The trailer for The Foreigner, the upcoming Jackie Chan/Pierce Brosnan thriller from Casino Royale and Goldeneye director Martin Campbell, was released Monday, but from the looks of things, it’ll be closer to Taken than James Bond. Brosnan, who started his film career playing an Irish Republican Army terrorist in The Long Good Friday, is playing an older, respectable version of the same, one “Deputy First Minister Hennessey,” who’s never formally renounced the organization. Jackie Chan plays the father of a young woman killed in a bombing who becomes convinced that Brosnan’s character knows the bomber’s identity. As it happens, Chan has his own history of violence, is the last person Brosnan should ever have crossed, has been pushed too far, etc., etc., etc.
Chan vs. Brosnan sounds like it could be at least as fun as, say, Cage vs. Travolta, but the tone of the trailer is less over-the-top and grimmer than you’d expect from that kind of faceoff between two legends. It’s no surprise that Campbell isn’t making movies that look like Goldeneye anymore, but the washed-out blues and browns of The Foreigner’s cloudy London make even Casino Royale—noticeably grim for a Bond movie 11 years ago—look positively vibrant. If the dialogue or plot ever get past revenge movie clichés, there’s no evidence in the trailer, but if you’re making a movie in which Jackie Chan avenges the death of his daughter at the hands of IRA terrorists, there’s only so much anyone can do. At least, not without special forces training. The Foreigner will be released on Oct. 13.
