Steineded How sad is this?

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

ronnietg The genres for the International are: Thriller/Crime/Drama. From the get go, this is not a Drama, which emphasizes the internal, intimate moral decisions of the Hero. Yes, the story contained Drama elements, but it was not the genre of Drama. The designing principle that is the key to the heart of the story is defined in the Tag Line: "Sometimes a man can meet his destiny on the road he took to find it." Revenge is not sweet, nor does it make a problem go away, as the Opponent so rightly states to the Hero. The Hero must deal with his Desire/Goal for revenge throughout the story. But the true spine of the story is encased in the genres of Thriller/Crime. We see the crime committed in the first 10 minutes of the story, and as an Inciting Incident, it serves to suck the Hero into action that will change his life forever. What could have been a story with intense Narrative Drive was lost because the screenplay writer decided to give this story a branching form, which took the audience off the Drive/Goal of the Hero. The blond, attractive D.A. was an add-on because as it was written, the Opponent did not try to block her from achieving the Goal. The bank/Main Opponent went after other players instead of going after the Hero and the D.A. By branching out this way and having the bank knock off obstacles INSTEAD of having the bank focus on knocking off the Hero and the D.A., her role was a waste AND the Narrative Drive slowed down. For the Thriller/Crime genre, the spine of the story must have intense Narrative Drive. When there are these two genres, the writer must make the decision as to which genre takes precedence for the spine. In the case of this story, the bank is knocking off opponents left and right - The bank should have been after the Hero and the D.A. This would have provided that punch-counter-punch that was lacking in the story. Also, the Hero and the D.A. would have been on the run while being pursued - which ups the Narrative Drive in this genre. The character of one of the Opponents is used as a mouthpiece for the writer's ideology - This is a no-no in story telling. The character loses his believability in the story and the message in his dialogue comes off as preachy. He's a Communist and goes on about the good and bad points of this ideology. The Hero also mouths very predictable ideology on Communism, which takes the story completely off the Narrative Drive because it really has nothing to do with the Hero's Desire/Goal. The Desire/Goal must be clear; must be one main Desire/Goal; the Hero must be passionate about achieving it. So this speech could have been edited out. The assassin was also a contrivance and part of the branching story line that detracted from the main story line of Thriller genre, which should have had a linear shape to it. The assassin could have been written into the story with a connection to the Hero in some way, which would have upped the ante for the Narrative Drive. The international locations were awesome, but again, the story went off the Narrative Drive by getting into the African nations issues and the Israeli/Arab issues, which should have been a montage or edited out because it slowed the Drive down. Cross-cut between various players associated with the bank would have increased the Narrative Drive in this genre - This would have given the blond D.A. a more intensive role instead of her having a car accident in the middle of the action to get her out of the action for a while, a contrivance again. In summary, the story premise was high-concept, the acting and directing were stellar, but the script was highly lacking key ingredients - Had these flaws been dealt with, the film could have been as high energy as the Bourne series, yet with a decidedly sophisticated high finance angle that could have also capitalized on the exotic settings and cultures of the the story world where the Hero is fighting to come to grips with his main Desire/Goal. The film could have been a 10 had the script flaws been corrected.

john in missouri It took a second watching for me to appreciate this smart, underrated thriller.In fact, going into it the second time, I knew I'd seen it a couple of years ago, but I couldn't remember any of the details. This is usually the mark of an mediocre movie. In this case, it was simply because I hadn't understood it well enough the first time around.This is a movie you need to fully understand in order to appreciate. And unless you catch all of the dialogue (or at least as much of it as possible) you're not going to fully understand it. Rewind helps! The International must've been Clive Owen's attempt to get his career back on track after the God-awful (and I truly mean God-awful) Shoot 'Em Up in 2007. Miraculously, this movie has more or less restored my faith in Clive.Clive Owen is an agent seeking justice against a criminal enterprise: The International Bank of Business & Credit, or IBBC. This, of course, is a veiled reference to the BCCI (Bank of Credit and Commerce International), which went defunct in 1991 after being raided for money laundering and other financial crimes. It seems likely that the movie was partly inspired by this bank, which was referred to as "Bunch of Conmen and Crooks International." The BCCI was once the 7th largest private bank in the world; the IBBC is referred to in the movie as being the 5th largest private bank in the world.As you might guess, Owen's investigation is not entirely straightforward. I make it a practice not to include spoilers in my reviews, so you'll have to watch the movie to find out more. Once again, the key is hearing all the dialogue and understanding the plot.7 out of 10.

museumofdave This Evil Corporation vs Honest Interpol Thriller has a lot going for it--Clive Owens menacing, broody good guy striving to maintain integrity in a dirty world, a good many flashy international locations,, each color-coded by the cinematographer, a literate. creepy turn by the excellent character actor Armin Mueller-Stahl, an insidiously effective music score that gets points not for bluster but for slinky underscoring, and as a high point, a kinetic, noisy, athletic, complex shootout in the circular confines of New York's Guggenheim Museum. No, this dark conspiracy film hasn't got constant violence and explosions, and no, it isn't always easy to follow, but yes, it's an intelligent thriller with plenty going for it, consistently entertaining.

piratecannon The International stars Clive Owen as Louis Salinger, an Interpol agent with a blemished service record. After a colleague is murdered in an attempt to investigate a powerful bank's role in the sale of illegal arms, Salinger embarks on a crusade to expose everyone involved. Naomi Watts is in this too (as an NYC District Attorney), but mostly she cries, looks longingly at her Blackberry, and stands in the way of moving cars.There's a lot of other stuff involved in the plot, but trying to hash it all out is a headache that's not worth the payoff. Fairly obscure characters are referenced as if we should instantly know who they are, and there's a lot of discussion regardinginternational legal policy, the indestructible banking system and how we're all reliant on it, and how the only way to implement any real change is to act outside the law. While some of this may be true (and thought-provoking in its own right), the way it's presented is numbingly boring, and it's done by way of tidbits of dialogue that aren't explored or revisited with any depth. As the plot hurls us from one exotic location to the other, we're left trying to "connect the dots," scrambling to remember who said what when and why it was important. In that sense, The International suffers a fate that many thrillers steeped in international politics/intrigue seem to fall victim to—an unnecessarily convoluted plot that feels like a cliché and isn't interesting. Aside from a prolonged shootout at the Guggenheim—which, I might add, provides ample opportunity for us to revel in the satisfaction of watching pretentious piece after pretentious piece of modern art (in the form of glass panels with images being projected on them) get totally anniahlated—there's not much here to warrant a rental. Some may suggest that there is a theme of redemption working as an undercurrent in The International, but who cares? There's almost no characterization, so we don't have anything invested in any of the players. And it's so tedious that by the time you've reached the startlingly blunt climax you won't want to waste a second pondering the film's messages, whether they're personal, global, or present at all.When there are other well-made political thrillers out there—such as State of Play, which should be making its way to DVD/Blu-ray in the very near future—I'm not sure why anyone would devote a movie night to The International. I can say, however, that the previews reminded me that I need to pick up Close Encounters of the Third Kind in hi-def ASAP.