War, Inc.
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Movie Reviews of War, Inc.
Movie Review: Spiritual Sequel to Grosse Point Blank Does Not Disappoint
Summary: 3 Stars
This sharp and witty political satire may be remembered as Hilary Duff's finest hour a decade from now, but most viewers will be occupied and intrigued by John Cusak's return to material that was so brilliantly spun in Grosse Point Blank. Though lacking the subtlety of the earlier film this movie has its moments and what priceless moments they are. Don't let anyone spoil this one for you and watch it with as open a mind as possible. Enjoy!Movie Review: Kinda Blah
Summary: 3 Stars
I loved "Grosse Point Blank" and "High Fidelity" with Cusack and "My Cousin Vinny" with Tomei. Didn't love this movie, though. Although the production quality was really good and the acting was decent, it just didn't work for me. It seemed like it was mixing too many genres and not doing any of them justice.Movie Review: War Inc., Prophetic Flick on Corporate Warfare
Summary: 2 Stars
Well, John Cusack is in an other kooky flick that's take place in the not-so-distant future in an imaginary country called Turaqistan, of which has recently been defeated by contracted soldiers in the name of corporate greed. Like a reality trade show, Turaqistan is going to become the star of an international show in which it is rebuilt with the help of Tammerlane sponsorship. The protagonist is sent to the country under the cover of a contractor-producer for the major rebuilding show. But really he's an assassin sent to take out an Omar Sharif, the oil minister who attempts to nationalize certain pipe-lines that have yet to be constructed. This assassin, Hauser, is a bitter man, a lonely man, a man who found his wife murdered and his child kidnapped. Only the continuation of corrupt international corporate warfare will pay his bills.
Under his cover job, Hauser mostly chaperoned what was considered the Brittany Spears of Turaqistan. Yonika is a sexually obsessed singer who is future wife of the heir to the Turaqistan throne. Though Hauser is later exposed to her secret obsession with playing acoustic ballads. In English. This is somehow supposed to be more true and native to the woman. I didn't really buy it. Wouldn't she be speaking in her own tongue, using native instruments and styles? Maybe I'm just crazy.
There's also a journalist who protested the war and naturally hates Hauser. For some random reason Hauser grows an infatuation with the woman. Her character only serves as a plot-device to get the three characters into an abandoned manor for an interview with the singer, sponsored by Houser. Here, they are attacked by the fiancé's entourage who are now shunned by the government for attempting to digitize Yonika's consummation on DVD. Really though, they were used as fodder by Hauser and Sharif so that the heir to the Turaqi throne remains blameless for such a scandal.
The entourage was a little ticked.
But most end up dead and the hands of Hauser.
There are a few more action scenes that involve the journalist's kidnapping and eventual rescue. Hauser confronting his boss in an almost wacky chase scene along with the revelation of Hauser's daughter. Turns out, she's Yonika. What a twist! This was kind of ridiculous since there is almost no evidence in the beginning or middle scenes that give credit to Yonika's American origin. Other than the fact that she doesn't know who her father is. Whoopdi do. Seems a little extravagant for a kidnapper, who turns out to be Hauser's old boss, to raise a random girl in a Mid-Eastern nation to blossom into sexy pop star and marry heir to the Turaqi throne, just to make things weird for Hauser.
But I digress.
This flick is somewhat witty in an all too frightful satire of American corporate imperialism, but it just doesn't pull off the moral/satirical message that it attempts to convey. The acting and protagonist set-up is so inclined to an older flick that War, Inc. might as well have been called Gross Pointe Blank II: Revenge of Dan Ackroyd. The general plot development seemed so random at times that I wasn't sure if I was watching a movie about victims of a Middle Eastern war or victims of the screenwriter's strike. Then there were the pity scenes. That's right, the scenes given to Joan Cusack because she happens to be related to John Cusack. Again, Joan plays an all too often pissy secretary and over-embellishes everything she says. Cut her off!
Likely Page Break
The overall satire was kind of ironic as well. Obviously it illustrates the growing concern of corporate greed on an international scale and man's obsession with pop culture. But a lot of action scenes are initiated by an entourage of dim-witted Mid-Easterners that must be pulverized by the white anti-hero, Hauser. A little too great white hope symbolism, though I do appreciate the insanity of the American troops out in the battle-field listening to metal as they spray bullets into an already war-torn city. Overall the ratio between exposing the wrongs of American imperialism and fundamentalist terrorism is pretty even.
