Army of One-An Honest Review

The 2016 comedy was directed by Larry Charles, and written by Rajiv Joseph and Scott Rothman. It’s the story of Gary Faulkner ( Nicolas Cage ) on a god ( Russel Brand ) sent mission to capture Osama Bin Laden with a samurai sword. PS, this is based on a real story.

Warning, Spoilers Ahead

PLOT:

Gary is a kooky, paranoid individual who probably believes every single conspiracy theory to ever come out, and sounds like a bad Steve Buscemi impersonation on helium. He also has a girlfriend, who for some reason actually like’s the guy enough to want to live with him, despite zero chemistry between the two.

Nick Cage was first contacted by God ( Russell Brand – yeah, he’s still a thing ) as a child, which plays zero importancy to the overall story, but they threw it in there anyways. Fast forward a few decades, he’s incapable of holding a job, and understandably despises Bin Laden. So after Russell Brand, who’s almost certainly just a figment of his imagination, sends him on a mission to go to Pakistan, and capture Osama Bin Laden.

He tries buying a boat, but breaks his arm in the process. Next up, Russel Brand the God tells him to order an actual samurai sword. With which he instantly goes Fruit Ninja.

Eventually arriving in Pakistan, he does some stuff. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, and doesn’t really go anyhwere for like 45 minutes. Russel Brand has some nice scenes though. Then, Gary somehow meets Bin Laden, in a cave. With a bunch of scrap! Sorry, couldn’t help myself. The two duke it out with their swords.

Yeah, that last scene only happened in Ghost Rider’s head. He wakes up in a hospital and goes back to good ol’ Colorado with his girlfriend. The End. Just kidding, after hearing about Bin Laden’s death, he assumes it’s a covet up and goes back again, and again. Apparently the real guy’s been there like eight times trying to hunt him down.

CONCLUSSION:

I don’t know if it was the acting, or the story, but this was a really weird movie. First of all, like I mentioned earlier, Cage’s voice got on my nerves, a lot throughout the movie. Second, his character was completely overexagerrated ( and yes I realize we’re talking about Nick Cage here ), and yes I watched the real life clips at the end. Ultimately taking away any sense of realism, and leaving no chemustry between characters, instead becoming a distraction from whatever exactly this movie was. He’s shown he can play a weird character, I just hope this won’t reflect on Joe Exotic too much.

Russel Brand did a decent job. Basically, Russel Brand played himself, and added a few bibly words in his talks. The rest of the cast was meh-to mediocre at best.

I would’ve made the film a bit more of a combination of Rock the Kasbah for story and plot, and The Disaster Artist for character and developement, and for Russell Brand sakes, get rid of the voice I don’t care if it’s historically accurate, IT’S ANNOYING! Overall, great premice, bad execution. 4/10.

-The Screenwriter

All photos used from Wikimedia Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page