John’s Movie Musings

How do you know you’ve settled in for a second-tier thriller?  The dialog isn’t that great.  Characters sort of just appear out of nowhere.  The villain is weak.  Clairvoyance and Convenience make frequent cameos.  And the ending leaves you wanting.

However, you can’t say a second-tier thriller is crap.  It’s more like the minor leagues of cinema.  They have fans and still provide a decent amount of entertainment.

So goes The International.  It stars Clive Owen and Naomi Watts who travel the world in search of the perfect house of pancakes.  Actually, Clive is an “agent” with Interpol.  Naomi is with the NY District Attorney and somehow gets to travel to Italy, Germany, and Turkey.  It never really gets explained.

Clive’s role is even more confusing.  Early in the movie is boss tells him, “Clive, we’re Interpol.  We have no jurisdiction anywhere.  We just collect information.”  I think that’s an accurate statement, but The International Paper Pusher would make a really boring movie.  So we just go with it.

The villain here is not really a person.  It’s a bank.  Ooooooooh.  Yeah, there are actual people running said bank, but they’re the twirling mustache-types who secretly run the world.  If they fall, the entire world crumbles with them.  Ooooooooh.

If I recall correctly, they did a Bond movie like that and it was lame.   You even had MI6 agents and cool gadgets to help things along.  Now imagine The International.  You’ve got an Interpol agent and someone from the District Attorney’s office.  There’s a reason Bond was not an accountant.

So yeah, it’s not the best movie.  But it’s really hard to screw up a thriller.  If you happen to throw The International in your rental queue, you’ll probably say, “Meh. I’ve seen worse.”

Grade: C