The War To End Absolutely Nothing..."War Machine"

War Machine (2017)

TV-MA

Starring Brad Pitt, Anthony Hayes, John Magaro, Anthony Michael Hall, Emory Cohen, Topher Grace, Aymen Hamdouchi, Alan Ruck, Nicholas Jones,

Written and Directed by David Michod

The Story:

General McMahon (Pitt) is brought in by politicians to help clean up the mess that is the war in Afghanistan. Except McMahon isn't used to tidying up anything, if there's a war, he's there to win it. Which is exactly what nobody apparently wants, except McMahon.

Welcome to one of the latest Netflix originals to roll out this year.

It's based on a true story.

It's also a satirical look at the war effort in Afghanistan.

Your mileage will vary on how well either of those work as an overlong film written and directed by Michod.

In a nutshell, McMahon and his staff are seemingly doing very well, but through an article written by Rolling Stone, it undermines McMahon's credibility and leads to his ouster.

Pitt plays McMahon as a caricature of an actual person.

Normally, this works to some extent, but Pitt dials the caricature of McMahon to 11; some of the mannerisms given to McMahon such as the facial expressions, the voice, you can't quite tell if they were going for outright parody or not in the film.

They become almost a distraction throughout the film.

So with an uneven tone, a leading man who is all over the map on whether or not you need to take what he's doing at face value, or to laugh at what he's saying or doing, it makes this a mess.

Just like the war in Afghanistan.

In that regard, mission accomplished.

Final Grade:  C