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The International, a review by Dragonfire

I decided to go see The International after seeing previews that made it look like a good thriller.  Unfortunately the movie didn't live up to the potential it had.

The International Bank of Business and Credit has been the subject of an investigation.  Every time it seemed like a break in the case was close, something would happen and witnesses would disappear.  Louis Salinger, an Interpol agent, had been investigating the bank for years and was a bit obsessed with the case.  An assistant district attorney from New York City, Eleanor Whitman, is also involved in the investigation since the IBBC does business in New York.  Some executives in the bank know about the investigation and are willing to do anything to keep doing business the same way.

I thought that the plot had the potential to be interesting with having a huge international bank mixed up in all kinds of criminal activities.  Those things seemed believable.  The movie wasn't as interesting as I had thought it would be and ended up having a slower pace as well, which did make some scenes drag on a bit too long.  The movie was promoted like a thriller with a lot of action.  I didn't think the movie was that thriller and it wasn't much of an action movie either.  With the exception of just a few scenes, there was no action in the movie.  The few action scenes, especially one, were done well even though they weren't that believable.  Louis was severely outnumbered during a shootout, yet he still managed to not only survive, but take out the bad guys.  They had automatic weapons and were spraying bullets everywhere, yet they mostly missed their targets.  There was only a little bit of suspense in a couple of scenes.  There really isn't any mystery to what is going on either.

Louis is really the only character to receive much attention and he still was rather flat since all was shared was really tied to his obsession with the investigation into the IBBC.  Clive Owen was fine in the part.  Naomi Watts didn't have as much to do and I think her scenes were filmed around her last pregnancy.  There were a lot of times when she was only filmed from the neck up.  She was ok in the part.  The bank executives were around in some scenes without much of anything being shared about them.  There really weren't any characters that were interesting in the movie.

The movie isn't horrible, but it isn't great either.  Fans of the cast might find something to like about the movie.  I just felt sort of...blah about this one I guess.  I rated the movie 3 stars on Epinions..barely.  Here I lean towards 

I did post a review on Epinions if anyone would like to take a look.

The International

(From The International on April 30th, 2009)

Nemesis Game, a review by KinkyCyborg

Nemesis Game




Title:Nemesis Game
Year: 2002
Director: Jesse Warn
Rating: R
Length: 91 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital: 5.1
Subtitles: English, Spanish

Stars:
Carly Pope
Ian McShane
Adrian Paul
Rena Owen
Brendan Fehr

Plot:
Sara Novak is an introverted college student with a few skeletons in her closet. Shying away from classmates, she prefers to spend time with Vern, an older comic store owner who shares her passion for mind games and riddles. But when the riddles she solves lead to the deaths of those around her, she realizes the riddles are more than a simple game.....

Extras:
Scene Access
Audio Commentary
Deleted Scenes
Featurettes
Closed Captioned


Convoluted story about a game of riddles that leads to murder. Very much a movie of highs and lows. There are moments where you are on the edge of your seat and long extended periods where it is painfully boring. During these lulls I found myself getting up and finding something else to do.  

This was a joint Canada/New Zealand production with Toronto the city where the story took place. Lots of Canadian content in the movie as well with the attractive Carly Pope, Brendan Fehr and perpetual geek, Jay Baruchel. Ian McShane lends some veteran presence to this mostly younger cast with a good performance as well.

Weird movie with some decent moments but at the end, which wasn't necessarily a bad ending, it did leave me a bit confused.

KC

Rating:

(From KinkyCyborg's Random Reviews 2010 on November 7th, 2010)

Tom's Random Reviews, a review by Tom

Title: Full Metal Panic!: The Second Raid
Year: 2005
Rating: NR
Length: 325 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78
Audio: English: Dolby Digital Stereo , English: Dolby Digital 5.1 , Japanese: Dolby Digital Stereo , Japanese: Dolby Digital 5.1 , Commentary: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: Commentary, English

Plot:
It's tough to keep your grades up without having to take off at a moment's notice to save the world. But for Sousuke Sagara, undercover high school student and member of the mercenary group Mithril, life in Tokyo seemed the same as always. But underneath the promising exterior spin the wheels of a conspiracy that threaten to destroy the peace. A new threat has arisen: Amalgam.

An unknown element with advanced mech technology, this mysterious organization has been running things from behind the scenes. As dissension spreads throughout the ranks of Mithril, Sousuke faces his own internal struggle. Spread thin between schoolwork and war, the powers that be have decided to lighten his load... beginning with Kaname!

Life and death hang in the balance as the clash between good and evil scale new heights. When the smoke clears, Sousuke's path will be the one that he forges for himself.

Extras:
Bonus Episode 000; Bonus OVA; Textless Songs
Commentary
Featurettes
Scene Access
Trailers

The third installment in the Full Metal Panic series. And what an emotional roller coaster ride!
Whereas the first series mixes a serious story-arc with light fun episodes, this series is mostly drama. Essentially a 180 to the previous (second) series FUMOFFU which was fun-only.

Also the extras on this DVD set a quite fun. A 7-part featurette where the original author and the series director are going location scouting in Hong Kong. Although it gets rather boring with the video footage, the two provide fun commentary to it, which seldomly has anything to do with the video footage.
Then we have audio commentaries for all episodes with the Japanese voice cast. Again, there are mostly talking about everything except about the episodes . But I enjoyed them nonetheless.

The best extra feature of course is the bonus episode centering around the Tessa character. Originally it was released in Japan on DVD-only one year after The Second Raid series. This episode is comedy pure!

Rating:


Here is something rather fun: The audio of the Spider-Man 2 trailer put to video footage from Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid
http://youtube.com/watch?v=mbFngmMz15o

(From Tom's Random Reviews on June 7th, 2008)