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In the Loop

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In the Loop (2009)

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Reviews Counted:145

Fresh:135

Rotten:10

Average Rating:7.8/10

Consensus: In the Loop is an uncommonly funny political satire that blends Dr. Strangelove with Spinal Tap for the Iraq war era.

Rated: Not Rated

Runtime: 1 hr 46 mins

Genre: Action/Adventure

Theatrical Release:Jul 24, 2009 Limited

Box Office: $2,251,324

Synopsis: IN THE LOOP is a fast-paced, lancet-witted ensemble comedy from first-time film director Armando Iannucci, based on his satirical BBC sitcom, THE THICK OF IT. The film tracks the lies,... IN THE LOOP is a fast-paced, lancet-witted ensemble comedy from first-time film director Armando Iannucci, based on his satirical BBC sitcom, THE THICK OF IT. The film tracks the lies, misunderstandings, good and bad intel, and PR blunders that escalate into a full-blown (fictional) crisis in the Middle East over the course of a few days, in a few conversations and meetings, in a few corridors of British and American power. Though played for laughs, the movie demonstrates how the most incidental factors (leaked papers, hastily spoken soundbites) and players (aides, interns, and low-level government officials) can influence the course of history. The pitch-perfect cast does a great job with Iannucci's script, improvising just enough to maintain the pseudo-documentary feel of the TV show. Even when the action gets loose and rollicking, the tone is tightly controlled satire, and the humor emerges organically from the situations and relationships at hand. Peter Capaldi, reprising his TV role, is hilarious as a foulmouthed, perpetually het-up Director of Communications for the British Prime Minister. Mimi Kennedy gives a droll but heartfelt performance as an antiwar U.S. diplomat and shares some touching and funny scenes with a more subdued than usual James Gandolfini as a U.S. general with surprising views on war. And Tom Hollander quietly steals the show as the hapless British Secretary of State for International Development whose careless remark in an interview sets off the events that catapult him into deeper waters than he has ever been in. [More]

Starring: Peter Capaldi, Tom Hollander, Gina McKee, James Gandolfini

Starring: Peter Capaldi, Tom Hollander, Gina McKee, James Gandolfini, Chris Addison, Mimi Kennedy, Steve Coogan, Anna Chlumsky

Director: Armando Iannucci

Director: Armando Iannucci
Screenwriter: Armando Iannucci, Jesse Armstrong, Tony Roche, Simon Blackwell
Producer: Kevin Loader, Adam Tandy
Composer: Adem Ilhan
Studio: IFC Films

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Release:

Nov 10, 2009

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Reviews for In the Loop

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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In the Loop is political satire at its best, leaving you giggling at the one-liners yet feeling complete despair about the political process.

Full Review Source: Cinema Autopsy | comment Comment
01/31/10
Thomas Caldwell
Thomas Caldwell
Cinema Autopsy

Prepare yourself for an hour and a half of political farce made only funnier by the fact that these ludicrous actions and explanations all feel so terrifyingly plausible.

Full Review Source: smh.com.au | comment Comment
01/30/10
Giles Hardie
Giles Hardie
smh.com.au

In the hands of British comic genius Armando Iannucci, the backroom chicanery of global politics mobilises a full-frontal assault on the funnybone.

Full Review Source: Herald Sun (Australia) | comment Comment
01/21/10
Leigh Paatsch
Leigh Paatsch
Herald Sun (Australia)

Shot in fly-on-the-wall style, In The Loop is as expertly and continuously funny as any comedy in years.

Full Review Source: The Age (Australia) | comment Comment
01/21/10
Jake Wilson
Jake Wilson
The Age (Australia)

If you only watch a scene or two on the internet, it's hilarious. Watch it all and it's a little tiresome and unconvincing.

Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald | comment Comment
01/21/10
Paul Byrnes
Paul Byrnes
Sydney Morning Herald

It is funny, and scarily so -- if you can convince yourself that you’re not, in fact, watching a documentary.

Full Review Source: Rip It Up | comment Comment
01/21/10
Rip It Up

It's strained, flat, laboured, repetitive, self-satisfied, largely unfunny, and has the drab and tacky look of a telemovie. Dr. Strangelove it ain't.

Full Review Source: FILMINK (Australia) | comment Comment
01/19/10
Mark Demetrius
Mark Demetrius
FILMINK (Australia)

It's such a shame because here is a film with the potential of being really good if it was decently made.

Full Review Source: At the Movies (Australia) | comment Comment
01/17/10
David Stratton
David Stratton
At the Movies (Australia)

It’s hilarious and wicked and cutting about the way things work in governments.

Full Review Source: At the Movies (Australia) | comment Comment
01/17/10
Margaret Pomeranz
Margaret Pomeranz
At the Movies (Australia)

Viewers looking for an intelligent, hilarious and bitingly relevant look at the way governments work won’t be disappointed.

Full Review Source: Sunday Times (Australia) | comment Comment
01/17/10
Gavin Bond
Gavin Bond
Sunday Times (Australia)

The pace is relentless, the language foul and there are some genuinely inventive and hilarious ideas

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
01/16/10
Louise Keller
Louise Keller
Urban Cinefile

When the British put aside their usual understatement and bring out their satirical bazooka, they can make quite a big bang

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
01/16/10
Andrew L. Urban
Andrew L. Urban
Urban Cinefile

Obscenely merciless, skewering policy-makers in both the British and U.S. governments for the game-playing, spin-doctoring, self-serving entities they are.

Full Review Source: ReelTalk Movie Reviews | comment Comment
01/10/10
Jeffrey Chen
Jeffrey Chen
ReelTalk Movie Reviews

A pandemic of willful blindness

Full Review Source: JWR | comment 1 Comment
12/31/09
S. James Wegg
S. James Wegg
JWR

The low-key giggles and dry throwaway wit belie the manic one-up-manship and saber-rattling. Keep your ears on though %u2013 the speech outstrips the scene tempos handily...reward the studios for a political comedy without any politics.

Full Review Source: Cinerina | comment Comment
12/29/09
Karina Montgomery
Karina Montgomery
Cinerina

A wickedly clever comedy about how politicians conspired to start the Iraq War.

Full Review Source: Laramie Movie Scope | comment Comment
12/21/09
Robert Roten
Robert Roten
Laramie Movie Scope

Satire has never been this searingly astute and funny in a story where Washington and Westminster are desperately trying to control the media spin on a possible Middle-east war.

Full Review Source: Screenwize | comment Comment
12/11/09
Simon Weaving
Simon Weaving
Screenwize

It's fantastic stuff, so over-the-top, so scabrous, so bitterly brilliant that you have to assume that, on some level, it rings true.

Full Review Source: Arizona Republic | comment 2 Comments
10/21/09
Bill Goodykoontz
Bill Goodykoontz
Arizona Republic
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A relentlessly foul-mouthed political satire about an obscene process: the fabrication of a phony case for war to justify U.S. and British plans to invade the Middle East.

Full Review Source: Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) | comment Comment
09/21/09
John Beifuss
John Beifuss
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)

With that singularly British way of being clever and deliriously juvenile all at once, it's a scathing, laugh-out-loud bit of big-screen satire.

Full Review Source: Times-Picayune | comment Comment
09/11/09
Mike Scott
Mike Scott
Times-Picayune
 
 
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