War, Inc. (2008)

A corporation hires a professional assassin to pose as its trade show representative who must organize the wedding of a Middle Eastern pop star, which will allow him the opportunity to kill a Middle Eastern politician.

Director:

Joshua Seftel

Writers:

Mark Leyner, Jeremy Pikser

Stars:

John Cusack, Marisa Tomei, Hilary Duff

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
John Cusack	...	Hauser
Hilary Duff	...	Yonica Babyyeah
Marisa Tomei	...	Natalie Hegalhuzen
Joan Cusack	...	Marsha Dillon
Dan Aykroyd	...	Mr. Vice President
Sergej Trifunovic	...	Ooq-Mi-Fay Taqnufmini
Ned Bellamy	...	Ooq-Yu-Fay Taqnufmini / Zubleh
John McLaughlin	...	Self
Montel Williams	...	GuideStar Voice (voice)
Ben Kingsley	...	Walken / The Viceroy
Lyubomir Neikov	...	Omar Sharif (as Lubomir Neikov)
Nikolay Stanoev	...	Bhodi Bhundhang (as Nikolai Stanoev)
George Zlatarev	...	Director (as Georgi Zlatarev)
Bashar Rahal	...	Video Guy #1
Velislav Pavlov	...	Video Guy #2 (as Vesilav Pavlov)

Storyline

A political satire set in Turaqistan, a country occupied by an American private corporation run by a former US Vice President. In an effort to monopolize the opportunities the war-torn nation offers, the corporation's CEO hires a troubled hit man, to kill a Middle East oil minister. Now, struggling with his own growing demons, the assassin must pose as the corporation's Trade Show Producer in order to pull off this latest hit, while maintaining his cover by organizing the high-profile wedding of Yonica Babyyeah, an outrageous Middle Eastern pop star, and keeping a sexy left wing reporter in check.

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Plot Keywords:

corporation | satire | reporter | assassin | pop star | 

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Taglines:

When it comes to war...America means business

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Genres:

Action | Comedy | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence, language and brief sexual material

Did You Know?

Trivia

Srdjan Dragojevic was initially attached to direct this movie. He did an extensive re-write with his Serbian writing partner Dimitrije Vojnov. When Dragojevic left the project, this draft of the screenplay was scrapped. The only piece that remained is the imaginary Democracy cigarettes brand that had already appeared in The Wounds (1998).

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Goofs

When Brand and Natalie go to the coffee shop, on the floor you can see the blue-tape 'T' marker that shows the waitress where she needs to stand for this shot.

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Quotes

Brand Hauser: Marsha, get me Katie Couric, Al Jezeera and 100 gallons of sheep shit.

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Crazy Credits

BeTolerant.com is listed twice in the thanks section of the credits, despite this resulting in an odd number of entries and causing the last entry to have to go against the rest of the layout (centered, vs two-column) to keep things even.

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Connections

References The McLaughlin Group (1982)

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Soundtracks

Aboun Salehoun
Written by Youssef El Mejjad, Pat Jabbar
Performed by Amira Saqati
Published by Copyright Control (SUISA)
Courtesy of Barraka El Farnatshi

User Reviews

Duff steals the show

You movie is basically a rant at America and the way they police/Destroy all minor nations real or in this case "Turaqistan" make believe. you then have your story within this with Mr Cusack, a down on his luck assassin sent to do a job in Turaqistan and all that follows to distract him from this.

The movie has some hilarious moments, basically every scene with Hilary Duff is hilarious. She plays Yonica Babyyeah an oversexed brat that performs a fantastic solo of "i'm gonna blow you.....up". Priceless and worth the admission price alone. You then have the tanks rolling around with advertising slogans like a Nascar.

the movie still could have been a lot better, at points it just seemed to muddle its way through with no real direction. In the first 45 minutes you don't always understand the scenario of the private security forces, the American soldiers, the company etc etc, it does get a little confusing.

However the performances of John Cusack and Hilary Duff are top drawer and with the humour this is certainly worth watching.

Details

Official Sites:

MySpace

Country:

USA

Language:

English Hungarian

Release Date:

13 June 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

Brand Hauser: Stuff Happens

Filming Locations:

New Boyana Film Studios, Sofia, Bulgaria

Box Office

Budget:

$10,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$35,336, 25 May 2008

Gross USA:

$580,862

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$1,296,184

Company Credits

Production Co:

New Crime Productions, B & W Films, Boyana Film Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1