"Dangerously Accurate"
In our present state of going about the business of warfare, certain lines are drawn along political ideologies and commercialization is made of one particular governments' leadership style over another. Basically I'm okay with that. Companies like Lockheed, and Boeing also make other cool stuff besides munitions.
Of course, I tend to be somewhat jaded, both from being born and raised in Alaska, and with an extensive travel history, which always ends in a return to my home... a place that doesn't have the sound of constant gunfire or shells exploding into craters in my backyard.
This movie is a very accurate depiction of the business of warfare. Hence the title.
John Cusack plays an assassin sent to kill a leader of an emerging nation-state in the fictional country of "Turaqistan". As an assassin, the movie starts off with him finishing up a job in a different country. He is good at his job. Selected by the 'ViceRoy' for the assignment, the would-be handler briefs him that he is to be given the cover of a promoter orchestrating the 'wedding' of a pop-culture icon played by Hilary Duff. It's hilarious from start to finish. Not to mention gratifying random gunfire, it's in almost shocking contrast to what a military force comprised of just Blackwater types would actually look like in action.
This dark comedy has enough action and sarcasm to satisfy even the most morbid senses of humor, and strikes a chord in the portrayal of the powerful forces acting behind the scenes using them all as puppets. The interplay between Cusack and Duff is hypnotic. Not to mention some of the one-liners almost subliminally thrown into the backdrop with Joan Cusack who plays his assistant slash secretary. Of course this entire movie was actually filmed in Bulgaria, so it has to have a twist at the end, being somewhat of a sequel to "Grosse Pointe Blank" [1997].
Did I mention the seriously delicious Marisa Tomei plays the assassin's love interest? Yup. And it's magnetic.
Here's what I don't understand: this movie should have been a blockbuster. It has all the ingredients. It's got senseless violence, a mediocre plot, some serious talent on all fronts. But I had never heard of it until I year later. It never even made the theathre here in the Ak.
Why?
Instead it fizzled out, eventually showing up in the movie selections at the rental places and was hammered by other people who write these reviews. It's one of those movies that's in those huge bins at Wal*Mart.
I read their reviews, and I wonder if we were even watching the same flick.
I think they're all wrong. I think that this movie is worth a look, for the simple fact that it comes so close to real life. The end game comes in this one line that I'll never forget:
"We're in a constant state of war...
we kill our brothers, complete strangers,
the guilty and the innocent...
We're at war with our own hearts...
Love is a cease-fire that's destined to fail..."
With dialog like that in a movie, I am unable to understand why this feature didn't make a better showing at the box office. Maybe because this movie slid a little too far past cheesy and became dangerously accurate.
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