War, Inc

(This happened to be playing in a beautiful old theater)

The fact that we were sitting across the aisle from Michael Moore should have been a hint of the politically driven film we were about to see. War, Inc. was a hilarious spoof of a possibly terrifying future. It was Jarhead meets Spaceballs.

The film takes place in the future country of Turaqistan, in a time where companies have more power than nations and can wage war independently. John and Joan Cusack play some sort of undercover mercenaries living in a bizarrely westernized and highly militarized development in “the Emerald City”. Now that I think about it, Ben Kingsley’s character did play a man-behind-multiple-video-screens sort of persona. There were many not-so-subtle references to present day events and political figures. The addition of Hilary Duff as some sort of Asian equivalent to Brittney Spears was amusing. And sadly a few of her songs (written by John Cusack) were really catchy.

In the end, the film doesn’t make any profound statements. Its only point seems to be “if we continue down this path, here’s what our future could look like so lets make fun of it”. Advertising on tanks and Middle Eastern leaders wearing Croc sandals was pretty funny. And Joan Cusack fulfills her lifetime comedic potential. Two questions remain: How does John Cusack never age? And does anyone else think he looks like he’s wearing eyeliner?