The end of the movie was definitely something left to be desired. It's like they threw a bunch of annoyingly inconsistent characters into one big happy family after the whole daughter situation is discovered. I'm just glad that I saw a missile chase after their plane at the end. If only Joan Cusack's character was on it.
Movie Review: Allegory, Inc.
Summary: 2 Stars
In star/producer/co-writer John Cusack's pet project War, Inc., one character delivers a throwaway line that must surely have been the pitch for the film: "This is like Strangelove in the desert." Indeed, one senses the ghosts of savage satires past, like Dr. Strangelove, The President's Analyst, Network and Winter Kills in this topical send-up of BushCo and the post-9/11 `murcan zeitgeist. Unfortunately, one also senses a lack of cohesion in an initially smart script that soon loses focus and goes awkwardly tumbling into broad farce, wildly firing its barbs in too many directions at the same time.
Cusack's character is Brand Hauser, a hot-sauce chugging hit man with a tortured past who seems to be an amalgam of Jason Bourne, Captain Willard and, um, Chuck Barris. He has been dispatched to "Turaqistan" (ahem), a war-torn Middle Eastern hot spot ripe for reconstruction and corporate exploitation. He is there to terminate the country's Oil Minister (Lyubomir Neikov) with extreme prejudice. The minister is a spanner in the works for the corporate machinations of Hauser's employer, a former Vice-President turned CEO (Dan Ackroyd, doing a credible quacking Cheney) who now heads Tamerlane (a cross between Halliburton and Blackwater). The prospect of spearheading the "first completely out-sourced war" appears to make the ex-Veep harder than Chinese arithmetic. In order to get close to his target, Hauser poses as the event coordinator of a Tamerlane-sponsored trade fair being held in the capital city's "green zone". Hauser's front soon proves to be the tougher gig, as he juggles the demands of three women: his fellow operative posing as his P.A. (Joan Cusack), a tenacious lefty journalist (Marisa Tomei) and a petulant pop diva named Yonica Babyyeah (Hilary Duff). Hilarity ensues.
Reportedly, the filmmakers have coyly denied that this is an unofficial sequel to Grosse Pointe Blank, but obvious comparisons abound, particularly in just about every scene that the Cusack siblings share; it feels at the very least to be a nod and a wink to the roles they played in that movie. Admittedly, it is great fun watching those two working together again, but it only serves as a momentary distraction from the film's uneven tone.
I think the malady here is similar to that which plagued Lions for Lambs: an overdose of intent. Redford's film came on too somber and preachy, even for the choir. War, Inc. swings to the opposite extreme; it's too manic and overeager to beat us over the head with what we already know: Iraq is a shameful mess, Bush and his cronies have completely blurred the line between war and commerce, and the majority of the American public is too busy watching the sun rise and set over Brittney's thighs to really notice. I'm afraid that War, Inc. is another case of "I really wanted to like this, but..."
Movie Review: Subtle as a train wreck
Summary: 2 Stars
Big budget. Big stars. Big bomb. And I don't mean the exploding kind, though there are plenty of explosions and firefights and a literal bombing or two.
I have enjoyed many John Cusack movies. I thought his recent The Martian Child was very good. The producers were hoping in War Inc. to up the ante on Grosse Pointe Blank, with a higher body count and a higher level of mercenary insanity. Unfortunately lightning rarely strikes twice.
There are several reasons the movie fails, and I can't list them all. First, the movie tries too hard to be clever -- it brims over with absurdities that are supposed to be amusing. But the emphasis seems to be on making an over-the-top political statement about USA's military-industrial complex (comparing it to the killer-for-hire business in Grosse Pointe), and the personal conflict of Cusack's character in War Inc seems less integral to the plot. It doesn't reach us on the same personal level, either in the comedy or the romance, that it did in Grosse Pointe.
This movie might be very well-received in countries with the lowest opinion of American military power and foreign policy. It might also find a sympathetic audience among those in this country who view our corporations and hawkish politicians as evil killers. But the dialog isn't sharp enough, the skewering doesn't have enough resonance, to make this a great movie, or even a good one.
What separates a black comedy like this from a classic like Dr. Strangelove? Sharper writing, better performances, and subtlety. War Inc. is about as subtle as its pop icon Yonica's hip-gyrating "I want to blow you... UP!" musical performance. This movie is as subtle as a train wreck. Better luck next time, Cusack & Cusack.