The International

Greetings again from the darkness. Was this supposed to be an inside joke? When the line is spoken in the film, I laughed out loud. "Fiction must make sense". Coming from a movie so preposterous as this one just seemed perfect. Clive Owen is becoming Kurt Russell ... an actor I like in a bunch of movies that I don't like. Time for a new agent Mr. Owen. Looks like two of his next 3 are sequels (Inside Man and Sin City). The other (with Julia Roberts) looks bloody awful in the trailer. Actually this is a very nice film to look at, just don't waste any energy on the story about an international bank who brokers arms deals between countries. And why was a NYC district attorney involved ... never mind. Naomi Watts has plenty of solid movie credits but she is totally out of place here. I will admit the Guggenheim museum scenes were actually fun to watch, though again, ridiculous in nature. Just seems to be the time of year for ridiculous films trying to cash in on the dearth of decent releases.

I had pretty low expectations of this film, based on the previews. They showed a movie that looked, at best, derivative. Naomi Watts was wooden and forced. The plot was pretty basic, the climax was boring, the dialog was terrible, and really, how long do cops need to look at an empty lot before figuring out that maybe one of the buildings in the immediate vicinity might be worth a look. The only thing that redeemed this movie in any way, and the reason it got 3 stars from me instead of 1, was that the shoot out scene in the Guggenheim was amazing. This movie suffered from many problems, starting with the overall plot, and heading right on down the line.

So much for this being the thriller to watch if you don't like thrillers. I like all kinds of movies except one: long boring ones. And one of my favourite films is The English Patient! That's how boring this film is. Even Clive Owen thinks it's boring that's why he could hardly be bothered to act during the whole thing. Except when he got so frustrated he just acted angry. Save yourself two looooong hours of trying to stay awake and watch something else. I assure you you won't even care what the 'bad guys' are conspiring to do! I'll concede that the ending was a little exciting but after waiting an hour and a half for it, it just didn't seem worth it. I wish I had spent my evening re-watching the terminator movies and picking plot holes in Terminator Salvation like I had planned.

The Interpol Agent Louis Salinger (Clive Owen) and his partner are investigating the International Bank of Business and Credit (IBBC) in a joint operation with the District Attorney Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts) from Manhattan in a two hundred million dollars illegal business of weapons trading. They schedule a meeting with an insider informer from IBBC at the Central Station in Berlin; however his partner is mysteriously killed after the encounter. Salinger finds the identity of the informer when he sees that the Vice President of Acquisitions André Clement (Georges Bigot) had died in a car accident. Salinger and Whitman head to Milan where they meet the politician Umberto Calvini (Luca Giorgio Barbareschi), who is great manufacturer of arms, and he explains that IBBC is interested in buying the missile guiding system that he produces in his factory. When Calvini is murdered by a sniper in a political rally, Salinger and Whitman head to New York following the killer and later to Istanbul, and disclose a scheme of arms supply and destabilization of governments to make their nations slaves of debt. Further, the bank is protected by legal systems and only if Salinger crosses the line he might bring some justice to the corrupt system. "The International" is a surprisingly effective blockbuster thriller. I had lower expectations with this movie, but I really liked it. The complex story of corruption and greedy has flaws, but holds the attention of the viewer until the last scene. The way Louis Salinger easily travels to many countries is strange, since we simple mortals need documentation, money, reservations, connections in the airports, but his character has no problem even when he is chased by the police. In Guggenheim, the always effective police force of the movies takes a long time to come to the place and arrives only after the shooting. My vote is seven. Title (Brazil): "Trama International" ("International Plot")