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War, Inc.
First Look Studios


8.1

based on 21 reviews
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based on 22 votes
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MPAA RATING: R for violence, language and brief sexual material

Starring John Cusack, Hilary Duff, Marisa Tomei, Joan Cusack, Ben Kingsley, and Dan Aykroyd

War, Inc. is a political satire set in Turaqistan, a country occupied by an American private corporation run by a former U.S. Vice President. In an effort to monopolize the opportunities the warn-torn nation offers, the corporations CEO hires Hauser , a hit man, to kill a Middle Eastern oil minister. Now, struggling with his own growing demons, the assassin must pose as the corporation’s Trade Show Producer in order to pull off this latest hit, while maintaining his cover by organizing the high-profile wedding of Yonica Babyyeah, an outrageous Central Asian pop star and keeping a sexy left-wing reporter in check. (First Look Studios)

GENRE(S):	Action \| Comedy \| Crime \| Drama \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	John Cusack Jeremy Pikser Mark Leyner
DIRECTED BY:	Joshua Seftel
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: October 14, 2008 Theatrical: May 23, 2008
RUNNING TIME:	minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

It's a bewildering mix of very smart and very dumb, but the cast, which also features a hilarious Joan Cusack, Ben Kingsley, Marisa Tomei, Dan Aykroyd as the Cheney-esque ex-vice president, and Hilary Duff as a Turaqistan airhead pop star, is tiptop.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

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.

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

Comes up with some decent jokes, including a talking car-based GPS system which doubles as a therapist, and a suggestive Yonica number titled "I Want to Blow You Up," but fails to surround them with a compelling story or characters who rise above the level of cliche.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Screwball, vaguely futuristic political satires are a rare hybrid, and War, Inc. is an intriguing, if flawed, example.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

This script bumps along, good ideas jostling with weak, derivative ones, and Seftel doesn't seem to know which way he wants to handle the material. Also, with Cusack playing yet another soul-fried wiseacre running on emotional autopilot, the piece doesn't have much of an engine.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

Somehow, what starts as a series of cheap shots in a barrel develops into something more, thanks largely to warm, engaging performances by Cusack and Tomei. War, Inc. is both right-on and somehow off, but it gets points for trying.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White

Its comedy too often blunders into meaningless slapstick, with bombs and bloodshed replacing pratfalls and pies in the face.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

A brave and ambitious but chaotic attempt at political satire.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The trouble with this satirical take US involvement in Iraq, penned by Mark Leyner, John Cusack and Jeremy Pikser, is that the real thing is equally absurd and only marginally less funny.

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

Has TOO much happening, which befits a comedy with a lot of targets but ultimately makes the whole operation scattershot.

The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck

The ambitions and intentions of War, Inc., co-written by and starring John Cusack, are laudable, but the film is a nearly complete misfire.

Variety John Anderson

A blackly comic take on the first totally outsourced war? We're too close to being in one right now, which makes this John Cusack vehicle too close for comfort. It's also so close to being funny you can just about taste it -- just about.

LA Weekly Aaron Hillis

Antiwar, anti-Bush, anti-corporate, yet neither as progressive nor half as funny as the "Harold and Kumar" sequel, War, Inc. squanders some top-tier talent (Marisa Tomei, Sir Ben Kingsley) as well as our patience.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

All that's missing is coherence. Call it Blunderbuss Satire.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

A film that, in attempting to ridicule the Bush administration, finally just settles for being ridiculous itself.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

War, Inc. is neither all that interesting nor all that cool.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

War, Inc. is gonzo moviemaking with a bleeding heart. A satirical farce that wants to be "Dr. Strangelove" for the age of terrorism, it is a zany, nihilistic free-for-all that goes soft.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson

The overall experience is manic, juvenile, and hit-or-miss, as if the auteurs behind "Epic Movie" were trying to remake "Wag The Dog." It's too soon to laugh about Iraq, and it'll never be time to laugh about it with this kind of maladroit humor.

San Francisco Chronicle Reyhan Harmanci

Misfires so severely that even the clever details get obliterated in the resulting mess.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Sorry excuse for political satire.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

The movie has two modes - very loud and extremely loud - and all of the actors are encouraged to mug their hearts out. That even includes Cusack's real-life sister Joan, normally one of the most reliable performers in the business.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 22 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Earl V. gave it a9:
Based on the critic's reviews, I went into this expecting a train wreck, but I just didn't see it. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie -- intelligently written, with a sense of fun despite how closely it reflects our present situation. Not the kind of thing the corporate media wants to encourage, apparently.

Jordan S. gave it an8:
Spaceballs meets Lord of War. If you like stupid, Mel Brooks-style humor, and you want to see Hillary Duff seductively put a scorpion down her pants (and honestly, who doesn't?) then go see this film. It's not perfect, but its definitely entertaining.

Shenanigans Padunkadunk gave it a10:
I LOVED this big fat satire n EVERYTHING stupid that's American! The critics are cry babies that take WAYYY too much shite wayyyy too serious, and THAT'S the point.

Martin S. gave it an8:
Hilarious. But I can imagine why it comes off badly in the US press. "Boom Boom Boom - there´s a war going on".

Janet B. gave it a10:
kick butt movie, should be everywhere... not fair that indies don't make it and hollywood does.

Ana gave it a9:
A very good movie. Truly funny and the cast is great, especially Hilary Duff as Yonica Babyyeah, who finally proves she's an actress. The ending is suprising and the whole movie is very original and unique. I have to recommend it.

J S gave it a5:
Take Cussack's character from Grosse Point Blank, mix in an absurdely reduced, satirical (but not funny) view of the Iraq war and sprinkle with a weak, predictable plot and you have War Inc.

War, Inc. First Look Studios

War, Inc.
First Look Studios