Each earnest impulse blunts the edge of an already scattered satire and obscures the logic beneath it. And the laughs are buried in the same pile of disorderly conduct.
Comment
06/17/08
War, Inc. (2008)
29
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:77
Fresh:22
Rotten:55
Average Rating:4.5/10
Consensus: War, Inc. attempts to satirize the military industrial complex, but more often than not it misses its target.
Theatrical Release:May 23, 2008 Limited
Box Office: $515,643
Synopsis: John Cusack plays an assassin in the star-filled satire that takes aim at war. Joan Cusack, Marisa Tomei, Hilary Duff, and Ben Kingsley also star.
Starring: John Cusack, Hilary Duff, Marisa Tomei, Joan Cusack
Director: Joshua Seftel
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Reviews for War, Inc.
A great political satire - a Dr. Strangelove for the YouTube generation
06/15/08
It is as though the cast and scriptwriters are constantly nodding to one another and admiring their own cleverness.
06/14/08
A sprawling folly, this uniquely hellish war film has almost breathtakingly impressive (and busy) production values and is anchored by a memorably complicated performance from John Cusack.
06/13/08
Its comedy too often blunders into meaningless slapstick, with bombs and bloodshed replacing pratfalls and pies in the face.
06/13/08
Like the smart weapon technology it mocks, War, Inc. aims at the right targets but misfires so severely that even the clever details get obliterated in the resulting mess.
06/13/08
War, Inc. fires off dozens of lethal dialogue squibs like 'War is the improvement of investments using other means,' but it doesn't connect them into anything that can truly rattle an audience's complacency.
06/13/08
Like so many satires in the Strangelove mold, this never comes close to working as a story, but its lampoon of U.S. imperialism and military privatization is so bracingly obnoxious I didn't really care.
06/13/08
This is broad satire spun completely out of control, overloaded with obvious gags and cannonades of yuks where quivers of sleeking wit ought to be.
06/13/08
Like the Iraq conflict itself, the exit strategy fails and the whole thing becomes a complete mess. And it wasn't that great an idea from the beginning.
06/13/08
War, Inc. has that provocateur's edge, and it's at least awake to the world around us.
06/13/08
Top CriticA brave and ambitious but chaotic attempt at political satire.
06/13/08
Top CriticAnd yet, while even the most charitable viewer would be forced to consider "War Inc." to be a somewhat unfocused and undisciplined mess, there are still a lot of good things strewn throughout the wreckage.
06/12/08
The hilarious jokes and one-liners make take two viewings to fully absorb, but the movie also has an almost off-putting cynicism.
06/12/08
Cusack reminds audiences of one of his great films without quite making another one.
06/12/08
It's a savage, tediously exaggerated "SNL" lampoon that misfires.
06/05/08
It's a lot more dystopian than I thought it would be, at times reminiscent of something as nutty as Brazil.
06/03/08
An overbearing lampoon of American war profiteering -- a comedy so leaden it could make a liberal hate liberal Hollywood.
05/30/08
Top CriticThis non-nihilistic film is a vision of our political complicity and humane potential.
05/28/08
The filmic equivalent of a bleating, hot microphone - all crossed wires and misfunneled energy.
05/27/08
Latest News for War, Inc.
January 21, 2009:
Razzies Name 2008's Worst Movie Nominees
No awards season would be complete without the Golden Raspberry Awards (AKA The Razzies), awarded each year to the very worst movies to hit Hollywood. This year's winners will... More...
June 28, 2008:
Cusack as a mercenary in bulltetproof designer suits and Hilary Duff doing a kinky Arab superstar sexpot shoving scorpions down her crotch, can't save this satire crossing the line between the chaos of war and the chaos of filmmaking. 
More...
June 23, 2008:
Ben Kingsley Is Everywhere
Think you're seeing Ben Kingsley everywhere lately? It's no optical illusion -- his roles in The Love Guru and The Wackness are just two of the many projects he's got lined up... More...
May 22, 2008:
RT Interview: Joan Cusack on War, Inc., the Unofficial Sequel to Grosse Point Blank
Joan Cusack and her little brother, John, have co-starred in ten films together since the early 1980s; this week they join forces again to skewer the military industrial... More...
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