Clive Owen and Naomi Watts team up to take down the man in this classic action drama about an evil corporation and the good Interpol/FBI trying to get the baddies.

But is this movie truly a classic? I’m afraid that it isn’t. Clive Owen is starring in another movie right now with Julia Roberts called Duplicity. When I went to see The International I thought I was going to see a better movie, and I’m wondering if Duplicity is what I meant to see.

So what is it really about? Well, an evil multi-national financial institution is financing some international arms deals. In fact they want to be the world leader in gun running. Interpol wants to stop it. It’s your typical cops and robbers movie. There is some main driving force behind Louis Salinger’s obsession with taking down this company. Louis Salinger is played by Clive Owen, but really it seems phoned in. Clive Owen is a much better actor than he portrays in this movie, and the character he plays seems to have a very strong motivation. However, we the audience never get to find out what that motivation is. All we know is that Naomi Watts’ character, Eleanor Whitman, reads his file and now understands his obsession. What about us? Why is Louis so eager to give up his career and everything he’s worked for to take this company down?

The long and short of it is there’s too much passion and not enough motivation in this movie.

Given the chance I would have seen a different movie, and I’m hoping that Duplicity is that movie.