Deal of the Century
Man, what a film of heights and lows. On way hand this has some great moments with some of the nastiest criticism of <PERSON> era that the studios ever made. <PERSON> himself is a pretty major character to the film and <PERSON>’s script even name checks some real life war profiteers like <PERSON>. To think a film with this much poison could come out a year before the last major electoral sweep. That’s even without going into the film’s contemporary relevance through questions on drone usage.
There’s also tons of great little moments. 698
The best being <PERSON> cameo which most perfectly hits the comedy and satire that the film is aiming for.
Unfortunately all of that is choked by the main trio who are miscast and poorly written. <PERSON> seems uncomfortable playing this kind of villainous protagonist and instead is desperately trying to make this guy a proto <PERSON>. It just doesn’t work in a more grounded and subtle film like this. <PERSON> and <PERSON>’ characters both suffer from some inconsistent writing that don’t make a lick of sense from moment to moment in their motivations. In particular the ending seems rushed with these two switching who they are sometimes dramatically between each scene. In all this reminds me of Bonfire of the Vanities in that a few problems of cast and characterization take a great film and make it mediocre with the failure being even stronger here. 698