War, Inc. (2008) Synopsis:
A government assassin is sent to a Middle-Eastern warzone where he is assigned to kill a rogue leader while posing as a chaperone for an Arab pop star.
War, Inc. (2008) Movie Review:
War, Inc is a comedic satire about the current war in Iraq that strikes out miserably. It is intentions are clear and straightforward, but the film itself is just not very funny and will probably not stay in theatres for too long of a duration.
The film centers around a hitman named Brand Hauser (John Cusack), who is bored and numb with emotion that he has to take shots of hot sauce for him to get his contracts completed. Under the orders of the former Vice President (Dan Aykroyd), who runs a Halliburton type company called Tamerlane; Hauser is to take out Omar Sharif, who is the oil minister of the fictional country Turaqistan. The government is not actually attached anymore to the former Vice President, in just his company has been having numerous problems in Turaqistan with the insurgents rise to power. As his cover, Hauser must oversee the Brand USA Trade Show, which has a Turaqistan’s famous pop star, Yonica Babyyeah (Hilary Duff) wedding event. On top completing his assignment and babysitting the spoiled pop star, Hauser also takes a likening to dedicated American journalist named Natalie Hegalhuzen (Marisa Tomei).
Director Joshua Seftel works from an original screenplay that was written by a trio of writers, which includes Cusack. Cusack previously contributed immensely to another hitman satire Grosse Pointe Blank and High Fidelity. The intentions of the script are prevalent and with the knock you over the head type of films that have been coming about the current war stance of the United States, why not take a shot a comedy in a satirical manner. However, the film just plunders and hardly has any comedic moments that work. The one moment that does work involves Tomei’s journalist character taking the Implanted Journalist Experience, which is tormenting 3D ride that supposedly gets journalists ready for what they will experience in the war zone. Other scenes try to desperately hard, such as all the comparisons to the current administration among other clumsy scenes. Once again, Cusack is a hitman, but Hauser is not as well-crafted as the one that he played in Grosse Point Blank, and the female lead journalist just does not have any depth. The dark comedy seen by the audience also just turns into to crazy violent moments, especially in the third act of the script. It is evident what Seftel and his writers wanted to state with this film, their execution of the story and comedy is disjointed and does not work.
John Cusack plays his usual self in the film, and he is a fun actor to what and route for, but as Hauser it is all colors we have seen before from him. Marisa Tomei is nearly misused and looks misguided as the journalist Natalie Hegalhuzen. Dan Aykroyd has two scenes as the Vice President and reflects the notions of Dick Cheney pretty well. Sir Ben Kingsley creates a horrible American accent as the mysterious fellow hitman Walken, and Hilary Duff does not gain any acting credibility in her hollow and very fake performance as Turaqistan’s Britney Spears.
As with all the other recent films centered on the current issues of the war in Iraq, this film will probably also have problems being successful and finding an audience. It is unfortunate, because a satire about what is going on in the world is an avenue that should be explored, just under better guidance than the creators of War, Inc.
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War, Inc. (2008) review written by: Bailey Henderson
7th September, 2008 
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