War, Inc.

War, Inc.
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Joshua Seftel
Produced by	Hilary Duff John Cusack Danny Lerner Grace Loh Les Weldon
Written by	John Cusack Mark Leyner Jeremy Pikser
Starring	John Cusack Marisa Tomei Joan Cusack Dan Aykroyd Ben Kingsley Lyubomir Neykov
Release date(s)	United States May 23, 2008 Canada April 25, 2008
Running time	107 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$5,000,000
Gross revenue	$1,296,184 (worldwide)[1]
Followed by	War, Inc. 2

War, Inc. is a 2008 American political satire film starring John Cusack and Hilary Duff and directed by Joshua Seftel. Cusack also co-wrote and produced the film. A working title of the film was Brand Hauser: Stuff Happens. The story is partly inspired by Naomi Klein's article "Baghdad Year Zero".^[2][3]

War, Inc. is thought to be a spiritual successor or informal sequel to the 1997 film Grosse Pointe Blank. Both films are black comedies with similar styles and themes, and both films star John Cusack as an assassin and Joan Cusack as his assistant, with Dan Aykroyd in a supporting role. In an interview, Joan Cusack said, "I think, in a way, [War, Inc.] was a Grosse Point Blank 2."^[4]

Plot

The film is set in the future, and opens in a bar in Nunavut when hitman Brand Hauser (John Cusack) asks the bartender for a shot glass. After speaking to a man beside him, he takes out a small bottle of hot sauce and pours it into the glass. Suddenly, he drinks it, and pulls out a gun which he shoots at the man and the other two men beside him, killing them all. He takes a picture of the man with his phone, sends the picture, and then throws the phone into a large garbage can on fire. The title of the film is then shown.

Hauser is then seen in a plane getting directions from Jerry (Montel Williams), a navigational system similar to OnStar. He expresses his feelings to Jerry, but is interrupted by an alarming sound on the other end of the plane. He turns on his T.V. where the former Vice President (Dan Aykroyd) is shown on a toilet seat. He tells him that he has received the pictures of the dead man that Hauser had shot earlier on. Congratulating him, he then asks if Hauser can wait until he gets off the toilet. Minutes later, he sits down in his chair and tells Hauser his next mission is terminate a CEO of the fictional Oil Company Ugigas in Ugigistan, Omar Sharif (Lyubomir Neikov). He tells Hauser that he will be working under the Viceroy, who's identity is still being withheld until further notice. He also tells Hauser that his cover will be a Trade Show Host, working with Tamerlane, a huge corporation that specializes in advertising. He must produce a Trade Show and a Gala Wedding as a finale, and still manage to kill Omar Sharif before he makes his plane back to Ugigas.

He is taken by a car to the fictional desert country of Turaqistan. In the Tamerlane building, he meets Marsha (Joan Cusack), his assistant for the mission. Once inside the building, he notices a reporter (Marisa Tomei) struggling to get inside the Tamerlane building with no success. He tells Marsha to find out who she is and to set up a meeting with her in his office. Later, she arrives, and is introduced to Hauser as Natalie Hegalhuzen. She attempts to find out why she can't get into Tamerlane, and after asking him several questions, is rushed out of the room by Hauser who doesn't want to reveal any personal details about himself. However, he does arrange for her to have drinks with him which she accepts. Hauser visits the Viceroy in a secret location hidden in a Popeye's restaurant, who tells him what he needs to do. The Viceroy (who can not be seen, but only heard with an altered voice) informs Hauser that the grand finale of the Trade Show he's supposed to prepare will be a wedding for a Central Asian popstar, Yonica Babyyeah (Hilary Duff).

Hauser is seen sitting in his office, and Marsha knocks on his door to remind him that Yonica will be arriving soon. Later, the world-famous Yonica arrives in a car with her fiancé Ooq-Mi-Fay (Sergej Trifunovic). Hauser greets Yonica and Ooq-Mi-Fay and invites them into Tamerlane. Later, Natalie arrives for drinks with Hauser at a restaurant. She still strives to learn more about him, but is unsuccessful. When she is about to leave, she is given an all-access pass to the Trade Show. She arrives at the Trade Show rehearsal and is greeted by Hauser and Marsha, who quickly go to watch a performance rehearsal by Yonica. Her oversexed appearance and slight attraction for Hauser make him throw up on Natalie's coat that he offered to take earlier on, and he walks out. After talking to Jerry in his car, he drinks some hot sauce and then has a flashback. He sees himself telling his co-worker hitman Walken (Ben Kingsley) that he can't live the same way any longer and must quit due to him wanting a family and a different life. He then quits and walks out of the room.

