Jason KingThe International ($11-)
February 22nd 2009 01:29
Category: No Category
The International ($11-)
What happens when banks invest your money in total evil to make profit, what happens when your bank interest is being made from weapons deals to kill children in other countries? When anyone tries to stop this bank they end up dead. But not Louis Salinger from Interpol. The story is loosely based on a 1991 scandal that involved the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, a Pakistan-based bank with clients such as Saddam Hussein and Manuel Noriega.
In The International, a gripping thriller, Interpol Agent Louis Salinger (Clive Owen) and Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts) 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 – even murder – to continue financing terror and war. Directed by Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run) from an original screenplay written by Eric Singer, The International was shot on location in Germany and throughout Europe. --© Sony Pictures
The film starts with action and never relents, it is one of the best espionage action films I have seen for years. It tries to be a mix of Micheal Clayton and The Interpreter with Clive Owen as more of an action man than the other leads. It doesn't match the others on plot but it beats them in action. This film could be torn apart on many levels but for it's Bond/ Bourne action it beats the others hands down. The sequence in the Guggenheim is edge of your seat stuff that will raise your internal action meter to a ten. I sat there wondering how on earth they did this in the Guggenheim but discovered they rebuilt the inside of the Guggenheim flawlessly.
The crazed shoot-'em-up takes place at the Guggenheim Museum ... during business hours. The Guggenheim set was recreated on a huge sound stage in Berlin and a disclaimer at the end of the film states: "The fictional exhibition depicted in the main galleries of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum was not curated by nor an actual exhibition of the museum.
This is one of Clive Owen's best films and he holds the camera and film from start to finish. ON the other hand Naomi Watts is very average and I do not see a point to her character besides "female character" - she is not even a love interest really as she is married and her family is even more pointless. I would have preferred to see her family murdered in the beginning so she could have become a more suitable partner to revenge/ justice driven Owen (no cruelty intended to families it just would have driven her character more). Another thing I find no point to is the ear ringing at the start of the film, sure he is hit by a car but is the dipping of his head into ice water to stop the ringing and gain clarity there for any other reason to show us he did something cool on set like others have eaten cockraoches etc on other films?
Things of note that Simon and his friends said (they joined me to watch it) - it is a great action film but slightly cliched, "how many times will we have an evil African dictator in a film" and my fave "will Armin Mueller-Stahl ever be cast as anything other than the poor Jewish guy who is either wronged or makes life mistakes?".
I do like Armin Mueller-Stahl in most of his roles though and I think he is the perfect Gepetto if anyone is casting a Pinnochio movie.
The film is shot beautifully with a great color pallate and the editing is superb. The music builds tension as it should and the direction is fine. I do think some more work on the script and screenplay could have been better.
Not as good as The Interpreter or Micheal Clayton or the espionage films of the past but it's a fun viewing and worth it for the Guggenheim scene alone. Worth $11- Out NOW.
What happens when banks invest your money in total evil to make profit, what happens when your bank interest is being made from weapons deals to kill children in other countries? When anyone tries to stop this bank they end up dead. But not Louis Salinger from Interpol. The story is loosely based on a 1991 scandal that involved the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, a Pakistan-based bank with clients such as Saddam Hussein and Manuel Noriega.
In The International, a gripping thriller, Interpol Agent Louis Salinger (Clive Owen) and Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts) 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 – even murder – to continue financing terror and war. Directed by Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run) from an original screenplay written by Eric Singer, The International was shot on location in Germany and throughout Europe. --© Sony Pictures
The film starts with action and never relents, it is one of the best espionage action films I have seen for years. It tries to be a mix of Micheal Clayton and The Interpreter with Clive Owen as more of an action man than the other leads. It doesn't match the others on plot but it beats them in action. This film could be torn apart on many levels but for it's Bond/ Bourne action it beats the others hands down. The sequence in the Guggenheim is edge of your seat stuff that will raise your internal action meter to a ten. I sat there wondering how on earth they did this in the Guggenheim but discovered they rebuilt the inside of the Guggenheim flawlessly.
The crazed shoot-'em-up takes place at the Guggenheim Museum ... during business hours. The Guggenheim set was recreated on a huge sound stage in Berlin and a disclaimer at the end of the film states: "The fictional exhibition depicted in the main galleries of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum was not curated by nor an actual exhibition of the museum.
This is one of Clive Owen's best films and he holds the camera and film from start to finish. ON the other hand Naomi Watts is very average and I do not see a point to her character besides "female character" - she is not even a love interest really as she is married and her family is even more pointless. I would have preferred to see her family murdered in the beginning so she could have become a more suitable partner to revenge/ justice driven Owen (no cruelty intended to families it just would have driven her character more). Another thing I find no point to is the ear ringing at the start of the film, sure he is hit by a car but is the dipping of his head into ice water to stop the ringing and gain clarity there for any other reason to show us he did something cool on set like others have eaten cockraoches etc on other films?
Things of note that Simon and his friends said (they joined me to watch it) - it is a great action film but slightly cliched, "how many times will we have an evil African dictator in a film" and my fave "will Armin Mueller-Stahl ever be cast as anything other than the poor Jewish guy who is either wronged or makes life mistakes?".
I do like Armin Mueller-Stahl in most of his roles though and I think he is the perfect Gepetto if anyone is casting a Pinnochio movie.
The film is shot beautifully with a great color pallate and the editing is superb. The music builds tension as it should and the direction is fine. I do think some more work on the script and screenplay could have been better.
Not as good as The Interpreter or Micheal Clayton or the espionage films of the past but it's a fun viewing and worth it for the Guggenheim scene alone. Worth $11- Out NOW.
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