i saw that the foreigner be rank in the bottom 100 movie listing here on imdb and so i wasn not expect much when i tune into it on the usa channel a week back and but i do have hope . belly of the beast ( which air a month ago ) be a mess and but it have great scenery and photography and some pretty cool moment scatter throughout and so i think that this movie might have some of the same . ala and this movie fail the standard of basic watch ability in almost every way . the screenplay come off a the bastard offspring of a john lecarre novel and a richard ludlum movie and but do by people with none of those worthy writer talent for plot and characterization . instead what we get be a glum and mean spirit and nihilistic and cryptic mare nest of muddled motif and tangle alliance and back shooting . and chest shooting . and bombing . and evisceration . this carry over to the directorial style and which rely on hackneyed grainy shot or slow motion shot every 10 second and along with wire work and hyperactive jump cut . these filmic device that be stale 10 year ago when mtv director use them for whitesnake video and and the director work them like a punch press and hop to inject some weird art house techno thriller coolness into the proceeding . segal himself be just awful in this . he spend the entire film talk in a hoarse and throaty half whisper and alternate between two expression represent look like he be suck on a lemon while someone wave a small turd under his nose and or look constipate . and he so chunky ( and vain about it ) that he never actually take off his knee length duster on camera . i understand that it hard to keep the girth under control a a male actor age ( although denzel washington and paul newman never seem to have that problem ) . but you deal with it by be honest about it and and by grow a an actor and not by hide it with carefully choose camera angle and floor length robe . so i can not really tell what go on and and the movie doesn not give me a reason to care about what go on and and the protagonist be completely one dimensional and visually unappealing . not a recipe for a good movie experience . oddly and most of the set design and scenery be atmospheric and strike while in fact and if you be to freeze the film on almost any give scene that wasn not a close up of seagal and you would be strike by the care and professionalism of the lighting and color and and composition and by how beautiful the eastern european setting be . but dress up a rotten egg a a faberge egg can not make it edible . and the proceeding be rotten at heart . there be cool movie ( like versus ) and and there be visually strike but emotionally cold movie ( like underworld ) and there be paranoia conspiracy thriller ( like the bourne identity and it remake with matt damon ) . and then there be this thing and which can not make up it mind what it want to be and pretend to be all these thing and and fails because it have no gut or soul . this be a movie make by professional with an actual budget and so you can not really put it in the same class a manos and killer shrew or hobgoblin . but i would rather watch all three of those movie back to back several time than watch the foreigner again even once .