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Massawyrm Teeters On The Fence For WAR, INC...
Hola all. Massawyrm here.
It’s rare to find a mixed bag as heavily mixed as is this weekend’s indie underdog War, Inc. On one hand it is a bizarre, heavy handed, near-future sci-fi comedy acting as a full frontal assault on what has been done to this country over the last 7 years – but doing so with all the careless wit and obnoxious bravado of the most garish of protestors. But on the other, it is also a wonderfully woven story with delicious character work by a truly gifted cast who seem completely unaware that their film is being shot on the set of an awful, awful movie. No, War, Inc. is one of those rare films that I am still truly oscillating on days later – both loving it and loathing it depending on which scene I’m thinking about at the time.
In what could easily be a twisted, bizzaroworld sequel to Grosse Point Blank, John Cusack returns as the troubled, depressed hitman who can kill anyone who so much as looks at him funny with merely a ball point pen and a tilt of the head. He’s hired by the Vice President to kill a Prime Minister (or somesuch) named Omar Sharif. Not only is that joke as unfunny as it sounds, it is made even moreso by someone asking “Wait the actor or the Prime Minister,” leaving one to wonder what the point of the joke was at all. And it is that kind of nonsensical world into which he is flung, as he poses as a trade show executive pimping reconstruction contracts in a country we are currently bombing the shit out of. Rife with humor just shy of being this side of a Seltzer/Friedberg comedy, we are forced to endure mindless, over the top indulgences including a military base of operations being headquartered in a Churches Chicken and American advertising being plastered on anything and everything that moves.
Yeah. There are some painful minutes in here that made me wonder just who it was that was crying out and demanding a low budget sequel to Southland Tales, because there are times when this is exactly what this is. It’s practically the same world, only without the wave machine and midgets.
But that isn’t nearly the whole film. Because once we’ve set up the gags, and watched the Vice President (Dan Ackroyd) deliver a layout of just how satirical a world this is set in, War, Inc. shifts into telling a story. And despite its over the top nature, regardless of how many times you roll your eyes at the ineffectual humor and no matter how much you think these characters are bitter stereotypes – there really is a human heart beating beneath this. And it is one very much worth watching.
John Cusack’s greatest talent is his ability to make an audience fall in love with him and his dysfunction. No matter how screwed up he is, no matter how bleak, black or depressed his heart, you always feel for him. At this point he could play John Wayne Gacy and just give the camera a look and that boyish shrug and the audience would awwwwww no mater how many boy scouts he buried under his porch. So regardless of the hitman-on-a-mission-to-kill-an-innocent-man thing, you’re kinda rooting for him to do it. Then when Marissa Tomei shows up as the love interest, you really start to root for him. And before you know it, you’ve almost forgotten about this madcap, Strangelove-wannabe world and you surrender to what really is an interesting story about how empty a man has to be to do these kinds of things for his government. Even when he doesn’t want to.
And much like every solid Cusack piece, he’s surrounded by a bevy of talent that all seem blissfully unaware that their characters a cardboard cutouts meant to be waved in the air and laughed at – as each one tries to find the soul of the stereotype they’re in. Joan Cusack is Joan Cusack, proving once again that she is about as funny as they come and plays up the angry-neurotic comedy she’s famous for. Ben Kingsley slips into the role of the evil government type and delivers one of the funniest moments on film I’ve seen in a long, long time – despite how base it is, it really is one hell of a funny sequence.
And dear god, Hillary Duff emerges from her cotton candy pop princess existence and delivers a real, honest to god performance that is every bit as creepy as it should be. Look, I’ve seen (and reviewed) FAR too many of her films. I’m no fan. But I will say this – if there’s one girl out there who has every right to parody the oversexed, bimbo popstress cliché, it’s the pop princess who’s kept herself out of the tabloids and has kept her image pretty wholesome. And it helps that despite mocking the whole pop bimbo oeuvre, she plays the character with a soul, as this fucked up little girl who has been pimped out 50 times too many to make a buck or seal a deal. She’s not portrayed as sexy, but genuinely creepy, like watching your daughter dance on a stripper pole for your brother. And Duff comes off very well – not like she has in the past as a popstar trying to be an actress…but the other way around. If you’ve never liked Duff, this is the role that will change your mind.
But I can’t get past just how fucked up weird this movie is. At times it is positively surreal – but not in a good way. It is at times awkward, clunky and just downright terrible. And just when you think you’ve had enough, the film takes a left turn back into a story that you actually care about. All in all I’d have to say this is something that Cusack fans should definitely have on their radar, and something indie lovers might want to give a look. But it really is something of kooky experiment. I admire what they’re trying to do – just not entirely how they go about doing it. Tread with caution on this one.
Until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em.
Massawyrm
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or whatever they say nowadays
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i wonder what thats about.
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Looks pretty good. Not plunk-down-eight-bucks-at-the-theater good. But as a Netflix rental? Sure.
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is in this.there is no way i won't see this.
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even CLOSE to being a mixed bag? It's the worst movie I've seen this year (and that's a list that includes Sex and the City, Maid of Honor, Semi-Pro...).
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My city newspaper interviews Cusack and he lays out his ambitions for this film and his perspective on the current corporate-political entanglements of war. Who doesn't admire and respect Cusack? He does good work and has a like ability factor that is off the charts.
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It's got some great talent in front of the camera who do their best in a rather stupid and nonsensical story.
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Cusack is doing the Nick Cage thing and just starring in any movie that shows up at his doorstep. Maybe he'll eventually get a hit or two out of it like Nick.
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Cusack didn't just sign on to this one. he has writing credits and this seems like the kind of project he does in between his "moneymakers."
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ConAir and Serendipity so he'll have the cash to do something like this, something that 10,000 people will see and 1,000 of them will love.its kind of cool.
