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List Price: $19.94 | | Label: Sony Pictures
Salesrank: 1981
Released: June 9, 2009 |
| Our Price: $6.26 |
| Used Price: $2.05 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Interpol agent Louis Salinger (Clive Owen) is determined to expose an arms dealing ring responsible for facilitating acts of terrorism around the globe. But as his investigation leads Salinger and his partner, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts), deeper into the secret world of greed, corruption and murder, they become targets of a deadly conspiracy so vast, they soon find the only people left to trust?are each other. This pulse-pounding thriller plays a high-stakes game of suspense, intrigue and explosive action.
Description of The International:
The International is actually two movies in one: A highbrow thriller about a sprawling bank that resorts to murder and arms sales to retain its power, and a sleek visual essay on how architecture and interior design shapes your perceptions. Interpol agent Louis Salinger (Clive Owen, still not quite a star despite Inside Man and Children of Men) has been on the brink of conclusive evidence against the villainous international bank, but his sources always end up dead. With the aid of a Manhattan district attorney (Naomi Watts in a woefully underwritten part), he stumbles on the trail of the bank's favorite hit man, who might provide the (literally) smoking gun Louis needs. The International starts out smooth and silky, with visual style to burn and Owen's intense fervor. The plot gradually bogs down in incoherent moralizing, but along the way there are some taut sequences, including a bloody shootout in the Guggenheim Museum where alliances shift unexpectedly. But what makes The International worth seeing is director Tom Tykwer's astute eye for public space: Chic postmodern buildings, broad Italian plazas, Turkish rooftops like mountain paths--Tykwer orchestrates actors through these architectural shapes, his hypnotic visual sense creating far more tension and excitement than the plot. Also featuring Armin Mueller-Stahl (Eastern Promises) and Ulrich Thomsen (The Celebration) as malevolent Europeans. --Bret Fetzer
Stills from The International (click for larger image)
The International Reviews:
The International 
2009-12-29 - A stylish and surprisingly crisp thriller. An all-star cast make this movie fun to watch. Clive Owens and Naomi Watts seem to be perfectly cast for the roles they play in this action thriller. It is shot with an impressive international scope and it is full of scenes that are eye candy for the viewer. The action scenes are fully developed and exciting to watch.
WAtch this movie for what the Italian Banker-candidate tells us extra-officially 
2009-12-28 - We hear the main object of any war is the debt it creates, and the resultant benefit to the bank which controls that debt.
Our surging Afghan involvement, unjustifiable otherwise, is simply another big bank bail-out.
Who controls this debt? The Chinese? Each soldier we send into the Afghan costs us a million dollars a year, and we are sending another 30,000 more?
This is just?
This is debt.
The banks are happy.
The living are not.
Some will praise in this film the Guggenheim, and thus Frank Lloyd Wright, and indeed not since the exile of the great Woody Allen has anyone treated lower Manhattan with such great and loving caresses. As one exiled to the Mexican border who travels to Ciudad Juarez, famously "the most violent city in the world," just to walk sidewalks and touch pavement and see taxis (no subway, alas! No loss), and smeel the unique aromas of city busses, seeing NYC here was to die for, and also, as I told the police patrolman patting me down last night in Juarez, to remember that Juarez is WAY safer a city than New York or any of its boroughs. My first reaction I admit upon seeing NYC here was to chant that old old song, in reverse: I hate New York!
But seeing her here in all of her glory, breathtaking, nostalgic for home in this holiday season, a joy and a beauty and a wonder to behold. New York.
But still I'm very glad to be here, in a much lower urban magnitude.
But, like in the assassination here, the Guggenheim is the second bullet. The first bullet is hearing that our economy of constant warfare serves only the bankers, as it has since our Revolutionary War. The Afghan? We have already lost, and the victors are the banks.
Hear that part and leave the rest for later. Hear that part and act for peace.
And the leading man himself is from a whole different magnitude than anyone else in the house, in his intensity. In fact, of the several references made in this film, we might be tempted to hear in this the direction given by kurasawa Rashomon - Criterion Collection to his samurai thief as he lays resting under a tree early in the recounting: to be a lion. Here we see the leading man throughout as wolf, form the opening staring at his prey to his pursuit to his slightly unshaven face. Pure wolf in pursuit throughout.
The New York Cops look like holdovers from Law and Order, before that got unbearably self-righteous with its SPecial Cases spin off, and the babe would never make a DA from New York City; not tough enough. SHe does survive deep impact with the windshield of a suspect's car, but the only result of that serious concussion is an ace-bandage along one forearm heavily displayed later on. GO figure.
THe moral of this story:
War creates debt, to be controlled by the banks and so are promoted.
Stop the warmongering. Fund health care and life, not war and death
And debt.
ANd that assassination has JFK and the Oswald patsy written all over it, down to the silencing of OSwald. Think Dealey Square and the grassy knoll
Decent 
2009-12-06 - The International is a decent thriller that try's to be too smart for its own good. While watching this, several things crossed my mind. Why is a company worth billions going through the risk of using the same assassin more then once? Could Clive Owens character be any more cliche'? Who allowed Naomi Watts on the movie set? Why was the flak jacket removed(poor excuse given in movie)? Could the IBBC be any less discrete about conducting its illegal activities? Wow, nice ending(w/ extremely sarcastic tone)..... On the up side, The story was intriguing enough for me to get online and look up the bank the IBBC was based on. The shoot out in the gallery is great(and ridiculous). Rent it or catch it on cable.
An average conspiracy thriller 
2009-12-05 - I had hoped that the International would be an interesting movie. It starts off with a meeting in East Germany, and then takes you back and forth between many international locations. Clive Owen is Louis Salinger an Interpol Agent. Working with Eleanor Whitman (played by Naomi Watts) she is wasted in this role. She seems to be hell bent on destroying her once promising career,and he is determined to expose the misdeed of one of the most powerful banks. Director Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run) some might think that this movie is related and draws inspiration from the current financial crisis but it does not. It did not hold my interest until the fight at the Guggenheim which was the highlight of this film. How did they manage to destroy the entire museum? It is simple the most interesting and exciting part of the movie. I learned that it was shot on a set. The real museum took 16 years while the set took 10 weeks. You will love this scene. My favorite scene, acting wise was given by Armin Mueller Stahl. I gave it three stars(11/10/09)
You Can Only Depend on Your Buddy!
2009-11-20 - This movie grabs you from the get go. An action thriller for our times. It is brilliantly executed. Interpol agent Louis Salinger (Clive Owen) is determined to expose an arms dealing ring responsible for facilitating acts of terrorism around the globe. But as his investigation leads Salinger and his partner, Manhattan Assistant District attorney Eleanour Whitmann (Naomi Watts), deeper into the secret world of greed, corruption and murder, they become targets of a deadly conspiracy so vast, they soon find the only people left to trust...are each other. This pulse-pounding thriller plays a high-stakes games of suspense, intrique and explosive action.
COMMENT: Eleanour looks stunning here, and I instantly fall in love with her. If at all, this is a legitimate reason to purchase this movie.
