The movie choice was not nearly as good as dinner. The film is called War, Inc., and its the latest in a string of anti-war movies turned out by Hollywood radicals.
Why did I do it? For you. I saw it so that you don't have to.
War, Inc. suffers from the same problem as Robert Redford's horrible anti-war film, "Lions for Lambs." In both cases, the filmmakers seem to have forgotten that a good movie is built on a good story. In Redford's case, the film was just a lecture about how war is bad and this war is super bad.
In the case of War, Inc., the film is a satire designed around the premise of what happens if you take the Dick Cheney (Dan Akroyd) that liberals perceive him to be and make him the former vice president who now runs the company that the U.S. government uses to fight its wars and run its conquered lands in a world in which everything is privatized.
The spoof part is so over the top that the movie has no reality, just funny bits, and the characters aren't part of a cogent story, or subplot, so we never get to know them or connect to them on an emotional level.
If these films are being made just to elevate the Hollywood stature of those who produce them, (in this case, John Cusack stars, co-writes and co-produces) then I'm sure they serve their purpose. If they make them to serve up propaganda to the choir, then they're uninspired successes. If their job is to attract an audience and open their minds to a different view of their government, fagetaboutit.
I saw the film a few miles from Harvard and a few hundred yards from MIT. This is Barack Obama country, with their only reservation being that he's too conservative.
It was the 4pm show on Saturday, and there were perhaps 40 people there, a good crowd considering the show-time. One moron clapped a few times at the end, but no one joined him. A decent anti-war movie would have had this crowd cheering long before the credits could role.
In this case, not even the New York Times could pretend it was good.
You can sense the rage and disgust simmering behind “War, Inc.,” but they seldom reach a full boil. The movie is repeatedly sidetracked as it glimpses new satirical targets. A particularly distracting cause célèbre is a plan to market a pornographic video of Yonica’s (Hillary Duff) wedding night.
The problem with gonzo moviemaking, in this case, is that nothing really adds up. What initially appears whimsical eventually seems sloppy. And when the bleeding heart kicks in, you feel betrayed.
Sorry Cusack, you blew it. Not as bad as Redford, but pretty bad.
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