Marsha, get me Katie Couric, Al Jazeera and 100 gallons of sheep shit.

War, Inc.

(2008)

This received a bit of a pummelling on its US release, and as a spiritual sequel to Grosse Point Blank it's not even in sight of the standard of John Cusack's prior hit man masterpiece. That's not so much down to the script as it is to the novice director who seems to be shooting scenes rather than a whole film. All the interiors feel like cheap sets, while much of the location work is quite galvanised (some reviews have compared the feel to an Alex Cox film, and I thought, "Yeah, visually it is pretty messy and half-arsed").

That the film is still entertaining is down to the unashamedly OTT satire on display and the uniformly excellent turns by the cast; Ben Kingsley and Dan Ackroyd chew up cameos while Hilary Duff pretty much steals the film as the Britney Spears of Central Asia. Cusack and his sis essentially reprise their GPB roles (and almost verbatim scenes in the cases of Cusack's girlfriend coming across him killing bad guys and Joan raging down a telephone at him). It's a decent film, but if Cusack had brought back George Armitage it might have been a great one.

***1/2

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Are you, by any chance, in a trance now, Mr Morrison?

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Now In Full Color, with a Happier Ending

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