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was my friend. Watched it. Chuckled here and there. Dismissed it.
Duff was hot though. -
He wrote it? Cool, I'll rent it probably. But man I was burned pretty hard by 1408 (though it was probably Mikael go back to your home country Håfström fault). I was just making a vauge generlization that these two actors just seem to star in anything since they worked in a Spike Jonze movie. Like, well shit that was probably going to be the best movie I end up doing what the point of trying anymore? Oh well hope this makes money.
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It's been playing to empty theatres in Toronto for at least a month. Probably more.
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to make movies that stink.
What a ridiculous thing to say. -
Not a chance and if there was any doubt, this line stopped me cold: "a full frontal assault on what has been done to this country over the last 7 years – but doing so with all the careless wit and obnoxious bravado of the most garish of protestors." This is the kind of film of which their has been a glut of for the better of part of at least two years now and I would think Hollywood would have learned its lesson, given its recent string of anti-war flops. Doing the same obnoxious intellectually impoverished bathroom stall scrawlings of a film as a comedy instead of a drama does not sell me a ticket.
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Jun 13, 2008 11:05:00 AM CDT
Stop-Loss Lions For Redacted Lambs: A War Inc Production
by spandau belly
From the people who brought you Meet The Spartans and Magnolia!
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but here's a badass fight from the film. john cusack is cool. http://movies.ign.com/dor/objects/14244038/war-inc/videos/war_inc_exclu_060908.html
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he has writing credits on IMDB, as well as two other dudes. obviously to what degree he wrote it is anyone's guess.
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Right or wrong it's never a good idea to talk to your audience like they're morons.
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does everyone in the world love your favorite movie?i bet not.
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John Cusack and Marisa Tomei are OK. Joan Cusack is doing weird improv throughout; just bizarre and terrible in equal measure. Hilary Duff's accent is as bad as you can imagine. But Sweet Baby Fucking Jesus is the script bad. I'm fucking EUROPEAN - I'm an America-hatin' commie - and even I found it heavy handed. It's wince-inducing. It almost makes you want another 4 years of George Bush if this is what American liberalism considers satire. It's juvenile but not is a fart-joke way; it's juvenile in an embarrassing letting your naivety and ignorance stand out for all the world to see kind of way. Like a deeply serious 14 year old kid's first attempt at writing a novel. Or watching a high school band performing Rage Against the Machine songs. Or reading about Chinese politics in Rolling Stone. Or that time Harry used an extended cunnilingus analogy. It's just really, really awkward and, well, shit.
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Um, me. Anymore. Look, I'm a conservative, and I can take a joke. But when given the opportunity to engage me, Cusack and his buddy Tim Robbins et al whip out stuff like this and whatever Tim's play was called (the one with characters named...get this...Rum Rum and Wolfy! Get it? Rum Rum? Comic genius!) Either you just don't have the material, or you don't trust the audience to get it, and either way, it's an insult.
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I haven't seen any promos for this.
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but it was just god awful. It's like they tried to make a Dr. Stangelove - Grosse Point Blank - 1984 sandwich, and it just tasted like dog shit. I like Cusack, I don't even mind that his political views differ from mine about 100 percent or that he talks down to people like me like we're effing morons for disagreeing with him, but this movie was utter crap and that is something I can't ignore. Anti-war movies have been done before, and much much better. Go rent one of those, and follow it up with Grosse Point Blank. Trust me, you'll be happier in the long run.
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Hillary Duff dropping a scorpion down her jeans has got to be worth at least a download, if not the $10 for a ticket.
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Between Duff and Tomei?Wait, how old is Duff?
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I would LOVE to be able to say "War Inc" is a great movie that everyone should see... but I can't.
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theatre came from Jeremy Scahill, who wrote the bestselling book about Blackwater. Caught him & Cusack being interviewed on Democracy Now. Scahill said War, Inc.'s Emerald City is an accurate depiction of the Green Zone in Baghdad. I thought, okay, this I gotta see.
Some of the jokes do fall flat, but the flick's well worth catching. Like Massa, I was surprised by that Duff girl. She was holding her own with Cusack and Tomei, which is no mean feat. The flick'll probably still be in theaters even as it hits DVD in the next week or two. -
No one who writes this poorly could. I keep asking him to name the site or sites that pay him, but he refuses to answer. I wonder why?
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...is either genius or shit. If it's even a little bit off, it's pretty unbearable. Southland Tales, American Dreamz, Bamboozled, etc etc etc.
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administration. I'm liberal but if it was the donkeys that got us into this hell hole, i'd be disowning them. Blindless faith is simply ignorant. It's like politics have become like sports, as if it's my team, either conservative or liberal and when one of them fucks up, the other group says ha ha. Look how the other side has no morals. It's rubbish 100%. But I know that elephants simply listen to Rush and O'Reilly and Fox News to tell them how to think.
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Give this Massawyrm guy a raise. He's the most consistently accurate reviewer on the site.
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He only regurgitates obvious points real critics make first, then adds a lot of "fucks" and "shits."
And Mose is right about Massawrym lying about making a living at being a criitic. Anyone who mangles language so thoroughly should tell us which employers are stupid enough to pay him for something my 9-year-old son could have written.
Why won't you tell us who supposedly pays you a living wage, Massa? Don't say it's because Harry doesn't want rival sites plugged. Harry plugs other sites all the time. He could give a shit. Come clean you asshole so we can contact your "employers" and see how much they pay. -
Jun 14, 2008 12:36:55 PM CDT
I don't want to get into a semantic argument over it,
by dr gregory house
I just want the protein.
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See, Tim Robbins is a talented, progressive actor/writer/director. John Cusack is that asshole who expected you to see him in "MARTIAN CHILD."
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nice.
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