Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

stepien-l-m I'd like to begin my review by thanking John Cusack for taking the time to write such a convincing review anonymously to try to trick people into watching this "comedy" film. I picked this movie as a gag gift for my brother from the dollar bin, since it was a blatant rip off of the movie "Lord of War" which is truly a quality, underrated film, and I figured it may be good for a laugh. After watching, I have such regret at the loss of a dollar and over an hour of precious time. I truly have no idea what other positive reviewers saw that I did not grasp, the acting and script were so painful, the plot so convoluted, the violence so pointless, and none of the jokes funny. Please do not make my mistake and watch this film, unless you just want to see Hilary Duff dressed in very sexy clothing or if you have the hots for John Cusack. If the idea of a film exposing American weapons used in foreign wars and the ethical dilemmas faced by those involved with this business PLEASE I beg you watch "Lord of War" instead! It has Ethan Hawke and Jared Leto! Anyway, I just wrote because the next time I pick a movie with the intent to laugh at it's ridiculousness, I only hope some kind soul might have posted a review to warn me if it's a total bomb like this film was. Thank you for reading.

kai ringler John Cusack was just so funny in this,, throw in Dan Akroyd, and you have lot's of laughs,, then throw in the sexy Hillary duff, so America needs to come up with an imaginary war to get the ball rolling on an assassination attempt,, Cusack who plays a down and out hit-man,, didn't we see this before,, lol, so he has to pretend that he is a producer of a trade show,, and he is trying to produce a show that will have a young teen star performing,, Hillary Duff. the movie may not make a lot of sense but really isn't too far fetched as America has almost been trying to involve itself in every war for far to long, excellent movie very funny,, recommend to all.

Roland E. Zwick As the title suggests, "War, Inc." is a satire about the "business" that is war, in particular the American propensity for bombing a Middle Eastern country to smithereens (i.e., Iraq and Afghanistan), then exploiting it for everything it's worth – all in the name of "democracy." In this particular case, it is the fictional nation of Turaqistan, which the U.S. has recently invaded and where it is now contracting out all its security and reconstruction services to a private corporation called Tamerlane, modeled, none too subtly, on Halliburton and KBR.John Cusack stars as Brand Hauser, a covert operator working under the auspices of the former vice-president of the United States (Dan Akroyd), whose mission is to take out the CEO of an oil company at a gala wedding reception that Brand himself is supposed to organize. While in the "safe zone" - known in common parlance as the Emerald City - Brand meets his high-strung assistant (played by Cusack's real-life sister Joan), the promiscuous celebrity bride (the typecast Hilary Duff), a fellow hit man (Ben Kingsley) who has some personal issues with Brand, and Natalie Hegalhuzen (Marisa Tomei), a liberal reporter from the Nation, who is there to expose the multinational skullduggery and corruption taking place in the country – or as she affectionately calls it "a democracy on the march land-grab." Written by Cusack, Mark Leyner and Jeremy Pikser and directed by Joshua Seftel, "War, Inc." is a largely hit-and-miss affair, with moments of insight and humor alternating with moments of silliness and juvenalia. And as with many films of this type, its air of knowingness occasionally slips over into smugness. Yet, though it feels kind of slapdash and doughy at times, the movie ultimately achieves that artful mixture of the serious and the trivial that is the essence of absurdity. And the Ennio Morricone-flavored score by David Robbins gives the movie the flip, hip air it needs to be effective.Not a homerun, exactly, but at least a solid double.

