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65
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74
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43
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69
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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
War, Inc.
Generally unfavorable reviews
Based on 21 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 27 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Action | Comedy | Crime | Drama | Suspense/Thriller
Written by:
John Cusack
Jeremy Pikser
Mark Leyner
Directed by: Joshua Seftel
Release Date:
Theatrical: May 23, 2008
DVD: October 14, 2008
Running Time: minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
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)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
Screwball, vaguely futuristic political satires are a rare hybrid, and War, Inc. is an intriguing, if flawed, example.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White
Its comedy too often blunders into meaningless slapstick, with bombs and bloodshed replacing pratfalls and pies in the face.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
A brave and ambitious but chaotic attempt at political satire.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
All that's missing is coherence. Call it Blunderbuss Satire.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
A film that, in attempting to ridicule the Bush administration, finally just settles for being ridiculous itself.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
War, Inc. is neither all that interesting nor all that cool.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Reyhan Harmanci
Misfires so severely that even the clever details get obliterated in the resulting mess.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.2 (out of 10) based on 27 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
chris h gave it a7:
Just missed being truly great, I think. Some clever concepts. Joan was annoying, Hilary was good (and hot). Didn't like the portrayal of American troops. Made me think, anyway, and that's a damn sight more than most movies ever do.
Ryan D gave it a9:
In my opinion, possibly the greatest indy movie every made. I really, absolutely, HATED Hillary Duff's character, which is essentially an over rated slutly pop star with no education. (how ironic that shes being played by an over rated sluty popstar) but props goes to Cusak for probably his best performance ever. The whole movie is just so well done, i cant believe the critics weren't swooning over this, well, their loss is our gain
Bansi B gave it a10:
A brilliant "fiction" about situations all too prevalent in our real world. If you care about the world we live in, this is a must see. May not be the best produced movie, but it's the message that brings it all home.
Denise A gave it a10:
This movie reminded me of the first time I saw M.A.S.H. We loved the satire!! It's a nice break from our everyday ranting about Bush and Cheney, and get to guffaw over the absurdities of the war we are in, and the idiots that are running it. If you are not as sophisticated as a movie critic, you will love it.
Brian H gave it a10:
This thing is HILARIOUS! The satire appears over the top, but if you read the Naomi Klein article it is based on - Baghdad Year Zero: Pillaging Iraq in Pursuit of a Neocon Utopia - then you realize it's just a funnier version of business-as-usual... Slapstick and straight to the point, it is great. Someone should give Bush a ticket to a Yonica Babyyeah concert, on location, for January 1, 2009!
Paul M gave it a10:
This is the type of movie that you don't see plastered on billboards and tv advertisements. It is unambiguously anti-Iraq and it mirrors the circus that is the "war". If this movie seems zany to you just think of the target of its satire.
William C gave it a2:
I wanted this to be good.The subject matter is important and the threat is real. I respect both of the Cusacks and their abilities. This film wasn't done on the cheap - It looks good and the cast is up to the task. It's just poorly done and thats a real shame.
