The International

Rating : 4/10
Release Date : Feb ‘09
Time : 118 minutes
Director : Tom Tykwer; Writer : Eric Singer
Starring : Clive Owen, Naomi Watts, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Ulrich Thomsen
Standard fare, a spy thriller where its known right from the beginning who’s the villain & who’s the hero but we judge the film purely on how much fun we have watching one take down the other. The script is quite implausible, the dialogue ordinary / normal and as there are no fancy cars or fancy women, its understandable why this didn’t make the screen sizzle. Clive Owen’s coldness added to the lack of heat and is matched only by the German villain’s, though in the latter case it was probably deliberate.

What’s good here are the locations, they picked nice cities and didn’t just go for the obvious landmarks but some interesting venues. There is a good shootout scene in a museum, interesting just for the sheer scale and audacity of it all and another chase in Istanbul on the rooftops. Armin Mueller-Stahl (from Eastern Promises) continues to impress me for the credibility he brings to the screen.

Buy the dvd only if its on a bargain sale – the kind where if you buy something else, you get it free. I saw it on a flight and that’s probably the best place to watch it, as its decently paced and simple to understand even after you’ve downed a couple of drinks.