Naomi Watts and Cllive Owen in "The International"
courtesy of Sony Home Entertainment
“Clive Owen Saves the Day”

For a lot of people, especially women, it doesn’t matter if a movie is great or not – just having Clive Owen as the star is enough. And that just about says it all for “The International.” It isn’t the greatest action movie ever made but Owen is great as the star.

It seems like everyday we learn more and more about the greed and evil in the banking world. Now there is a movie out on DVD that says every thing you have heard is true – and it is even worse than you thought. “The International” puts the banking community in the middle of corrupt arms deals and terrorist activities. And all this time you thought a few bonuses were bad!

Clive Owen plays Louis Salinger, an agent for Interpol. He works closely with Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts) and assistant district attorney in New York. There is a relationship between Interpol and New York but it went over my head. Suffice it to say they are both on the trail of a corrupt international bank.

The movie is a little too complex plot wise for my enjoyment but it does have some good action sequences. Especially rousing is a shoot-out in the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. The battle between the good guys and the bad guys tears this place up. The set designers and decorators must have had a field day creating this set and then breaking it down.

One major flaw of the film is that the audience never really gets a feel for the major characters. Clive Owens character is worn down and morose but you never know exactly why, whereas Watts’ Eleanor is a cipher from beginning to end. A little more character development would have made for a better movie, but as one woman told me – when you have Clive Owen in the movie, who cares?

Standouts in the supporting cast are Armin Mueller-Stahl as the “fixer” for the banking community, and Jack McGee as Detective Bernie Ward of the New York Police Department. These two men manage to create full characters in the few scenes they are given.

Overall “The International” is just a run of the mill thriller. For some having Clive Owen on board adds enough spice to make it something special. For the rest of us a little more background and a more understandable plot would have made for more interest.

Here’s an interesting question for you, if you were making a movie about high school cheerleaders, what age would you want your cast to be? I think most of us would answer between sixteen and twenty. I mean a twenty year old can usually pass for sixteen and a sixteen year old can pass for twelve or thirteen with the right makeup, etc. Why then did the makers of “Fired Up!”, a movie about teenagers, cast actors who are in their late twenties?

The movie centers around two high school juniors, Shawn and Nick. They are played by Nicholas D’Agosto and Eric Christian Olsen. D’Agosto is twenty-eight years old and Olsen is thirty-one! The head cheerleader in the film is Carly who is played by Sarah Roemer. Roemer is twenty-four. And the list goes on.

The two guys decide it is smarter to go to cheerleading camp with a bevy of beautiful females than to go to football camp with only guys. The odds are much better and they will have a summer camp to remember. And they do!

The movie is vaguely reminiscent of “Bring It On!” Kristin Dunst starred in that very popular cheerleading film. But this one is only half as entertaining. One reason is you never see much cheerleading by the main team. You see other kids do amazing things but the movie centered group is just going through the motions.

The characters all come off as likeable in the film but none stand out. The only actor who makes any kind of impression is David Walton who plays Carly’s medical school boyfriend Rick. He makes an impression because he is so unlikable.

“Fired Up!” is pretty harmless entertainment. It has a lot of sexual innuendoes and more than enough profanity, but as this type of comedies runs it is fairly mild. The problem is that age thing. All of these guys and girls look just a little “old” for their roles and if you can’t believe their ages then you can’t believe the storyline.

Olsen and D’Agosto are not such great or popular actors that you had to have them to draw a crowd. They certainly could have been replaced with two actual teenage guys and no one would have noticed the difference. And it would have made the movie much more believable.

If your dad is a history buff one of the greatest gifts you could get him for “Fathers Day” is the Blue-Ray edition of “John Adams.” This greatly honored series from HBO is an excellent telling of the life and times of John Adams and Paul Giamatti’s performance in the lead role is staggering. Equally good is Laura Linney as Abigail.

This seven part miniseries tells the full story of the man who was our second President, warts and all. The exciting thing is you can watch it in all its clarity and beauty straight through, or stop it at will and pick up when you can.

There are loads of extras in this DVD edition and you don’t want to miss them. So get it today and maybe your father will let you watch it with him.

Finally for some laughs you will want to get “Spring Breakdown.” In this film three young women in their thirties long for the “spring break” kind of fun they never had. So when one of them is offered the chance to chaperone the boss’ daughter to a wild spring break adventure they all go! The question is can they fit in now with kids ten years younger and get their wild thing on in the nick of time?

Amy Poehler, Parker Posey and Rachel Dratch are the three women and Amber Tamblyn is the boss’ daughter. They all play their roles for the fun of it and make the movie a laugh filled good time.
 

 

 

 

 

©2009 Jackie K. Cooper

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