Customer Reviews

In the Loop [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

If you liked The Office, Spinal Tap and Dr. Strangelove and you also don't mind the very frequent but highly effective use of swearing then this is a must-see movie.

To paraphrase one of the many rants from the British spin doctor, if you don't watch this movie "I'm going to tear out your shinbone, split it in two and stab you to f*****g death with it!"

"In the Loop" is blisteringly profane (a full 10 on the "Deadwood" scale), but in a smart way; it received an Oscar nomination for best adapted screenplay. In a scenario that is probably closer to the truth than anyone would ever admit, an unfortunate British undersecretary answers a fairly bland question about the possibility of Mideast war during a radio interview. An awkward response to that unexpected query triggers a storm of political shenanigans in London and D.C. Hilarity ensues. James Gandolfini is the only name actor (for U.S. audiences), and his not-that-hawkish general is a delight to watch. Peter Capaldi plays the British prime minister's hatchet man with fire and brimstone that is awe inspiring. His f-bomb laden verbal attacks on... well, pretty much anyone within 100 yards, are jazz riffs of obscenity. Classic stuff, smart, razor sharp. Don't miss the deleted scenes; they're as funny as the best bits of the regular feature. If you love satire, you'll love this.

"War is unforeseeable." It was an off-the-cuff comment by British government official, Simon Foster that brought down the wrath of the Prime Minister's chief enforcer and attack dog, Malcolm Tucker. In trying to dig his way out, Simon is then caught in another off-the-cuff interview talking about "climbing the mountain of conflict." In the meantime, US government official, Karen Clarke and General George Miller are hoping to short circuit mounting pressure for war on the US side. Thinking they've identified a like-minded Brit, they invite Simon to Washington to attend some conferences. Simon is sick of the know-it-all attitude of long-time staffer, Judy, so he takes the new hire, Toby. When Toby leeks details about the secret war committee meeting to CNN, the whole fiasco becomes a media feeding frenzy. Malcolm is less than pleased. He doesn't like to "learn anything about a British government official on TV unless they've died." And if words could kill, Simon would die a very brutal death, indeed.

If rough language offends you, do NOT go to In the Loop... consider yourself warned! For those who enjoy scathingly funny, take-no-prisoners dialog, In the Loop is high art. While the style of In the Loop is decidedly British, I believe American audiences, for the most part, will get on board with this one. Some of the accents are a bit difficult, but not impossible. It is impossible, however, to catch every line because of the unrelenting, rapid-fire pace of the dialogue. But in the end, most will catch more than enough to enjoy this film.

As I left the theatre, I overheard several conversations about wanting to stay and watch it again. This is an intensely funny movie... assuming it's your kind of humor... and you'll come away wanting to remember some of your favorite lines. But the filmmakers don't give you enough time to process one laugh line before firing the next one. This one will be on my want-to-own DVD list.

This is the smartest, funniest movie I've seen in ages. It is filled with a multitude of quotable one-liners that me & my friends will be using over & over again. Moreover, it ran for SIX MONTHS here in the Bay Area. It is destined to become a rep-house institution for the next decade and the DVD will become a cult-fave for many.

All I do is work and watch movies, basically, and this is the best film I have seen in years.

Here's my fave quote: "Why don't you take your cheese, and your backlog of Mojo, and your eighth of dope and ____ off!"

"In the Loop" was spun off from the Britcom "In the Thick of It", borrowing four of its writers from that television series, but concerns itself exclusively with the run-up to the Iraq War. In London, Minister for International Development Simon Foster (Tom Hollander) declares that "war is unforeseeable" in an interview with the press, evoking the near-hysterical fury of the Prime Minister's foul-mouthed Director of Communications Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi), who knows the PM is plotting the invasion of a Middle Eastern nation in cooperation with the United States. In Washington, Assistant Secretary of State Karen Clark (Mimi Kennedy) is trying to draw attention to the shaky intelligence behind the proposal, if only she can discover which committee of rival Assistant Secretary Linton Barwick (David Rasche) is pushing the war agenda.

Bureaucrats on both sides of the Atlantic maneuver to find out what is going on behind closed doors and how they might stop it -or at least benefit from it, as it is obvious that 10 Downing Street and the White House have already decided on war. It's a satire of Anglo-American relations, of the petty ambitions and underhanded tactics that shape important policies, and of office politics, as bright and beleaguered assistants tussle with one another to keep their careers alive. The pace is frenetic. The language is colorful. The characters are insufferable. It's hilarious.

No one can match the British at political satire, but behavior has gotten cruder since the dignified doublespeak of "Yes, Minister". Everyone is obnoxious. Perhaps it's the influence of reality TV, which also contributes an unsteady camera and quick-cutting. I could have done with less of that. While the sharpest satires distill reality, "In the Loop" exaggerates it, which is not quite as clever. But it is very funny, and at some point it engages the viewer emotionally in the matter at stake, though I don't think it ever does in the characters.

The DVD (MPI 2010): Bonus features include a theatrical trailer (2 1/2 min), a TV spot (30 sec), more than 40 deleted scenes (28 min), and a "Behind the Scenes Featurette" (3 min), which is a short promo with soundbites from some cast members and director Armando Iannucci. Subtitles for the film are available in English SDH and Spanish.

