Two words: hot sauce. War, Inc. is a political satire interweaving subtle comedy, blatant attacks, nihilistic wit, and a firework display of dizzying action, featuring Brand Hauser (John Cusack) as a seemingly cold-hard assassin and Yunnica Babbyeah (Hilary Duff) as an oversexed, Westernized Eastern celebrity. Both are pawns caught in the elaborate scheme of a former U.S. vice-president and CEO's plots to take over the world, one war-torn country at a time.

The location is the imaginary Emerald City, Turaqistan. Hauser is hired is to assassinate Turaqi oil minister, Omar Sharif, whose evil plots consist of instituting a pipe-line through his own country, so that the American corporation could return to business as usual of profiting off of its stronghold on monopolizing the entrepreneurial opportunities presented after a country is ruthlessly raped by war. Sound familiar?

During Brand Hauser's undercover position as a trade show producer, he meets Natalie Hegalhuzen (Marisa Tomei), a passionate left-wing journalist searching for the truth behind the propaganda fed to the masses. Their individual politics fuse to produce a growing flame of humorous chemistry throughout the movie. Hilary Duff's participation in this left-wing movie is surprising due to her past roles as Hollywood's princess but her role as the culmination of Western influence on the East proves to be a profound observation. A small but important performance by Ben Kingsley, who plays Hauser's CIA boss, tops off the all-star crew that went into making this movie.

The movie itself is an interesting conglomeration of many thoughts and ideas, focusing on satirizing modern-day American imperialism, corporate corruption and the activities of the Bush regime in relation to the war. However, sometimes it veers off into too many different directions, leaving the central theme scattered. Trifles. The moving is a daring and quirky depiction of politics today and worthy of watching. For those that carry on blissfully without the acknowledgment of present-day government and corporate corruption, this movie ticket may be your best investment yet. For the rest, this is simply a reaffirmation of what should be conventional wisdom.

-Shirline Chowdhury