Today’s Prayer Focus
MOVIE REVIEW

War, Inc.

MPA Rating: R-Rating (MPA) for violence, language and brief sexual material.

Reviewed by: Christopher Walker
CONTRIBUTOR

Moral Rating: Very Offensive
Moviemaking Quality:
Primary Audience: Adults
Genre: Crime Action Comedy
Length: 1 hr. 47 min.
Year of Release: 2008
USA Release: May 23, 2008
DVD release: October 14, 2008
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War in the Bible

What is the Biblical perspective on war? Answer

Featuring John Cusack, Joan Cusack, Marisa Tomei, Hilary Duff, Ben Kingsley, Dan Aykroyd, Ned Bellamy, Velizar Binev, Shirly Brener, Marc Casabani, Ben Cross, Doug Dearth, Itai Diakov, Georgi Gatzov, Nick Harvey, Lyubomir Neikov, Rachel O'Meara, Velislav Pavlov, Bashar Rahal, Joost Scholte, Stanimir Stamatov, Davorka Tovilo, Sergej Trifunovic, Montel Williams, George Zlatarev
Director Joshua Seftel
Producer John Cusack, Vic David, Doug Dearth, Danny Lerner, Grace Loh, Mark Roper, Les Weldon
Distributor First Look International

“When it comes to war… America means business. / An incendiary political cartoon”

John Cusack can even make an assassin character like Brand Hauser believable; he reprises his good-guy/assassin schtick from “Grosse Point Blank” and transplants that into the body of Brand Hauser, an assassin who describes himself as “a refugee from the Island of Dr. Moreau” and being a “morally inverted, twisted character from a saline novel.” He’s the type of hitman who is regularly bored with his job, with an uncanny passion for hot sauce. You’ll find this character only in “War, Inc.” It not only works as a political satire film, but works as a character study piece as well. It does succeed by balancing out off-the-wall humor and emotional heartfelt drama.

After a successful assassination attempt in Canada, Brand is piloting a jet going home when he gets another assignment thrown in his lap, one coming directly from the ex-Vice President (Dan Aykroyd) who looks a lot like Cheney. His mission: to assassinate Turaqistan’s prime minister Omar Sharif (the character, not the actor). His cover: a show producer at Tamerlane base working with Marsha Dillon (Joan Cusack) on producing the gala wedding of Turaqistan’s famous pop singer Yonica Babyyeah (Hilary Duff) to the prime minister's son,. Arriving at the same time to cover the gala wedding is liberal magazine reporter Natalie Hegalhuzen (Marisa Tomei), who is about to uncover their immoral practices. Hauser quickly tries to diffuse the situation by warming up to Natalie, but finds himself falling for her in the process.

Everybody plays well in the movie here and nobody is at fault. The movie’s script succeeds and offers a right blend of dark satirical humor and heartfelt drama. As Yonica Babyyeah, Hilary Duff goes against stereotype but in somewhat familiar territory as she is a pop singer herself. Her likeliness is compared to America’s Britney Spears and the songs she sings are laced with double entendres that serve as irony in it’s own satirical humor (the song titles are “I Wanna Blow You Up” and “Boom Boom, Bang Bang”). She holds her own well, and is one of the many fine performances outlined in this film. Along with starring, Cusack also had his hand in writing and producing the film, and his knack of talent shows in every frame he commands himself in.

Violence: Heavy / Profanity: Moderate / Sex/Nudity: Mild


Viewer CommentsSend your comments
Positive

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Neutral

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Negative
Negative—I admit what first made me want to see this film was the fact that Hilary Duff was in it. I was highly disappointed. I didn’t count the profanity, however, it was excessive. Several times throughout the film I was contemplating shutting it off, but I kept saying well maybe it’ll get better. The F-Bomb was dropped more than I was able to count, and I was disappointed the Hilary’s character dropped it as well. I have liked her previous movies, because of her good moral character. This movie was the exact opposite. She portrayed a whore and spoke the vulgar language accordingly. The graphics were good, but there were way too many random scenes that didn’t add to story line.

This film definitely didn’t do anything positive for my spiritual walk. I really wouldn’t recommend this film, trust me you can find something better to spend your time on. That’s 2 hours of my life I can’t get back, I’m just glad we waited to rent rather than pay to see it in theatres.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Very Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 4½
Amanda Holbrook, age 22
Negative—I find it a bit surprising and disturbing that the reviewer did not comment on the grossly anti-American, anti-corporate, and anti-military message of this movie, as well as the mocking use of a beloved hymn. The movie had its moments of humor, action, and a nice rapprochement of father and daughter, embedded as they were in an overall wierd (I'm not sure it rises to the level of wacky or zany) and absurdedly leftist piece of work. One would almost be tempted to think that the moviemakers were trying to satirize leftism, given how over-the-top the “criticisms” were of American foreign policy, the military, and the supposed evil influence of corporate America on the former two, but the plonking earnestness of the “journalist” indicates, sadly, that they were simply expressing the way leftists really view them.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Very Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 3
Jeremy Klein, age 53 (USA)
Comments from young people

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