Amazon.co.uk:Customer reviews: The International

Top positive review

Great interpol tale featuring espionage, architecture and lots of guns

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 April 2019

A ripping yarn with an absolutely astonishing set piece - a shoot-out in Guggenheim Museum New York! Clive Owen rather intense in his part and a little annoying but a story, based on truth, well told and immaculately filmed across many cities. Iconic modern architecture is the other star, worth viewing for the fabulously opulent buildings alone. Worth watching the extra featuring how they filmed the Guggenheim Museum sequence.

2 people found this helpful

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john campbell

Long overdrawn

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 December 2021

Poor overdrawn attempt at a thriller.

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C. Smallman

Underwhelming in the least

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 October 2015

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With the cast and writer I have to say I was pretty disappointed with The International. Not a film I shall watch again

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david mclaine

Two Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 December 2016

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typical of it's genre

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Jj acre

Two Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 August 2014

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O.k

One person found this helpful

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Nomad in Caledonia

Disappointing

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 October 2010

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The plot attemtps to picture a major conspiracy, but director's/producers lack of attention to detail and poor believability (ref Stanislavsky) kills it completely... The movie is a cross between the worst of James Bond movies and Stallone's Cobra- one of the characters survives being hit by a fast moving car only to be back on duty on the same day wearing high heels. In another scene, Clive Owen's characters manages to leave a building with a wounded comrade inspite of being cornered by a group of professional killers mounting an attack with automatic firearms. I think Clive Owen must have thought it's not shaping up, because he plays it poorly...

2 people found this helpful

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Silly bankers

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 September 2014

Tom Tykwer's The International is a schizophrenic affair, with occasional hints at a smarter thriller with something to say poking through the plot implausibilities and the odd spectacularly stupid moment - yes, Guggenheim Museum shootout, I do mean you - that look like the result of the rewrites and reshoots the film went through to turn it into a more easily marketable action film. After the economic meltdown, having a bank as the big villain should have been a sure-fire winner, but while at times the film does briefly look at the way banks maintain power by creating debt to ensure that whatever political system is in place will always protect them, it's more interested in clichéd conspiracy thriller tropes - the scruffy obsessive hero with a past who no-one takes seriously (Clive Owen, in a huff), the idealistic gal at the D.A.'s office who stands by him until things get messy (Naomi Watts, stuck with a nothing part), the self-loathing insider who might be persuaded to redeem himself if he doesn't kill them first (Armin Mueller-Stahl, almost phoning it in but still outclassing the rest of the cast put together), the big scheme that could either ruin the villains or make them untouchable, the killer who conveniently has a disability that makes him easy to track down and the usual run of assassinated witnesses.

None of it stands up to too much scrutiny, especially when the film throws away all pretence of credibility when the bank decides that their regular hit man is attracting too much attention so send a small army of unmasked machine-gun wielding killers to take him and our hero out in a prolonged assault on the Guggenheim that leaves the place Swiss cheese but doesn't attract any police at all until it's over. Nor is the last act much more convincing when Owen decides to throw away the rule book to take down the bank, let alone as satisfyingly ingenious as the fate that befalls the duplicitous financiers in the less well-known Australian thriller The Bank [DVD] [2001 ], which shows that it's possible to make an accessible, smart and entertaining thriller about corrupt financial institutions and the underhand way they really work without reaching for the automatic weapons. It's all perfectly watchable and Tykwer gets some good use out of the architecture in his globetrotting locations, but it's an account that doesn't yield an especially good rate of interest.

Decent extras on the Blu-ray, which has an excellent widescren transfer, include an audio commentary by the director and writer, several featurettes (both picture-in-picture and standalone) and a lengthy deleted scene.

One person found this helpful

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martindavey87

The International

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 March 2022

I was only interested in this film as it has Clive Owen in it, but it's not really all that great or memorable.

