There are a lot of war films out there. There are a lot of people that could argue that it is the most popular genre for movies and some of my personal favorites of all time fall in that line. Biopics are fun as well and this one presents itself in a believable fashion as being based on fact. Unfortunately, it is not based on fact and for the most part the things that happen in this movie, while believable, just aren't terribly entertaining.
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This movie is complete satire about the horrible occupation that the United States has undertaken in Afghanistan for most of my adult life and how every now and then a general will come along that promises to be the solution to the problem that is "how do we end this?? Brad Pitt plays exactly that sort of general in this movie
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Pitt plays the role of 4-star General Glen McMahon who is a decorated and celebrated leader of combat from Iraq that is sent to Afghanistan because Obama is convinced he is exactly the guy that is needed to finally end the ongoing conflict in that country. I want to state again that all the characters in this film are completely fictional (other than Karzai and Obama, who doesn't actually appear in the film but the doppelganger and creative camera angles make it appear as though he is.)
McMahon is respected and feared by his men and he is given a blank slate and a bland check to to what needs to be done in order to achieve victory. There is only one thing that he is not allowed to do - he can NOT request more troops to be sent to the country - which he almost immediately does.
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There are a bunch of great actors in this film including Ben Kingsley who looks alarmingly like President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan. Other notable actors include Topher Grace (who I don't actually like,) Tilda Swinton (also don't like but does a good job in most things,) and Will Poulter (who I REALLY like and don't think gets enough roles.) However, the "hey I know that person!" factor that exists in the film isn't really enough to take away from the fact that this film is actually quite boring.
For one thing, it kind of promises to be a wartime action-oriented film but instead of that it delivers a rather boring but-intended-to-be-funny presentation of the politics that takes place behind the scenes in American military operations.
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the Obama sequences were pretty brilliantly shot
There is only one full action battle scene in the entire film and it is over entirely too fast. That particular part of the film is great and i really would have liked to see more of them because what is portrayed is very close to what friends of mine who actually did serve in Afghanistan describe.
I have sort of high expectations of Brad Pitt and I feel as though for the most part he delivers in this roles. I do not consider this film to be a failure because of Mr. Pitt, i think the movie is just a poorly designed script that promises action but instead has an element of satire that was meant to be funny but unfortunately doesn't achieve that end, but just manages to be sad and boring. I think their attempt was to point out the futility of war in Afghanistan and i suppose if you look hard enough, that is kind of what they portray but they try a little to hard to make this a subtle comedy in the process.
I can't really recommend this film especially considering that Netflix currently has tens of thousands of films to pick from. I would say, despite the star-power present in this one, to give it a miss.
5 / 10
