War, Inc. (2008)

Director:

Joshua Seftel

Writers (WGA):

Mark Leyner (written by) &
Jeremy Pikser (written by) ...

Release Date:

4 September 2008 (Israel)

Genre:

Action | Comedy | Thriller | War

Tagline:

When it comes to war...America means business

Plot:

A political satire set in Turaqistan, a country occupied by an American private corporation run by a former US Vice-President...

Plot Keywords:

Corporation | Reporter | Assassin | Pop Star | Satire

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

John Cusack	...	Brand Hauser
Hilary Duff	...	Yonica Babyyeah
Marisa Tomei	...	Natalie Hegalhuzen
Joan Cusack	...	Marsha Dillon
Dan Aykroyd	...	Mr. Vice President
Sergej Trifunovic	...	Ooq-Mi-Fay Taqnufmini
Ned Bellamy	...	Ooq-Yu-Fay Taqnufmini / Zubleh
John McLaughlin	...	Himself
Montel Williams	...	GuideStar Voice (voice)
Ben Kingsley	...	Walken / The Viceroy
Lyubomir Neikov	...	Omar Sharif (as Lubomir Neikov)
Nikolay Stanoev	...	Bhodi Bhundhang (as Nikolai Stanoev)
George Zlatarev	...	Director
Bashar Rahal	...	Video Guy #1
Velislav Pavlov	...	Video Guy #2 (as Vesilav Pavlov)

Also Known As:

Brand Hauser: Stuff Happens (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for violence, language and brief sexual material.

Runtime:

107 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Hungarian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #43117) | Australia:MA | Finland:K-15 | Singapore:NC-16 | Argentina:16 | UK:15 | Hungary:16 | France:U

Filming Locations:

New Boyana Film Studios, Sofia, Bulgaria

Company:

New Crime Productions

Trivia:

This is the second time Marisa Tomei plays a character whose first name is Natalie. The first time was in In the Bedroom (2001). This is also the second time she plays a reporter in a film. The first time was in The Paper (1994).

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: (At 80:00) The American Flag hanging behind Joan Cusack when she is talking is hanging on the wrong side.

Quotes:

Brand Hauser: [to Yonica as she's about to get married] You can't do this. You can't do this. I won't let you. I'm your father.
Brand Hauser: [Hauser fires gun at a few people]
Brand Hauser: It's me. I've loved you since the day you were born.

Movie Connections:

References "The McLaughlin Group" (1982)

Soundtrack:

The Battle Hymn of the Republic

A Libertarian's take on a war satire

In this satire of the commercialization and 'lightheartedness' of war, John Cusack plays Brand Hauser, an assassin sent to to 'Turaqistan' to take out Omar Sharif, who is doing some oil business that will spell trouble for the former Vice President of the US's own company. In addition to this, Hauser must juggle his fake position as a trade show producer, a wedding for pop princess Yonica (Hillary Duff), and a nosy Liberal journalist, Natalie (Marisa Tomei).

Assessing the technical aspects:

- The acting (by the main characters,at least) was good, as was to be expected. Some of John Cusack's dialogue was quite obviously not written for him as he often seemed uncomfortable saying it. . . maybe unrealistic is more accurate. Joan put forth a great, and often hilarious, performance. Marisa Tomei, while I've never been a big fan of hers, was more than suitable for the role and worked well. Hillary Duff, however, was pretty terrible. They needed an attractive Middle Eastern (or Russian, or whatever that accent was supposed to be) pop-star. Unfortunately, they went 0 for 3 with her.

- Like I said above, the writing seemed a little stiff and mismatched at points, especially John Cusack's dialogue. Not much of it, mind, but some. The story also got a bit ludicrous at points, which is fine for a satire to a point, but it took it to a whole new level here. Luckily, the Cusacks and Tomei keep a relatively cool, calm demeanor throughout, and that makes a nice even mix of the craziness of the film and the levelheadedness of the actors.

- Joshua Seftel, who previously had a drought of real credits to his name, did a fine job with a rather wide-spectrum film. He handled the small ($10 million) budget very well, stretching it to make it appear to be much more. Seftel also managed to nicely blend the humour of the story. . . with the painful and hard-to-watch parts of the real war (including slaughter of civilians, etc.).

- As far as the general satire goes, its exaggerated look on the commercializing of war is very well done, especially the 'Golden Palace Poker' ads on the U.S. tanks. At points, it becomes a little too much, but, in the end, it still accurate portrays what it's going for an a young 'Mel Brooks'-type of style.

Overall, the film is very well made for the meager budget and it's definitely worthy of a look. It won't go down as one of the great satires of cinema, but it's certainly not the worst.

7/10.