dunmore_ego "War is the improvement of investment climates by other means." --Ben Kingsley, WAR, INC.WAR, INC. is political satire almost blacker than George W. Bush's rectum heart, but wildly funnier than his misshapen weasel head.The opening text hits too close to the bone: "In the 21st Century, great corporations will bestride the Earth (like KBR?), replacing nations as the true creators of history (like The Illuminati?), amassing powerful private armies to do their bidding (like Blackwater? - rebranded XE, so the sheep will forget their corpse trail).But in delicate situations, they need matters adjudicated on a single day... by a solitary man." Enter John Cusack, as hit-man Brand Hauser (the real-world analogs to Hauser being Cheney's assassination squads, exposed by Seymour Hersh in 2009.) Though WAR, INC. is billed as a "continuance" of Cusack's hit-man character, Martin Blank, from the excellent GROSSE POINTE BLANK (1997), it is not. Hauser is a "facilitator" - he will get any job done; whacking people is only part of the package.Hauser's mission to (fictional) Turaqistan is to assassinate a politician building an oil pipeline through the country that conflicts with the fiscal interests of the American occupying corporation, Tamerlane.In America's "first war ever to be outsourced to private enterprise," the VP (Dan Aykroyd) has been issued a "pre-emptive pardon" from the President, for all the criminality he will no doubt employ to continue America's illegal occupation of Turaqistan. And the bone is shaved closer.Congruent with his assassination attempt, Hauser must oversee a tradeshow event by Brand USA, a product of Tamerlane, pushing their corporate crassness down Middle Eastern throats. (Insert pop star subplot - Hilary Duff's naked flat abdomen as Yonica Babyyeah - for prurient interest, lessening the impact of WAR, INC.) Speakers blare propaganda about the greatness of American "liberators," as tanks roll through the streets with advertisements on their sides; every piece of hardware, from soldiers' helmets to their weapons, emblazoned with the Tamerlane logo; ever-changing electronic billboards glare American icons - The Fonz, John Wayne, Captain Kirk; ads for "Democracy" brand cigarettes... The VP tells Hauser, "Wonderful opportunities here, as long as these towelheads don't actually look up freedom in the dictionary." The American occupiers in WAR, INC. care nothing for ideology, religion or even democracy - much like the real-world American occupiers in every country in the world today. It is all about the treasure. And the bone is planed down to the nub.The corporate method of disseminating information is not to allow embedded journalists into the war zones, but to herd them into a 3D virtual war zone theater and tell them what to report - the "interactive journalistic experience." Of course, it's hyperbole, but we can feel the meshings with reality stab us through the throat.Directed with urgency and verve by Joshua Seftel, WAR, INC. is shocking not because it is outlandishly prescient, but because it describes TODAY - It would be George Orwell's 1984 if it wasn't already George Bush's 2004.Incessantly-mugging Joan Cusack is Tamerlane PR in Turaqistan and undercover as Hauser's secretary (a wink to GROSSE POINTE); a conduit for corporate propaganda: "Water has been restored to Turaqistan so I'm sure you'd like to give a shout out to the third bomber wing for those humane precision strikes that have created this wonderful opportunity." Donald Rumsfeld could not have been more doublespeakier. Marisa Tomei is Natalie, an indie reporter who smells there is corporate agenda afoot and uses her smokin' cuteness on Hauser to take her through real war zones - needless to say, the reality is like a mushroom cloud slap in the face.Ben Kingsley is The Viceroy, heartless master of machinations, a kind of Dick Cheney behind the Dick Cheney.WAR, INC. is not an anti-war film - it's way too big for that. It is a wake-up call on the unchecked Black Plague growth of faceless, amorphous, unaccountable corporations and how they perversely conflict individual Freedom.We see that War is simply one of the many tools that corporations now use for leverage against governments. As governments are the tool that corporations use for PR and sustenance. Never more apparent than in the 2008-2009 recession, when corporations were being spoon-fed by the hands they were biting; Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone asserting correctly, "if they're too big to fail, they're too big to exist." John Cusack (co-writer of WAR and GROSSE) knew this way back in GROSSE POINTE when he said, "Governments, nations - it's all public relations theory at this point." And the King Harlot of PR - Burson-Marstellar - with no conscience, no ethics, no shame, continues "re-branding" entities that lose favor with the public (rather than changing the practices which caused them to lose favor): from working with the Arabian government after 9/11, to re-branding AIG into AIU, to re-branding the War on Terror that Obama inherited into the "overseas contingency operation," Burson-Marstellar can remove the toxic taste from anything. Even the End of the World as We Know It.In another prescient stroke, the writers of WAR, INC. (Mark Leyner, Jeremy Pikser and Cusack) gave their product the most ironic, obvious name in this climate of "re-branding" - Brand USA.When the American government in the movie starts a pre-emptive war on Ujikistan (initiated by friendly fire into their own facility and claiming a terrorist attack - the bone is shaved through to the marrow now!), VP Aykroyd uses the exact words of the Bush Klan to qualify his crime: "We cannot let the smoking gun come in the form of a mushroom cloud." Armageddon won't come in the form of a mushroom cloud. Armageddon is already here, but it has been re-branded by the corporations.It is now called Bailout.