The International is being presented as a “thriller for our times”, but it’s too far-fetched to be relevant. Still, it’s an enjoyable yarn.
Comment
03/06/09
The International (2009)
58
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:191
Fresh:111
Rotten:80
Average Rating:5.8/10
Consensus: The International boasts some electric action sequences and picturesque locales, but is undone by its preposterous plot.
Theatrical Release:27-02-2009
Synopsis: Released in a post-globalization economy teetering on the brink of a depression, THE INTERNATIONAL admirably stays in step with its time. Screenwriter Eric Singer hangs this man-against-the-machine... [More]
Starring: Clive Owen, Naomi Watts, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Brian F. O'Byrne
Director: Tom Tykwer
Reviews for The International
Slick, fast-moving conspiracy thriller.
03/06/09
The pacing could be a bit faster and the script could be a little less obvious but this is overall well worth a look.
03/03/09
The International is far from being a Bourne or a Bond but it does pass muster for a Saturday night at the movies. Just.
03/03/09
The plot is heavy going at times and the interrogation scenes are a tad dull, while the dialogue is often just ludicrous.
03/03/09
For all its serious intent, Tykwer’s ‘relevant’ thriller proves to be perilously naff.
02/27/09
Top CriticEventually, you just let the tangled double-crossing take care of itself and enjoy the way the film defiantly bucks the contemporary thriller trend for shaky-cam coverage and lightning cuts.
02/27/09
Top CriticAfter a promising start, The International is an increasingly disappointing experience. Hampered by a weak script which peaks far too early, all that's left in the finale is a steely performance from Clive Owen. Mildly entertaining at best.
02/27/09
Top CriticThis satisfyingly cynical dig at the world of high finance should please anyone with a taste for paranoid political thrillers.
02/27/09
Top CriticClive Owen may have lost the chance of playing 007, but he can still carry off an action movie, and proves it in this smart and handsomely made corporate conspiracy thriller from German director Tom Tykwer and first-time screenwriter Eric Singer.
02/27/09
Top CriticWhat sticks in the memory isn't so much Owen's seething, one-note vendetta as Tykwer's modernist flair – the way he frames his sequences using buildings, confining the intrigue inside cold prisms of glass and steel.
02/27/09
Top CriticLike a well-oiled thriller machine where bankers are bad guys, this is a guilty, guilty pleasure indeed.
02/27/09
Uninspired and inconsequential, The International provides less thrills than a meeting with your local bank manager to discuss interest rates.
02/27/09
The film-makers are predictably making much of the allegedly prophetic nature of their bankers-as-villains storyline. Nice try. At its heart, The International is just another tale of a flawed idealist tangling with faceless corporate evil.
02/27/09
After the critical and commercial success of the Bourne series, thriller-makers really have to raise their game…and this doesn’t do the business, save for a couple of brilliant shoot-out setpieces.
02/27/09
Leaving behind the aromatic fantasy of Perfume, Tom Tykwer weighs in with a tense and exhilarating entry into the spy genre. This is an espionage thriller well worth investing in.
02/27/09
For all its serious intent, Tykwer’s ‘relevant’ thriller proves to be perilously naff.
02/27/09
Top CriticThis satisfyingly cynical dig at the world of high finance should please anyone with a taste for paranoid political thrillers.
02/27/09
Top CriticIf the rest of the picture had been as thrilling and action packed and the characters a touch more original, the opaque but charismatic Owen and the achingly transparent Watts could be embarking on a series of movies to rival the Bourne franchise.
02/27/09
As an action thriller The International might well lack the full-on fight scenes of a Bourne movie, but it is a smart and sophisticated globetrotting thriller with just the right villain for these troubled times.
02/27/09
Latest News for The International
March 22, 2009:
Click for trailer and preview 
More...
February 16, 2009:
Perhaps a perverse variation of The Peter Principle comes into play, here, since Tom Twyker appears to be over his head helming a Hollywood blockbuster as opposed to a modest, art house indie.
More...
February 14, 2009:
The Naomi Watts International Interview: On sleepless nights, lactose lobotomies and almost kissing scenes
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February 12, 2009:
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This week at the movies, we've got creepy campers (Friday the 13th, starring Jared Padalecki and Danielle Panabaker), conspicuous consumption (Confessions of a Shopaholic,... More...
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