The International

Decent, slow really really slow international thriller. Smart looking but dumb.

Gripes
This movie follows in the footsteps of international thrillers like Syrianna or Michael Clayton, but the biggest difference between those movies and this is that those movies were well written and always a step ahead of their audience, forcing the audience to pay attention and think. The International however is not clever enough to stay ahead of the audience. Early on there are long scenes with lots of expository dialogue that basically explain the whole thing and just in case you weren't paying attention the info is repeated through out. Basically this big bank is bad, so bad that they control everything ooooh. Okay we get it. There's also some convoluted plot about selling guidance systems for missiles to terrorists but it's really inconsequential. You don't have to pay attention to the International, infact I challenge any one just to watch the first 10 seconds of each DVD chapter, you will I'm sure have the exact same summary of the film as someone who watched the whole thing, but you will have saved lots of time.

What Worked
Clive Owen is always cool and that blonde actress was good. It all happens in Bahauss Europe and is spectacularly shot so as a travel video of cool buildings in Europe it works really well. VW AG also provided the cars so there's lots of cool shots of Audi's and VW driving around Europe so if you like that you'll be impressed. Finally Evil German Industrialist villains are always kind of cool. At one point the movie gets a pulse and there's a ridiculous oozie shootout at the Gugenheim (I told you it's all Bahaus), it's clearly how the movie got it's R rating but it's still somehow lacks real tension just like the rest of the film. It's shoehorned in and story wise the characters are in the exact same place before and after the shootout so it could have been like five seconds or not in the film at all. Clive Owen gets shot in the face though and that's cool, but later he doesn't seem to notice it.

Mediocrity Scale
Meciocre

Better than Dungeons and Dragons?
Yes. The R rating alone raises it above D&D, it's also shot with competency.

Food
We had real Root Beer floats with real vanilla ice cream. Also Cakesters and double chocololate chip cookies to complete the Insulin shock.