After receiving a delivery from a dry-cleaner's in Germany, he goes to the hotel that Natalie stays in and gives her her coat, cleaned. He asks her out for coffee and confesses to her his habit of gobbling down hot sauce when he finds life challenging. She then confesses that she doesn't despise him at all, and the two build up a small friendship. He is later visited by Yonica in his office. She tries to seduce him but storms off when he asks what's wrong with her angrily. He later sees her when he is in a restaurant with Omar Sharif. He also sees Natalie, who Omar introduces himself to and dances with. In an outrageous attempt to get Hauser attracted to her, Yonica puts a live scorpion down her pants and makes Ooq-Mi-Fay take it out. Hauser takes Natalie home, where she makes out with him. Embarrassed, she quickly rushes out of the car. However, she does see him the next day and asks for a pass out of the Emerald City. He gives her a card that he received earlier by videomakers who are big in the Arts Community, and might give her a good lead. Hours later, he is forced to visit Yonica because of her complaining that she can't work with Hauser since he doesn't like her. He sees the "true Yonica" when she sings a beautiful ballad, and he becomes more like a father to her.

Meanwhile, Natalie bought the cover for a pornographic video that the videomakers were going to shoot on Yonica's Wedding Night. After a confrontation with Ooq-Mi-Fay (who was involved in the making of this video) Hauser decides that the only way to continue with the wedding peacefully is to blame everything on Ooq-Mi-Fay's friend Bhodi Bhundhang. Bhodi hunts him down and tries to kill him in a big house that Yonica is supposed to do an interview in. There, Hauser reveals his past to Natalie and Yonica, and how his wife was killed and his daughter was kidnapped. However, he is interrupted when he hears a gun and rushes to another room, where he is forced to fight Bhodi. He kills him, but is witnessed by Natalie and Yonica who see his true identity. They rush off into a cab, where Natalie agrees to be Yonica's bridesmaid when she asks. Six hours before the wedding, Hauser receives a ransom video from the videomakers who have Natalie hostage. Hauser travels to a nearby city named Fallaf, saves Natalie, and manages to make it to Room 1101, where he planned to meet and kill Omar Sharif. However, Hauser has a change of heart and does not end up killing Omar, but instead going to the Viceroy's secret location. He breaks down the glass leading to the Viceroy, who he finds out is actually Walken. Walken killed his wife and kidnapped his daughter.

Right before threatening to kill him, Hauser asks Walken what he did with his daughter, and finds out that Yonica was actually his daughter all along. He rushes to tell Yonica at the wedding, and arrives there right before Walken destroys the building. Fortunately, Hauser, Natalie, and Yonica survive, and rush off to a plane that Yonica and Ooq-Mi-Fay were supposed to fly off in. Once they are airborne, and have presumably escaped, we see a trailing missile about to strike the aircraft. The Vice President is then shown revealing his next plan to attack Ugigistan, and the credits roll.

Cast

Cast and crew at the Tribeca Film Festival premiere.

• John Cusack as Brand Hauser
• Hilary Duff as Yonica Babyyeah
• Marisa Tomei as Natalie Hegalhuzen
• Ben Kingsley as Walken
• Joan Cusack as Marsha Dillon
• Dan Aykroyd as The Vice President
• Ben Cross as Medusa Hair
• Lyubomir Neikov as Omar Sharif
• Sergej Trifunović as Ooq-Mi-Fay Taqnufmini
• Nikolay Stanoev as Bhodi Bhundhang
• Bashar Rahal as Video Guy One
• Ned Bellamy as Zubleh / Ooq-Yu-Fay Taqnufmini
• Montel Williams as GuideStar
• John McLaughlin as Himself

Production

War, Inc. was filmed in Bulgaria beginning in late October 2006. Marisa Tomei and Cusack's sister Joan co-star in the film. It was released in only two theatres in Los Angeles and Manhattan, New York in the United States on May 23, 2008 and closed August 7,2008 after grossing $580,862 and eventually opening in only thirty theatres across the United States.^[1]

Promotion

Duff at the premiere of the movie at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2008.

Hilary Duff was the only cast member to do active promotion for the film, including interviews on Ellen, TRL, Today, Jimmy Kimmel and Regis and Kelly throughout June 2008. John Cusack limited his promotion to "Real Time with Bill Maher" and "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and the setting up of a MySpace page and a Facebook page, with constant bulletins to fans and friends on those sites. All of the cast attended the premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival except Cusack.^{[citation needed]}

Critical reception

Although Hilary Duff's performance as Yonica was praised, War, Inc. received generally negative reviews from critics. As of May 24, 2008, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 30 percent of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 34 reviews — with the consensus that the film "attempts to satirize the military industrial complex, but more often than not it misses its target."^[5] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 37 out of 100, based on 21 reviews.^[6]

Box office performance

War, Inc. opened on an extremely limited release in only two theatres across the United States on May 23, 2008. It grossed an estimated $36,600 in those two theaters during its opening weekend.^[7] It was second in largest per theater gross behind Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The film closed on August 7, 2008 after not seeing a wide release, grossing only $580,862 domestically in fewer than thirty theatres across the United States and Canada.

DVD release

The film was released on DVD on October 14, 2008 in the US and acquired $883,364 in the opening weekend, selling 60,534 DVD units.^[8]

References

External links

• Official website
• War, Inc. at MySpace
• War, Inc. at the Internet Movie Database
• War, Inc. at Allmovie
• War, Inc. at Rotten Tomatoes
• War, Inc. at Metacritic
• War, Inc. at Box Office Mojo