The International

[Bourne101]

Directed by Tom Tykwer

Written by Eric Warren Singer

Genre: Thriller

Plot Outline: Interpol Agent Louis Salinger and Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Eleanor Whitman are determined to bring to justice one of the world's most powerful banks. Uncovering myriad and reprehensible illegal activities, Salinger and Whitman follow the money from Berlin to Milan to New York to Istanbul. Finding themselves in a high-stakes chase across the globe, their relentless tenacity puts their own lives at risk as their targets will stop at nothing to continue financing terror and war.

Starring: Clive Owen, Naomi Watts, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Ulrich Thomsen, Brian O Byrne

Rated R for some sequences of violence and language.

Runtime: 120 minutes

I don't know about this one. I love Owen and Watts, but this looks pretty dull and uninteresting. Friday the 13th is a much higher priority for me than this, though I may check it out eventually.

[Rawlin67]

looks decent. i doubt it will be fantastic or anything new and fresh, but it will most likely be an entertaining romp.

like you though, i wont be checking it out until after Friday the 13th, and i think thats the sentiment of most people.

[sbunn10]

I like Owen and Watts as well, but this looks completely unoriginal and generic.

[ilovemovies]

I can't wait to see this. I think it looks great. I've seen some clips from this movie and it just looks awesome. Plus Clive Owen and Naomi Watts are almost always great.

I'm excited for Friday the 13th but I'm much more excited for this. Looks to be a great R rated action flick!

[FireCaptain4]

Well, I guess ilovemovies and I are some of the few that'll be seeing The International first thing next weekend. I think it looks like a blast and, though unoriginal, energetic. I love Clive and Naomi, and Tom Tykwer (the director) made Perfume: Story of a Murder previously and I loved it, so... Yeah, I'm choosing this over Friday the 13th.

This isn't to say I'm playing skipsies on Friday the 13th-- I'll be saving it for weekend after next, when virtually nothing new will be released.

[blankpage]

I think this looks pretty generic and dull. Your standard international (no pun intended) crime thriller to me. I dunno, I'm definitely just going to wait till it hits DVD.

[ilovemovies]

The trailers and tv spot have been really cool but it's this 4 minute clip that really has me sold on the movie:

http://www.getthebigpicture.net/blog...rnational.html


For those who are either lukewarm or not interested give it a shot and see if you still feel that way.

As I said earlier, I can't wait to see it.

[SkyNet]

very meh

SPOILERS

The story was interesting enough... and i did want to see how it all would end, but then we get to the ending and it just seemed like the writer or director was like "Fuck it, ive had enough... lets just do some newspaper headlines".. it was such a fucking cop out in my opinion... take 10-15 more minutes and SHOW me what has happened.. SHOW me the bank being taken down eventually.

BUT

what must be said is that the Guggenheim shoot out scene is up there with Heat... that was a really bad ass scene, very enjoyable.

sadly the rest of the movie was okay, not super great, and that ending was just a supreme cop out in my opinion

END SPOILERS

in a nut shell: wait for DVD, it is an okay flick, with a bad ass shoot out scene, and a TERRIBLE ending!

[ilovemovies]

The ending was a bit of a disappointment but nonetheless really enjoyed this movie. I thought it was a taut and exciting thriller with a solid performance by the always cool Clive Owen. Naomi Watts is fine but she doesn't have a whole lot to do. I enjoyed this movie about as much as I enjoyed Taken, which is a lot.

7/10

[courtneydee_xo]

I just saw this movie, and the Guggenheim shootout was pretty dang awesome.
But other than that, I can't even remember anything about the rest of the movie..and that's pretty dang awful.
This is one of those movies where, in a month when somebody mentions it, I'll say, "The International? What one was that?"

[JoeChar4321]

Originally Posted by SkyNet

very meh

SPOILERS

The story was interesting enough... and i did want to see how it all would end, but then we get to the ending and it just seemed like the writer or director was like "Fuck it, ive had enough... lets just do some newspaper headlines".. it was such a fucking cop out in my opinion... take 10-15 more minutes and SHOW me what has happened.. SHOW me the bank being taken down eventually.

