THE INTERNATIONAL (2009)

[The Burgomaster]

I bought this DVD today, along with GRAN TORINO and Marlon Brando in THE WILD ONE ($3.99 at Best Buy!)

The first 3/4 of this movie qualifies as an excellent thriller . . . then it diminishes into a pretty good thriller during the final 1/4 of the movie.  But overall, it's definitely worth seeing.

Clive Owen plays an Interpol agent trying to bring down a corrupt international bank involved in weapons trafficking.  Naomi Watts is a New York Assistant D.A. who gets involved because the bank has a New York office.  The movie is generally fast-paced and suspenseful, and Clive Owen proves he can carry a movie as a leading man.

The film's highlight is an intense, bloody, noisy shootout inside the Guggenheim Museum.  This is one of the best action sequences I've seen in years and the choreography rivals anything directed by Sam Peckinpah or John Woo.

Unfortunately, the movie slows down a bit after the big shootout, and the ending made me think "I've seen something like this several times before."  

I give this 3 stars out of a possible 4 (I would have given it 3 1/2 if it had a better ending).

[akiratubo]

You seem to have put this in "Good Movies" by mistake.

Aside from Clive Owen's enthusiasm for his role, this movie is a bomb.  The actors are all on auto-pilot, the plot hardly develops, the one real action scene is decent but not terribly exciting.  It doesn't end so much as it seems like they just ran out of film.

I walked out on it for about twenty minutes.  I only went back because I'd ridden with someone and had nothing else to do, anyway.  Audience reaction to the non-ending I mentioned above ranged from someone loudly shouting "You've got to be kidding!" to another person grumbling "That was the worst fu**ing movie I've ever seen."

I silently agreed with both of them.

[The Burgomaster]

You seem to have put this in "Good Movies" by mistake.

Aside from Clive Owen's enthusiasm for his role, this movie is a bomb.  The actors are all on auto-pilot, the plot hardly develops, the one real action scene is decent but not terribly exciting.  It doesn't end so much as it seems like they just ran out of film.

I walked out on it for about twenty minutes.  I only went back because I'd ridden with someone and had nothing else to do, anyway.  Audience reaction to the non-ending I mentioned above ranged from someone loudly shouting "You've got to be kidding!" to another person grumbling "That was the worst fu**ing movie I've ever seen."

I silently agreed with both of them.

I must disagree with you on this one.  I was riveted for the first 75% of the movie and only after that did I think it started to slide down hill.  And like I said, the ending certainly was not original.  I thought the shootout in the museum was meticulously assembled and hundreds of miles above what I've seen in most recent action movies.  Overall, this movie is noticeably better than much of the crap I've seen lately.  The people who shouted things out at the end of the movie were probably expecting two hours of rapid film editing and pyrotechnics similar to what guys like Michael Bay have been churning out in recent years.

[3mnkids]

I just finished watching this and I wasn't impressed. It was convoluted and the ending sucked.  Its completely forgettable.