I'm going to start this review by saying that I highly recommend the movie "In the Loop" to any International Studies majors out there. Also, I'm not British/Scottish/drunk.
That said, I highly enjoyed this movie. Everything about it was totally disgusting, vile, raunchy, and generally inappropriate for anyone below the age of 16 (but still hilarious).
I should probably describe the plot. The movie follows several different groups, but centers on the process through which several bad misstatements by a British Cabinet-level minister lead to a US-led war getting passed by the UN Security Council. Meanwhile, the aforementioned Cabinet-level Minister (Simon Foster is his name) gets chewed out constantly (and obscenely) by a higher-up (Malcolm Tucker), a short-tempered Scotsman who learned some pretty nasty language by merit of his job title being essentially to yell at people. The whole story is incredibly complex and really needs to be seen to be understood. In short, the movie (my younger brother is trying to explain it to his other friends this way) was about "Political drama involving war against an unnamed country for no reason due to some serious diplomatic [mistakes] with two angry Scotsmen yelling at the [people making the mistakes] the whole way"
The movie has incredibly bad language. And this may even be an understatement. Some of the better quotes include "I'm going to cut of your leg, take your shin bone, and stab you in the head with it!" and "you're a boring f**king psycho", and other good ones that would probably cause this thread to suffer the banhammer (and thus will go unmentioned) all make this movie insanely funny.
However at the same time while it's a diplomacy movie (a sort of sub-genre by now), the film ignores who a war would be against, why the war would be fought, or even why anyone opposes or supports it. In short, we aren't supposed to worry about that, only the stuff going on in front of us. At the same time the movie paints a VERY funny picture of US/British relations. Malcolm at one point lashes out at an American State Department official with "Don't call me ENGLISH!" while a bumbling aide rushes into the meeting late and responds to one question from a different state department official about the number of British delegations in Washington DC with "yeah, the British are coming" (which leads to probably the BEST strong of insults in the history of humankind).
On the one hand the movie's humor and obscenity speak for themselves, but the direction it goes in is also brilliant since it doesn't give us more than we need to know or think about. It isn't asking us to think about the morality of war or who's right, rather we're there to see the spectacle play out. I'm guessing the only statement being made is about what REALLY happens behind the closed-doors at the State Department (a very disturbing, but hilarious one).
That said, I highly enjoyed this movie. Everything about it was totally disgusting, vile, raunchy, and generally inappropriate for anyone below the age of 16 (but still hilarious).
I should probably describe the plot. The movie follows several different groups, but centers on the process through which several bad misstatements by a British Cabinet-level minister lead to a US-led war getting passed by the UN Security Council. Meanwhile, the aforementioned Cabinet-level Minister (Simon Foster is his name) gets chewed out constantly (and obscenely) by a higher-up (Malcolm Tucker), a short-tempered Scotsman who learned some pretty nasty language by merit of his job title being essentially to yell at people. The whole story is incredibly complex and really needs to be seen to be understood. In short, the movie (my younger brother is trying to explain it to his other friends this way) was about "Political drama involving war against an unnamed country for no reason due to some serious diplomatic [mistakes] with two angry Scotsmen yelling at the [people making the mistakes] the whole way"
The movie has incredibly bad language. And this may even be an understatement. Some of the better quotes include "I'm going to cut of your leg, take your shin bone, and stab you in the head with it!" and "you're a boring f**king psycho", and other good ones that would probably cause this thread to suffer the banhammer (and thus will go unmentioned) all make this movie insanely funny.
However at the same time while it's a diplomacy movie (a sort of sub-genre by now), the film ignores who a war would be against, why the war would be fought, or even why anyone opposes or supports it. In short, we aren't supposed to worry about that, only the stuff going on in front of us. At the same time the movie paints a VERY funny picture of US/British relations. Malcolm at one point lashes out at an American State Department official with "Don't call me ENGLISH!" while a bumbling aide rushes into the meeting late and responds to one question from a different state department official about the number of British delegations in Washington DC with "yeah, the British are coming" (which leads to probably the BEST strong of insults in the history of humankind).
On the one hand the movie's humor and obscenity speak for themselves, but the direction it goes in is also brilliant since it doesn't give us more than we need to know or think about. It isn't asking us to think about the morality of war or who's right, rather we're there to see the spectacle play out. I'm guessing the only statement being made is about what REALLY happens behind the closed-doors at the State Department (a very disturbing, but hilarious one).