BUT

what must be said is that the Guggenheim shoot out scene is up there with Heat... that was a really bad ass scene, very enjoyable.

sadly the rest of the movie was okay, not super great, and that ending was just a supreme cop out in my opinion

END SPOILERS

in a nut shell: wait for DVD, it is an okay flick, with a bad ass shoot out scene, and a TERRIBLE ending!

I totally agree. Still, I give the film a 7/10 because it's a compelling film that keeps your interest even though it never really hits the mark.

SPOILERS

Plot flaws are plentiful (SPOILERS: Why the need for a second assassin? Why not arrest the guy on sight instead of tailing him to the museum? Is that the slowest police response time ever to a massive public gun battle in NYC?) Still, it is a captivating film, featuring one of the better shoot out scenes in recent memory. The set up to the final act (“knowing which bridge to cross and which to burn. I’m the one you burn.”) had me on the edge of my seat. Too bad the conclusion has very little teeth.

[Jimmy Shaker]

4/10

SPOILERS


This was a boring ass movie, 1st, I love Naomi Watts but she was fucking horrible in this movie. The shootout scene is one of the most badass scenes I have ever seen since Heat, I will give it that and the sniper stuff is cool too. But the ending was a complete joke and the rest of the movie was so damn boring I actually feel asleep a few times. First time I slept in a movie since The Grudge.


4/10

[JCPhoenix]

Wow I'm kind of pissed cause I wrote a long review of the movie and the internet swallowed it up somehow but I'm going to try to encapsulate what I said in that earlier review again.

Essentially, I thought The International was pretty great. I was cautious going in due to the negative reviews and despite the fact that Tykwer has made two of my favorite films (The Princess & the Warrior and Perfume: the Story of a Murderer) but it was a pleasant surprise.

It was done in a fairly realistic way (more realistic than any thriller I can think of in recent memory) and I really dug the slow-burn, low-key feel of the film. I've heard talk about how it's got a 70s vibe, and I definitely agree with that - it reminded me a bit of Michael Clayton in tone except I wasn't bored by The International like I was by Clayton.

The Tykwer style was evident - I don't really understand all the reviews claiming it's generic and Tykwer's style is not there. In the opening sequence alone, there's a great spiralling shot into a CU of a man's face. The production values, as usual for a Tykwer production, were top-notch and evident. The modern cinematography, the slow-burn editing, the scoring in the film are all impeccably done, coming to a peak in a pitch-perfect action sequence set in the Guggenheim in NY, one of the best action sequences I've seen in a very long time.

The way the investigation is led felt very logically built to me - every connection the characters made made sense and felt reasonable and I always think that's something that thrillers don't always do right.

I did have some issues with the film - mainly, I think the first-time screenwriter is a very smart man writing about a very smart subject - but he has a bit of a tin ear for dialogue, leading to some cringeworthy lines spouted by both characters but especially Naomi Watts' character. But this isn't enough to detonate the film as the ideas behind the film are fairly terrifying due to the relevance to current events, and the actual way the plot is structured and put together is very well-done.

Overall, if you dug Tykwer's earlier films, particularly The Princess & the Warrior (which some people also find boring but I find riveting), I think you will enjoy this film. If you're a fan of low-key 70s-style slow-burn thrillers, you will also probably enjoy this film. I read a review earlier that mentioned it thought European audiences would be more receptive to the film than American audiences and I agree. I think a lot of European audiences are used to slower films (especially considering French New Wave came from, well, France) and this will will probably go down better if you have been exposed to that kind of cinema. It's a pretty dense film as far as throwing facts in your face and you either click with it or you don't and get really bored in the theatre. I went with it and the film surprised me (in a good way).

7-8/10

Also, Skynet - I don't think the ending is a copout. I think the whole film tries to do everything in a fairly realistic way and to see the main characters bring down the banks themselves would be ludicrous in a film that's been made in such a low-key way. I would have disliked that very much. The newspaper headlines themselves were a little iffy to me but I would have simply preferred that they just ended it exactly where they did and didn't show us the newspaper headlines at all; we can draw our own conclusions as to what will happen.

[cinemalover]

Overall the movie was fine

evil movie characters