Tag: clive owen

‘The International’ Poster Makes Clive Owen Angry!


Clive Owen’s shooting at something, and if they checked out ‘Shoot ‘Em Up’ they best be getting their heads down. Â  The new poster for ‘The International’ looks decidedly cool. Â  There’s the white on black lines on top which bring about a sense of Hitchcock thriller, but the bottom shows that there’s gonna be some shooting going on.

Tom Tykwer hasn’t had a fast-paced actioner since ‘Run Lola Run’, and this could easily be the next one.

‘The International’ comes out on February 13, 2009.

Source: Coming Soon

‘The International’ trailer has wide appeal…

German director Tom Tykwer’s newest film, ‘The International’, is a conspiracy thriller [slash] bank heist (sort of?) type of genre film that looks very entertaining, despite it’s formulaic tendencies. The movie stars Clive Owen (super cool!) and Naomi Watts (super hot!) and is due out in theaters on February 13, 2009.

Plot Summary: [In The International, an edge-of-your-seat action thriller, Interpol Agent Louis Salinger (Clive Owen) and Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts) are determined to bring to justice one of the world’s most powerful banks. Uncovering illegal activities including money laundering, arms trading, and the destabilization of governments, Salinger and Whitman’s investigation takes them from Berlin to Milan to New York and to Istanbul. Finding themselves in a high-stakes chase across the globe, their relentless tenacity puts their own lives at risk as the bank will stop at nothing – even murder – to continue financing terror and war.] — IMDB

In case you missed it … ‘Closer’

How could you have missed a movie that star’s Natalie Portman, Julia Roberts, Jude Law, and Clive Owen? Well some people still have not heard of this movie so leave it to me to bring you all to the light.

First let me tell you that if you are depressed or have recently gone through a breakup… do not watch this movie! It is super depressing, and I don’t want to be to blame for you jumping off the building.  

The movie is based on a play that Clive Owen starred in as ‘Dan’, Jude Law’s character in the movie, way back in 1997. Dan (Jude Law) meets Alice (Portman) an American stripper on the streets of London. She gets hit by a car and Dan does his man duty and saves her, thus sparking their relationship. A year later Dan is doing a shoot for his upcoming book where he meets Anna (Julia Roberts) who is doing the promotional photographs. He is instantly drawn to her, and realizes that she has no interest in him. He logs into a chat room and pretends to be Anna and leads a “creepy” guy to meet her at the aquarium she frequents. The creepy guy happens to be Larry (Clive Owen) who meets Anna, embarrasses himself and eventually wins her over after explaining the situation to her.  

After a few months Dan and Alice attend  a photo exhibition of Anna’s, where all 4 of them meet. Dan persuades to have an affair with him which begins a love triangle that leaves all of them changed. It is Larry’s intention to hurt Dan, and Dan’s intention to get back at Larry.  

I wont go into all of the details of the movie, that’s your job, if you haven’t seen this movie definitely make it a point to go rent/buy it.

Review: ‘Elizabeth: The Golden Age’

Zac:

The follow up to the Oscar nominated film, Elizabeth, allows Cate Blanchett to get back into the role that made her famous and the result is a mixed bag.
Spain is threatening the rule of England and their way of life as the King Phillip of Spain uses the command of God and spread of Catholicism as an excuse to try and seize power in the Western world. Having bit at odds for sometime we come in on the action just as the tipping point tips and the wheels are put into motion to dethrone Elizabeth from her seat.
Also spun into this web of political intrigue is a love triangle between Elizabeth, Sir Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen), and Beth (Abbie Cornish). This part of the story never really works all the way and bogs down the political side of things at times.
Blanchett does a good job for the most part as the virgin queen and plays the likeable yet strong leader very well. The first film was her rise to power and coming of age (queen) story that was fast paced and was an excellent historical biopic. Here her character is more confident and over powers the men around her in life.
One of these men is Sir Francis Walsingham (Geoffrey Rush) Elizabeth’s chief advisor who is getting old and seems to be slipping with age. His plot intertwines with the conspirators giving Rush a lot of new things to do with an excellent character carried over from the first film.
Clive Owen is great for 95% of his time on screen. There is one section of the film right before the finale where the love triangle just gets ridiculous and bogged down causing all actors involved to become overly dramatic and just unbelievable, this is where Owen gets the 5% deduction. Other than that he is heroic, charming, and confident; easily selling us on why these women fall for him.

Deserving special mention is the atrocious performance by Samantha Morton. I mean, it is just horrible. She is overacting and acts so weird and bizarre with he speech and face its unwatchable at times; just really awful stuff.

What hurts this film even more then the love triangle is the director, Shekhar Kapur. He is trying so hard to be artful or unique or different that there were a number of times where I was just like, “what are you doing with your camera?” The movie tries to do too much and seems more interested in trying to give us an artistic frame then telling us a good story.
The movies first hour is very entertaining though and works very well, it’s when we get into the tail end of the story that things seemed rushed and unbelievable. The latter half of the film makes you wonder what happened as it pretty much spoils and overshadows a decent start. If you are a fan of the first film, Owen and Blanchett, or are an Oscar completes it is definitely worth checking out, just don’t get your hopes up for anything on par with the excellent first film.

[rating: 3/5]