Wow! Such a good movie.

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Let's be honest, what brought my attention to this movie was a modern-day Jackie Chan thriller. The off-brand R-rating really intrigued me, as Chan is generally more family-oriented. This movie exceeded expectations by a mile. The cinematography of the action scenes are amazing, and Pierce Brosnan is fantastic as the supporting role. A real breath of fresh air for fans of of Chan's career; a gripping political drama where the protagonist fights dirty.

Jackie Chan plays Quan a man whose daughter is killed in a terrorist bombing. He wants answers to the people responsible but no one will give him anything. So he decides to take the law into his own hands. Pierce Brosnan plays ex-IRA leader who bears a striking resemblance to Gerry Adams. Brosnan is really good in the film stealing every scene he's in complete with a thick Irish accent. Jackie Chan gives a grounded emotional performance and of course handles the action scenes very well. Even for a man in his 60s he's more than capable of performing risky stunts making the film look believable. Directed by Martin Campbell (Casino Royale, Golden Eye) he gets great performances out of all of his actors and makes the film look great even with such a small budget. It has its feet firmly stuck in reality dealing with such a timely subject matter. There is lot of intrigue to it and not everything is what it seems. It's less of an action thriller and more of a drama/mystery thriller with some impressive action sequences that don't look overly fantastic. There is no slow motion and no perfect choreography. They look realistic and nobody walks away unscathed as there is a lot of bruises and wounds. It does suffer from some pacing issues and the tone is often inconsistent. But it's just a great film full of surprises.

I was worried that this was going to be either an out of its comfort zone martial arts movie or an awkward political drama with misplaced action scenes wedged in but instead we got a fantastic and quite heartbreaking revenge drama featuring two very strong lead performances and realistic action set pieces stripped of any gloss. Highly recommend.

This movie is a typical movie in a lot of ways. Guy loses family and wants revenge, has military background. But the fact that it's Jackie Chan makes it unique because it's less about his chaotic action and more about making traps, and being dramatic. There is some good political story between the Brits and Ireland as well. Pretty much what I expected, though it felt like Jackie was only in half the movie.