Blu-Ray Review: Don’t Be Fooled By Action Promise of ‘The International’

CHICAGO – The cover for the Blu-Ray release of Tom Tykwer’s “The International,” starring Clive Owen and Naomi Watts, sells the film as an action-packed thriller for a new era. There’s Clive with a deadly snarl, a gash on his face, and a firing gun. Don’t buy it. “The International” features some lovely settings, but it’s ultimately too dull to deliver.

Blu-Ray Rating: 2.5/5.0

Action always does extremely well on the home market. It’s always one of the most highly rented and bought genres of the year. Audiences are likely to be drawn to a movie like “The International”. My expectations were certainly high being a huge fan of Watts and Owen and liking a lot of director Tykwer’s previous work.

The International was released on Blu-Ray on June 9th, 2009.
Photo credit: Sony

The script for “The International” by Eric Warren Singer plays off current fears about privacy and the control of worldwide corporations, but is ultimately both overly complicated and dully predictable at the same time. Only one amazing action set-piece in the Guggenheim nearly saves the film. If you think one incredible action scene, arguably the best of the year to date, justifies a Blu-Ray rental or purchase, then check out “The International”.

Owen stars as Louis Salinger, an Interpol investigator on the verge of breaking open a worldwide conspiracy. An informant at a world banking organization is going to reveal that his company has been buying up missile guidance systems. Of course, the informant ends up dead and Salinger desperately tries to bring down the international conspiracy he now knows about without him.

The International was released on Blu-Ray on June 9th, 2009. Photo credit: Sony

Watts plays the New York Assistant District Attorney Eleanor Whitman, Salinger’s friend and colleague in the war against the powers that be. Armin Mueller-Stahl plays the coordinator for the bank and Brian F. O’Byrne nearly steals the movie as their most efficient assassin.

Every single line in “The International” is either cliched spy-speak about “finding a way further in when you can’t find one out” or plot-driven exposition about the incredibly clunky story. We need to identify with Salinger and Whitman for “The International” to work, but we never care about their journey. “The International” is an action movie with no hero.

And it’s even more disheartening to watch the normally charismatic Owen fall victim to a script this dull and to see one of the best actresses alive in Watts wasted more than she ever has in her entire career.

And then there’s that shoot-out. Imagine a film stuck in neutral that suddenly turns the speed up to 80 MPH for about fifteen minutes. About two-thirds of the way through, Tykwer and his team stage a shoot-out that ranks among the best of the last few years.

If you decide to take a look at “The International” for that one sequence alone, you’ll be able to do so with one of the better video and audio transfers of the month, a well-balanced 1080P picture with a 2.40:1 aspect ratio and an English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track.

The special features on “The International” are light but do include the picture-in-picture “The International Experience,” an extended scene, and “Shooting at the Guggenheim”. The package also includes a digital copy of the film.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com