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War, Inc.
By: Joey
Magidson
The War is
incorporated too much with another film
Well, pretty much, only not as good. This new John Cusack film is at
its best moments a follow up of sorts to Cusack’s former film about a
hit man, and at its worst an unfunny piece of would be satire. This is
the type of film where the script was just aching for one more rewrite.
It may have elevated this from the unfortunate level of mediocrity that
it sits at currently. That being said, the presence of John Cusack is
always welcome and without him, this would pretty much be a complete
disaster of a film.
Cusack plays Brand Houser (pretty much Martin Blank with a
few years on him), a killer tasked with killing an oil baron while under
the cover of producing a trade show/wedding in the fictional country of
Turaqistan (this pretty much is the type of satire/humor throughout the
entire film…take that as you will). Houser has to deal with his myriad
personal problems while also working to complete the hit and always make
the wedding of Yonica Babyyeah (Hilary Duff, actually doing a very nice
job here) go off without a hitch. The plot is both needlessly muddled
and surprisingly empty at the same time, and it combines to make a
rather unsatisfying experience, despite the brief moments of cleverness
that pop up from time to time.
Cusack is his old reliable self. This role fits him like a
glove. Hilary Duff pulls off her bombshell role surprisingly well. The
film has plenty of other good actors (almost exclusively doing
serviceable but not outstanding jobs) populating the film, such as
Marisa Tomei as a journalist, Dan Aykroyd as the former Vice President
(recently cleared of all charges), and Joan Cusack as the standard “Joan
Cusack assistant to John Cusack’s character” character. Ned Bellamy and
Ben Kingsley are also on hand, but have even less to do than the rest of
the cast.
Overall, this film is just a slight failure. It’s not
painful to sit through, but it disappoints because it always seems to be
on the cusp of becoming something better. Cusack is the best thing
about this film (he also co wrote the script, which I previously said
was in need of a rewrite, but is not terrible overall), but he can only
do so much. If you’re a big fan of John Cusack, you’ll enjoy seeing him
do his hangdog routine in a new environment, but if you don’t like him,
it might get on your nerves. I look at this film and wonder what might
have been. We could have gotten a really great satire about the
problems military industrialization causes and a hard hitting statement
on the current conflicts this country is involved in, but instead we are
left with a half realized attempt at all of this. It won’t inspire any
hatred in its (most likely limited) audience, but will pretty much just
leave people longing for something better. Consider this the light beer
version of Grosse Point Blank. Half the calories, but half the
flavor as well.
**/****
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