THE INTERNATIONAL

Clive Owen and Naomi Watts play an Interpol agent and an Assistant DA trying to bring down a corrupt international bank in this paint-by-numbers thriller directed by Tom Twyker (Run Lola Run). The bank is involved with arms dealing and the financing of military dictatorships and’not surprisingly’its leaders will stop at nothing to prevent their machinations from being exposed. The idealistic duo follow the trail from Europe to New York to Istanbul, while the bankers kill off witnesses before they can get any hard evidence. Cue car chase, shootout, arguments with the boss… You can guess the rest. It’s timely that a movie about corrupt bankers should emerge in the middle of a global financial crisis, but the whole “pawns in a world of big business” thing is old news. Disappointing. (Lachlan Jobbins)