Directed by Tom Tykwer – of Run, Lola, Run fame – we have the story of  an Interpol Agent and former Scotland Yard officer (Clive Owen), working far outside his remit – along with New York Assistant District Attorney (Naomi Watts) as they struggle to bring down a powerful, corrupt, and well connected private European bank – the titular International Bank of Business & Credit – which has interests in organised crime, money laundering, and the arms trade.

Sadly for our protagonists, The International’s sticky little fingers are in a lot of pies – gorgeous dangerous pies – and numerous other shady parties have strong interests in their continued survival. Oh and you know how your bank just chokes you with high fees? This bank has a highly skilled assassin on payroll. So there’s that.

Aside from the bloody wreck of Clive Owen (and, sure, the beautiful and talented Naomi Watts), all of the other most memorable performers are architectural – with some absolute pornstars of architecture, in fact.

From a prolonged gun battle in the Guggenheim (if you’re not a fan of modern art, you’ll love this sequence), to a roof-top pursuit along the Istanbul sky line, to the stunningly designed building of one of the players, on Lago Iseo in Italy (in reality the Phaeno Science Center in Wolfsburg, Germany – but here copy and pasted into this vastly more picturesque location, so let’s just pretend, shall we?), the locations are beautiful and captured gorgeously.

We go from a strongly cloak-and-daggerish start, through an intense middle (thanks in no small part to the Guggenheim battle*), to… an ending.

The pacing is perhaps a little uneven at points, but the production is slick, and performances top-notch all around.

If you’d like to see what would happen if you crossbred Live Free or Die Hard with Spy Game and Body of Lies, I think this is something like it.

Highly recommended (if you like the genre).

* Would make a great band name, don’t you agree?