chan has already proven his dramatic chops in the past, but many have good things to say about his acrobatic martial arts skills being Played for Drama instead of the usual slapstick.
• Jerkass Woobie: Hennessy is a very angry and frustrated man that cheats on his wife and set the bombings up but things spiral out of control so quickly for the man you can't help feel sorry for him.
• Magnificent Bastard:
  • Ngoc Minh Quan is a widower whose beloved daughter Fan is killed in a terrorist bombing by the IRA. Centering in on Irish Deputy First Minister Liam Hennessy for his old IRA connections, Quan pressures him to give up any names he knows by ramping up threats, even bombing Hennessy's office. Later outmaneuvering and disabling Hennessy's crack security team, Quan uncovers a bomber plot and uses a ruse to gain entry to the terrorists' hideaway before eliminating almost all of them himself, ending it by forcing Hennessy to expose his connection to one of the bombers to the world.
  • Liam Hennessy is a former IRA terrorist who abandoned terrorism for politics. Before the events of the movie, he planned to have bombings executed with no human casualties in order to force the British government to accede to release IRA prisoners. When his own wife and allies betray him, Hennessy takes matters into his own hands. Furious at the deaths of innocents caused by the IRA bombings, Hennessy tortures his old army friend McGrath for information, exposes his wife for her affair with his nephew Sean and proceeds to play the British against the terrorists to foil the bombing and achieve his ends before having his wife executed by Sean to secure the end of the plot.
• Moral Event Horizon: The bombers may have crossed it with the first bomb wherein Quan's daughter is killed or possibly the second, which occurs after they've been established and helps to reinforce that they're bad people. The fact that the camera goes out of its way to follow a random innocent family as they board the bus to be killed by the second bomb is the movie underscoring it.
• Stoic Woobie: Quan's lived a lifetime of tragedy and by the opening of the movie has lost all of his family. He shoulders his burden and soldiers on.
• Tainted by the Preview: The film's promotional campaign in many countries often focused solely in the fights, the shootouts and the premise of Jackie Chan going for the "lone wolf seeking revenge" plot, which had the consequence of making it look like a Darker and Edgier action film in the vein of John Wick. Naturally, many people were disappointed when they actually watched it and discovered it was actually a slow-paced, realistic political thriller with few fight scenes. This also worked in reverse, as people who favored the latter kind of cinema were turned away by the trailer believing it would be a brainless kill-fest.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: While Hennessy did arrange for the attacks, he strictly ordered no civilians be hurt and throughout the film is desperately trying to bring the terrorists to justice. Hennessy is also betrayed and manipulated by his old friend, his lover, his nephew and his wife while Quan mercilessly attacks him for information he legitimately doesn’t have. Quan forcing him to expose his connection with one of the bombers online (who Hennessy, again, did not know was part of the scheme), destroying what is left of his shattered career and life, feels harsh.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Quan is quick to resort to violence towards Hennessy, which comes across as especially unjustified considering he had no solid proof Hennessy knew who did it. Even when it turns out Hennessy did plan the bombings, he had no intention for civilians to be harmed and really didn’t know the names and spends the movie trying to clean up the mess, which Quan’s aggression is actually impeding. In fact, he nearly caused the death of more people in the end when he attacks the terrorists’ safehouse and nearly kills them all because without at least one of them alive, the special forces wouldn’t have been able to determine where the next bombing was taking place. In the end, his actions do nothing to help bring the terrorists to justice and everything might have been solved faster and with considerably less bloodshed if he had just stayed out of it. Him getting away in the end with multiple crimes and murders may leave a sour taste in your mouth.
• Values Dissonance: There's no way the novel's original title The Chinaman could be used in 2017, though it's still said plenty in the film.

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