Topical satire on privatized warfare in the Middle East, “satire” being defined as a fictional form that depends on your political sympathies overriding your aesthetic standards. Even if your sympathies are in perfect alignment, however, this one seems a complete misfire, resorting to fisheye lenses for comic emphasis, mock-Morricone spaghetti-Western music, more or less straight action scenes, John Cusack’s smugness, Joan Cusack’s shrillness, Ben Kingsley’s sliminess, Dan Aykroyd’s biliousness, and Hilary Duff’s duff. (She, a whittled-down pussy willow, has her nerve mouthing a line of dialogue that brands a mature womanly woman as a “skinny bitch.”) Through the wreckage wanders Marisa Tomei as a semblance of a human being. This actress (the aforesaid “skinny bitch”) is both lucky and good: lucky enough to be playing the only role which remotely resembles a human being (liberal journalist) and good enough actually to resemble one when given the chance. Directed by Joshua Seftel. (2008) — Duncan Shepherd