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The International

  MPAA Rating: R
Current Showtimes: No showtimes available

Clive Owen needs to pick better projects. He’s a very talented actor with some great roles in the past, but after the abysmal Shoot ‘Em Up, it seems he’s been saying yes to every action script that comes his way. Clive Owen can do good action films, such as Children of Men, but that was three years ago. His latest effort, The International is a boring, confusing spy film that’s only saving graces are an incredible action sequence and Clive Owen himself.

Owen stars as Louis Salinger, an Interpol agent attempting to expose an international bank that is involved in an illegal arms dealing ring. Salinger is assisted by district attorney Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts, who is completely wasted playing an unnecessary character), who is working on the case from the American end. Their investigation takes them all over the world, from Berlin to Istanbul to New York City. I wish I could go into more specifics about the plot, but it would make little sense and take me forever to try to put the plot together. Essentially, it’s the duo going from place to place with different mysteries for them to solve every 15 minutes.

The one greatly entertaining part of this movie, though, is the gunfight that takes place inside the Guggenheim Museum. The Guggenheim is completely torn to shreds in this sequence, with glass and bullet holes everywhere around the famous museum. Unfortunately, this scene comes halfway through the movie, which means enduring the dullness of the film’s first hour.

The International is an extremely boring film that while admittedly slick, isn’t a good movie by a long shot. While the Guggenheim action scene is impressive, it’s certainly not worth the price of admission. The film could’ve been better had the filmmakers actually included a sinister villain, but instead, the audience is given an assortment of similar-looking men in suits who spend most of the movie speaking in code in skyscrapers. The International is a spy film that gets too twisty for its own good, leaving the audience confused and bored out of their skulls.