Review of War, Inc. (2008) by Hubertus V — 11 Dec 2008

This is a film that's a little tricky to place in a niche. Normally that's kind of a good thing, no? I mean it's got a little this and a little that and it all makes for a good time, right? Well, yes and no.

I'm trying to think of a way to say what I think without pulling from reviews I've read previously, but I really can't. This film's a bit of a right fucking mess. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of good.

There are some truly funny satirical moments, with advertising run amok on the battlefield, and a couple lough-out-loud-at-the-complete-lack-of-subtlety attacks on the Bush administration. But, there are other times when there seems to be a message about media and the perception of corporations and war, and some psycho-sexual analysis, and some very serious war-time moments, and really in the end you know it was kind of funny, and mostly entertaining, but what was the point again? And why did Ben Kingsley have such a weird accent? And why did John Cusack have that weird patch of blond/white hair? And was that REALLY Hilary Duff shouting the f-word over and over again and table dancing? (The answers to those questions, by the way, are "I don't know", "I don't know", "I don't know", and "Yes".

) Shockingly, Hilary Duff is really pretty great in this. Her character makes no sense, and comes out of nowhere, but once you get past the deliberate cheesiness of it all, she really does a fantastic job.

She plays totally against type, and seems to have a great time with it, and when you can make Marisa Tomei look kind of homely, you know you're smoking hot. To sum up, if you hate George Bush, you'll at least get some enjoyment out of the movie, but it's really mostly skippable.

And if you think this interview is a little ramble-y and hard to make sense of, welcome to watching this movie.