Review – War, Inc.

Put on your hardhat and prepare to be clubbed over the head with comedy for the next hour and a half. On some level this must have been an attempt to recapture the brilliance of Grosse Pointe Blank. But while the joke there was subtle and clever, this is anything but. John Cusack once again plays a neurotic hitman, but here his cover places him in charge of a huge media event in a corporate-run “emerald zone” in a fake version of Iraq. There’s a point to be made here about American cultural imperialism, but it swiftly gets buried when a giant pile of ham-handed humor falls flat right on top of it. Overall this is yet another example of the new brand of comedy that starts with a brain-dead joke and repeats the punchline over and over again until even the dumbest audience member is sure to get it. That might be a prerequisite for a TV sitcom, but it’s unwelcome at best in a movie that could have been a lot better if a different approach had been taken. See if desperate