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rose

i didn't think this was a great movie not Clive Owens best role

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 July 2014

i didn't think this was a great movie not Clive Owens best role, his best role has to be inside man
the best part of the movie is the shootout in the museum

One person found this helpful

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Darcey

Sometimes a man can meet his destiny... on the road he took to avoid it!!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 November 2009

I totally agree with the majority of the other reviews here. The film had great potential, yet unfortunately from my perspective it was spoilt by many of the under par/wooden performances of many of the leading characters. The only person who comes out with any credibility is Armin Mueller-Stahl, who as always performs brilliantly.

All in all, there was a potential for a great story line, yet we lost interest as soon as the unrealistic shooting scene occurred.

P.S. The above quote was the best thing to come out of the film

4 people found this helpful

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Mr. Rwj Nixon

banking...the new evil empire apparently

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 July 2009

Tom Tykwer is a director who has promised much, but rather like Brit Neil Marshall, he has failed to deliver on his initial promise and with the International, it does not look like this trend is going to change any time soon.
The International of the title is the International Bank of Business and Credit (the BCCI in all but name, which was actually the inspiration for this movie), a huge multi-national that is involved in some very shady goings on (a bank involved in shady dealings...there's a shock). Investigating the banks less than sterling business dealings is Interpol agent Louis Salinger (a very rumpled and grumpy Clive Owen), who see's his partner murdered at the very beginning of the film by agents of the bank after the pair of them meet with an insider who is prepared to spill the beans on the bank. Pretty soon the insider is also dead in mysterious circumstances, and Salinger finds himself allied with Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts in a part so underwritten its almost instantly forgettable), a Manhattan district attorney whose team are also investigating the bank. Pretty soon Salinger and Whitman stumble on the trail of the banks favourite hitman (or consultant as they so euphemistically call it in the movie), who may be able to provide them with the smoking gun they so desperately need.
Unfortunately, what reads as a cracking thriller is poorly scripted, episodic, sluggish, and soon becomes bogged down in incomprehensible plot device after plot device. Watts does her best with a part that is woefully underdeveloped, and Owen turns in a performance that swings wildly from leaden to overwrought, sometimes in the same scene. Even Armin Muller-Stahl as Wexler, former Stasi officer who is now the banks security consultant cannot lift the proceedings, but he is by far the best thing in the entire movie. The script is also bogged down by what can only be described as some terrible sermonising. Tykwer seems to be under the impression that when his characters reveal that some banks are used by criminals to launder money, or get involved in financing third world dictators, or are interested in how much money they can make from any given situation no matter how morally questionable, they are giving us some serious revelations, whereas anyone who has been paying the slightest bit of attention (recently or otherwise) will regard these alleged revelations as rather old news.
Where the film does win out is in Tykwer's use of space in a variety of globe trotting locations, from wide open Italian streets to the rooftops of Istanbul, as well as one well staged action sequence in the central rotunda of the Guggenheim Museum, but even this cannot save this film.

5 people found this helpful

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Ms. J. F. Gilby

Didn't Enjoy It.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 July 2009

When you look at the trailer of The International, you see a action packed movie with a brooding Clive Owen that would rival Matt Damon's Bourne Movies. But when you see the movie itself, how disappointing it really is. The action scenes are very little (near at the end but they don't last very long). There is no romance between Owen or Naomi Watts's characters, it would have been intresting if there was as both of them had very good chemisty and perhaps in the future they would do a action-romance film. It's a very dull film, there's no sense of humour and the running time seemed to drag along with it's many scenes. Some of it didn't make sense, is banks really that evil? Yes and No really, they can be nasty but I wouldn't think they are the devil or demons to frighten you. Even the ending lacked anything good for me to say great things about this movie. But my mum enjoyed it and that's what matters, I rented it out for her entertainment but it's a shame that it wasn't the same for me. Only recommened if you want to watch this sort of thing but if you are a impatient person, avoid it.

7 people found this helpful

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5 star		57%
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The International

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