Last night I went to see War, Inc, and I have to say I really enjoyed it. Getting home, I decided to look up some reviews (it came out while I was in Central America) and found that most critics considered it largely a failure—“more often than not the satire misses the mark” seems to sum up the prevailing opinion. The inevitable comparison was to Dr Strangelove, with everyone noting: it doesn’t measure up. Has any political satire measured to Strangelove?

Looking through the reviews, though, I’m fascinated that each critic seemed to consider different parts, and different actors, successful. For one it might have been John Cusack’s hitman (Hauser) troubled by his conscience—for the next, Cusack is the weak presence in the film. One finds Hillary Duff terrible; another finds her one of the best features of the film. (I'm not sure if I'm the only one, but I find her reminiscent of Tia Carrera in Wayne's World - though less rock'n'roll.) One finds the obvious reference to current events too explicit; another thinks it doesn’t go far enough—that it needs to go closer to the bone.

It was, I suppose, a hotchpotch: the new version of a screwball comedy. It probably owes as much to Mel Brooks as to Kubrick, the way it parodies various film genres (the leanings toward Westerns were something I particularly enjoyed)—but it’s a step up from what I’ve seen of the Scream/Scary Movie franchises. There were moments of—“They went there!”—but I never found it to be cringeworthy. Yes, the characters are stock characters: and they are aware of it. (Hillary Duff as an Central-Asian Britney Spears could not possibly be unaware of the parody she represents.) One reviewer complained that the movie sells out, so you end up rooting for Cusack’s hitman—in a movie where nearly everything is a target of satire, I found this to be satirical too—everyone by the journalist is so compromised, and the “good journalist” is so good that she’s a parody, that the only person really left to identify with is Hauser. I don’t think it will age that well—set pieces in it might, but probably not overall—but, well, I don’t want my money back.