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List Price: $19.94 | | Label: Sony Pictures
Salesrank: 2584
Released: June 9, 2009 |
| Our Price: $4.97 |
| Used Price: $1.98 |
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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 profit to be made in 3rd world blood 
2009-11-04 - The hero is out to stopping the (International) IBBC bank's killing ways.
What really happens is that he finds one hit man and leads a Italian revenge hit man
to his marks, but the of weapons deals business goes on as usual
with record profits.
As long a greed fuels international fortunes that are made
selling drugs, killing machines or anything else illegal but profitable,
the banks will finance it or launder the money.
This movie is sort of Scotland yard goes rogue
when a former British detective joins Interpol to run down the people
w\ho killed his witness and family.
The movie is action packed, but gives a message that fighting
the big business of crime is useless ( so why should you try?).
Good film about something noone wants to talk about 
2009-10-14 - This film was very well done: Good Story, Good acting, Good directing and camera work. It highlights one of the things in our society that noone wants to accept: government is not a big brother that will take care of you, but an institution. The system not only can be bought, but has been for a long time now. And, this is a very well done film about just how that works.
Everyone thinks that the US Constitution is about giving citizens rights, but that is not what it says and not the purpose of it. It is an attempt to limit the power of government so that it doesn't get the power to reign over us the way governments in the rest of the world do. But people today have forgotten the simple fact that any organization that is big enough to take care of all your needs is big enough to take all your rights away.
Solid!
2009-10-03 - A fantastic gun battle, very good acting and a plot that probably happens everyday in real life makes this film a must see. I truly enjoyed it.
Drab 
2009-09-30 - -"The IBBC is a bank. Their objective isn't to control the conflict, it's to control the debt that the conflict produces. You see, the real value of a conflict, the true value, is in the debt that it creates. You control the debt, you control everything. You find this upsetting, yes? But this is the very essence of the banking industry, to make us all, whether we be nations or individuals, slaves to debt."
There you have it, the only good part of the movie that was sad to say nothing. No real suspence or even a clever plot. What plot there was wasn't clever at all. Actually "slaves to dept" was a clever observation and if that hadn't been the total input of this interesting angle the movie might have been rather good. That and aside from the fact that arms sales too are very profitable (ask Lord of War - Recommended).
What we have we have seen somewhere better before including Naomi Watts and Clive Owen. Super hitmen do not give me a hard on and then I could go watch Hitman (not recommended). Some have mentioned the shootout at the Guggenheim Museum as some masterpiece. Well the Guggenheim Museum is a masterpiece and if in New York look it up. The shootout adds nothing to this.
On the whole a very unsatisfying experience and a waste of time.
A Timely Thriller
2009-09-20 - Conspiracy theorists will enjoy the "The International". Considering the recent banking debacle, this is a timely thriller. A definite "guy flick". Blood, violence, lots of "shoot em up".
The complicated plot is sometimes hard to follow. Good photography, fast paced. Decent acting and directing.
