War, Inc. (2008)
33 %
Reviews Counted: 61 Fresh: 20 Rotten:41 Average Rating: 4.6/10
Consensus:
War, Inc. attempts to satirize the military industrial complex, but more often than not it misses its target.
Rated: R [See Full Rating]
Runtime: 1 hr 47 mins
Theatrical Release: May 23, 2008 Limited
Box Office: $405,119
Synopsis: John Cusack plays an assassin in the star-filled satire that takes aim at war. Joan Cusack, Marisa Tomei, Hilary Duff, and Ben Kingsley also star. [More]
Genre: Comedies
Starring: John Cusack, Marisa Tomei, Hilary Duff, Joan Cusack, Ben Kingsley
Director: Joshua Seftel
Screenwriter: Mark Leyner, Jeremy Pikser, John Cusack
Producer: John Cusack, Grace Loh, Les Weldon, Danny Lerner
Composer: David Robbins
Screenwriter: Mark Leyner, Jeremy Pikser, John Cusack
Producer: John Cusack, Grace Loh, Les Weldon, Danny Lerner
Composer: David Robbins
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Reviews
Comment
Top Critic
While its plot aligns War, Inc. with other, higher-profile action-thrillers, its political critique is more explicit and its ad campaign more oblique.
07/03/08
...there's plenty of material ripe for savage satire out in the world right now, and while I approve of the targets War, Inc. took aim at, I can't say that it ever scored a direct hit.
06/29/08
Cusack as a mercenary in bulltetproof designer suits and Hilary Duff doing a kinky Arab superstar sexpot shoving scorpions down her crotch, can't save this satire crossing the line between the chaos of war and the chaos of filmmaking.
06/28/08
A film that confronts the absurdity and violence of modern warfare by taking it to the surreal and goofy next level.
06/27/08
An Iraq satire being released past the point when discussing the occupation has become wearying and parodying it a slow-target yawn.
06/26/08
For critics of the war with an appetite for red meat, War, Inc. will prove filling, if not quite completely nourishing.
06/26/08
Top Critic
Each earnest impulse blunts the edge of an already scattered satire and obscures the logic beneath it. And the laughs are buried in the same pile of disorderly conduct.
06/17/08
A great political satire - a Dr. Strangelove for the YouTube generation
06/15/08
A sprawling folly, this uniquely hellish war film has almost breathtakingly impressive (and busy) production values and is anchored by a memorably complicated performance from John Cusack.
06/13/08
Its comedy too often blunders into meaningless slapstick, with bombs and bloodshed replacing pratfalls and pies in the face.
06/13/08
Like the smart weapon technology it mocks, War, Inc. aims at the right targets but misfires so severely that even the clever details get obliterated in the resulting mess.
06/13/08
Top Critic
War, Inc. fires off dozens of lethal dialogue squibs like 'War is the improvement of investments using other means,' but it doesn't connect them into anything that can truly rattle an audience's complacency.
06/13/08
Top Critic
Like so many satires in the Strangelove mold, this never comes close to working as a story, but its lampoon of U.S. imperialism and military privatization is so bracingly obnoxious I didn't really care.
06/13/08
Top Critic
This is broad satire spun completely out of control, overloaded with obvious gags and cannonades of yuks where quivers of sleeking wit ought to be.
06/13/08
Like the Iraq conflict itself, the exit strategy fails and the whole thing becomes a complete mess. And it wasn't that great an idea from the beginning.
06/13/08
War, Inc. has that provocateur's edge, and it's at least awake to the world around us.
06/13/08
Top Critic
Top Critic
And yet, while even the most charitable viewer would be forced to consider "War Inc." to be a somewhat unfocused and undisciplined mess, there are still a lot of good things strewn throughout the wreckage.
06/12/08
The hilarious jokes and one-liners make take two viewings to fully absorb, but the movie also has an almost off-putting cynicism.
06/12/08
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