****1/2

One of the wittiest and most sophisticated movie satires of recent vintage, "In the Loop" provides us with a hilarious behind-the-scenes glimpse into the ugly, messy world of international diplomacy. The mad run-up to the Iraq war serves as the obvious blueprint for the fictional - yet far from make-believe - tale the writers have come up with here. We begin in London where news has just leaked out that the British and Americans are planning a military invasion of an unspecified country in the Middle East. When the bumbling Minister for International Development, Simon Foster, accidentally goes off script by stating in an interview that such a war is "unforeseeable," the Prime Minister's staff goes into immediate damage control mode, hustling Foster off to Washington D.C. to see if they can get him in on the pre-war planning and negotiations. From that point on, Foster becomes a bone-of-contention between the pro-war and anti-war factions battling it out for preeminence.

The source for "In the Loop" is a popular British TV series entitled "The Thick of It," with many of the actors from that program appearing in the movie (though we're told that most of the performers play different roles in the film from the ones they play on the show). As if that weren't confusing enough, the script by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci and Tony Roche spends virtually no time on introductions or back story of any kind, leaving those of us who are unfamiliar with the context feeling just a wee bit lost and disoriented at the beginning. Indeed, we are plunged so immediately into the swirl of activity surrounding the minister's diplomatic faux pas that we learn early on that we had better start paying some serious attention to what`s happening on screen or risk going under in pretty short order. I say this not as a criticism of the writing because, frankly, this is one of the few comic scripts I've come across in quite some time that actually treats its audience like thinking adults, that doesn't find it necessary to talk down to us in order to appeal to the lowest-common-denominator viewer. The one-liners come fast and furious in this film and woe to anyone not willing to make the effort to keep up with them. The good news is that the writing is so sharp and acerbic that we really don't mind putting that extra added effort into our viewing. One simply cannot be a passive onlooker while watching "In the Loop" and still reap the rewards of the experience.

With the kind of understated irony that distinguishes the best of British humor, the densely-plotted, character-rich screenplay aims its comedic sights at all the would-be power players, petty backbiters, toadying assistants, longsuffering aides, incompetent bureaucrats, draconian bosses, mealy-mouthed office-holders and enraged constituents that make up the world of high-level diplomacy and politics. The movie also has some fun with England's perceived role as ugly stepsister (or lapdog, if you prefer) to the bully-boy United States in matters of world affairs.

Director Iannucci gets nothing less than a sterling performance from each and every member of his large and gifted cast, be they American (with James Gandolfini the most recognizable face in that crowd) or British. However, extra special note should be taken of Tom Hollander, Chris Addison, Mimi Kennedy and, above all, Peter Capaldi, who tears up the screen as the deliciously ill-tempered and foul-mouthed enforcer for the British Prime Minister.

The truths this allegorical fable reveals about how easy it is to cherry pick evidence to lead a country into war and how hard it is for individuals of goodwill to stand up for what they know is right are so dead-on in their accuracy and so universal in their scope that they leave the mind reeling from the impact - and the ribcage aching from all the laughter.

"In the Loop" is a sharp and witty and funny and depressing take on the office politics of politics. Simon Foster is the ambitious but largely clueless and weak-willed British "minister for international development." When he makes the mistake of suggesting, contrary to the official British position, that an imminent war was "unforeseeable" on a BBC radio interview, he is colorfully and harshly reprimanded by the British press secretary who seems incapable of putting three words together without a creative interjection of expletives. Simon suddenly finds himself in the midst of a power struggle between hawks and doves (both UK and US) and interns and career politicians, some who care about whether the war (ostensibly the war in Iraq, which is never actually mentioned) proceeds and, mostly, others who care more about their own future in politics. The point is that even when it comes to matters of greatest urgency, the petty and small are never far off. It's a clever and very funny take on bureaucracy and international politics, that would be even funnier if it weren't so awfully scary. Shot in the kinetic documentary style made popular on the BBC's Office and its American remake - it may make you dizzy while the wordplay has your head spinning. Definitely worth watching.

The DVD bonus features are fairly slim, but more than that isn't necessary, since it's the film that matters here: a few deleted scenes, a trailer, english subtitles (might be useful if you get lost with the thick British accents), and spanish subtitles.

One of the most hilarious movies of the political genre I have ever seen. The level of British cursing is superb..! Probably my favorite aspect of the movie. Love all the harsh tirades. Must watch w subtitles ON to catch everything.

Although based on true events leading to the Iraq War, don't let that distract from all that is great about the movie...the characters and their relationships! Just listen to all the clever yet harsh verbal ineteraction and wordplay.! Not to mention dumbassery..!

This is a movie that some people really dislike. It contains a surfeit of vulgar and profane language largely from the character of the British prime minister's director of communications brilliantly played by Peter Capaldi. Also, it is satire, which is disliked by many people. The great American playwright George S. Kaufman once said that "Satire is what closes on Saturday night." The subject is a series of meetings in London and in Washington between U.S. and U.K. high government officials concerning the possibility of an impending war, presumably somewhere in the Middle-East.

Most of the actors in this film are new to me. Some of the actors playing the parts of Americans may well be British actors. These days, actors on both side of the pond can provide either American or British accents nearly perfectly. One actor, definitely American, is James Gandolfini, playing an American General who reputedly uses a live hand grenade as a paper weight.

The superbly written film portrays these officials who, in their attempts to avoid the outbreak of a new war, only manage to move both countries closer and closer to it. The cast and director of this fine film acquit themselves admirably. The opening credits state that part of the funding for this film was provided by the U.K. Film Council, an organization that has since been abolished in order to reduce government spending.

The film adroitly demonstrates the failure of human beings to communicate. To quote T.S. Eliot from one of his plays: "Men tighten the knot of confusion into perfect misunderstanding."

At first I did not like it, but the more I watched the funnier it got. This is not slapstick like Monty Python, but a sharp critique of both politics and media. Some complain about cursing in the movie. I was not bothered by it since I did not see it as a goal in itself but underlining the way politics often is. Brilliant!!