The International

J: Big Fat Heavy SIGH…for yet another movie, for which I had high hopes, that perked along nicely only to end up on top of the huge garbage pile of movies that ended badly – or at least left my PIC and I scratching our heads and wondering “What happened?”

What a great and timely premise – huge international bank run amok with world domination as their eventual end-game. What’s not to love about that? We get to boo the Euro-Trash bankers trying to take over the world and gaze at Clive Owen’s fabulous blue eyes. The only thing missing is a neat conspiracy theory involving the Bilderberg Group (no, I’m not going to explain that – look it up!). Nearly perfect, right? Not so fast!

This movie has a terrific plot and nonstop action, although the locations do move around quite a lot so, if you don’t keep up with the location titles, it can be tricky to know where you are. The cast is serviceable but clearly Clive Owen carries the movie – this is his vehicle. Oh yeah, Naomi Watts is in it too and manages to use all three of her expressions.

The highlight of this film is clearly the shoot-out in the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. But be prepared to exercise your suspension of disbelief muscles and try not to think too hard about how that many men with very big guns with lots of bullets managed to get past the security crew. Visually, however, it’s a very cool scene.

Now comes the problem and I will do my best to express my disappointment without giving too much away. There is a rule in playwriting that, if you show the audience a gun in the first scene, someone better get shot by the end of the play. Conversely, if someone walks up to the Bad Guy at the end of the movie to deliver the Coup de Grace (that is, shoot the bastard) it would be extremely helpful for the audience to know who the bloody hell he was and why he was doing it, which is not terribly clear at the end of The International. My PIC and I (with the help of her Rents) did kind of muddle through it, but I don’t go to movies to work that hard at figuring out how the damn thing ended. Lazy? You bet! That’s why I go see the movies I do – so I don’t have to think too hard, just to be entertained. So entertain me – preferably with a good ending to a potentially great movie.

K: The movie was decent, but not great; you can wait for DVD. Naomi Watts was exceptionally bad in this flick. Clive Owen is a great actor which is evidenced by him carrying this whole movie. And he's a nice piece of eye candy.