We’re in a constant state of war, Hauser. We kill our brothers, complete strangers, the guilty and the innocent. We are at war with our own hearts. Love is a cease-fire that’s destined to fail. But, as I said, it does get us into tricky situations
I finally got to see War, Inc. today. It’s a movie I expected to see and expected not to like. Before 2008, the premier Iraq satire fictions were already published and publicised (see DMZ and Shooting War, and the nonfiction that inspired those works and this movie). War, Inc. seemed like a movie that offered too little too late. To most people that think things will change on Inauguration Day 2009 may find it dated while those of us who know better will appreciate the timelineess. If you are anywhere to the right of either of these opinions, avoid this movie.
Since i have seen it, I do appreaciate where it’s coming from. This movie does genre satire better than the rash of Friedberg/Seltzer…um…rashes. The allusion to Groose Pointe Blank is obvious, but I think I’m the only one so far who spotted references to recent artsy masterpieces such as Children of Men and Oldboy. A possible allusion to Brazil may have occurred at some point, but I read too much into movies as it is.
I found an appreciation for Hilary Duff for taking a risk with this movie. The cursing, the laying out of pop-star anxieties, and the scorpion besmirches her nice girl image which I was slightly familiar with from a show on the Disney Channel, adoration by cousins and Personal Je… I mean Reach Out.
The action scenes work out pretty well too.