StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

jormatuominen I have watched this film at least five times and haven´t still quite gotten enough. It has everything going for it - a cast of stars, cinematic excellence and a script that walks the thin line between plausible and not quite plausible to build a lot of suspense. Shooting locations (no pun intended) include among others the Hagia Sophia and of course the now-legendary seven minute Uzi war in the Guggenheim Museum - surely this is no longer a spoiler! There are many scenes that could be from a Hitchcock film, for example the totally random appearance of a suspect and the resulting trailing to the Museum, suspense building inside the viewer´s head. Wide-eyed and unshaven, Clive Owen as the bewildered and pissed off main character seems straight out of North By Northwest. What´s more, the ghost of Orson Welles is even stronger than that of Hitch. After all Orson´s favorite theme of power corrupting mercilessly it´s users is the essence of Eric Warren Singer´s extremely well thought out script. There is a lot of dialogue and it´s all relevant and intelligent. Naomi Watts has a fairly limited female lead role, but she does it well. The film does not give any verbal hints about the relationship between the lead characters, yet it is obvious from the acting that there is or at least has been one. The lack of romantic nonsense earns an extra star for the International. Believe me, this is not that kind of film. Armin Mueller-Stahl is once again the old guy who actually knows what´s going on, a role he has done many times and he is again absolutely superb in it.

scouter-92871 watched this last night and it was a great movie; however I felt like I needed more. Does anyone know if there is a sequel or what happens to the detective?you can email me at scouter68@yahoo.comthanks gail

ronnietg The genres for the International are: Thriller/Crime/Drama. From the get go, this is not a Drama, which emphasizes the internal, intimate moral decisions of the Hero. Yes, the story contained Drama elements, but it was not the genre of Drama. The designing principle that is the key to the heart of the story is defined in the Tag Line: "Sometimes a man can meet his destiny on the road he took to find it." Revenge is not sweet, nor does it make a problem go away, as the Opponent so rightly states to the Hero. The Hero must deal with his Desire/Goal for revenge throughout the story. But the true spine of the story is encased in the genres of Thriller/Crime. We see the crime committed in the first 10 minutes of the story, and as an Inciting Incident, it serves to suck the Hero into action that will change his life forever. What could have been a story with intense Narrative Drive was lost because the screenplay writer decided to give this story a branching form, which took the audience off the Drive/Goal of the Hero. The blond, attractive D.A. was an add-on because as it was written, the Opponent did not try to block her from achieving the Goal. The bank/Main Opponent went after other players instead of going after the Hero and the D.A. By branching out this way and having the bank knock off obstacles INSTEAD of having the bank focus on knocking off the Hero and the D.A., her role was a waste AND the Narrative Drive slowed down. For the Thriller/Crime genre, the spine of the story must have intense Narrative Drive. When there are these two genres, the writer must make the decision as to which genre takes precedence for the spine. In the case of this story, the bank is knocking off opponents left and right - The bank should have been after the Hero and the D.A. This would have provided that punch-counter-punch that was lacking in the story. Also, the Hero and the D.A. would have been on the run while being pursued - which ups the Narrative Drive in this genre. The character of one of the Opponents is used as a mouthpiece for the writer's ideology - This is a no-no in story telling. The character loses his believability in the story and the message in his dialogue comes off as preachy. He's a Communist and goes on about the good and bad points of this ideology. The Hero also mouths very predictable ideology on Communism, which takes the story completely off the Narrative Drive because it really has nothing to do with the Hero's Desire/Goal. The Desire/Goal must be clear; must be one main Desire/Goal; the Hero must be passionate about achieving it. So this speech could have been edited out. The assassin was also a contrivance and part of the branching story line that detracted from the main story line of Thriller genre, which should have had a linear shape to it. The assassin could have been written into the story with a connection to the Hero in some way, which would have upped the ante for the Narrative Drive. The international locations were awesome, but again, the story went off the Narrative Drive by getting into the African nations issues and the Israeli/Arab issues, which should have been a montage or edited out because it slowed the Drive down. Cross-cut between various players associated with the bank would have increased the Narrative Drive in this genre - This would have given the blond D.A. a more intensive role instead of her having a car accident in the middle of the action to get her out of the action for a while, a contrivance again. In summary, the story premise was high-concept, the acting and directing were stellar, but the script was highly lacking key ingredients - Had these flaws been dealt with, the film could have been as high energy as the Bourne series, yet with a decidedly sophisticated high finance angle that could have also capitalized on the exotic settings and cultures of the the story world where the Hero is fighting to come to grips with his main Desire/Goal. The film could have been a 10 had the script flaws been corrected.

Michael Radny Unfortunately The International doesn't deliver anything new to the plate, giving us the same cat and mouse chasey with adults that you've seen before. Whilst the story is something interesting, it fails to capitalize on the story, giving the audience nothing really to invest in. It's not boring, it feels like a high octane thriller, but there are no surprises. You already know how it's going to end, it's just a matter of figuring out who is the mouse. Nowhere near perfect, but not a total failure. Just there is nothing here worth investing in for the long run. It's a thriller and for the genre it is a pretty consistent film, but nothing feels fresh and original and above all it is more or less a cash grabber. Probably not worth watching, but if it's on TV, like it was for me, and there is nothing else to watch, you can zone out enough for this to make sense.