Running about half an hour longer than it should, this would-be Dr. Strangelove for the 21st century certainly has some good moments of satirical hilarity revolving around a private U.S. corporation occupying a fictional Middle Eastern country, but in its overstuffed, overwrought, trying-too-hard-to-please-the-cynics-but-still-appeal-to-the-mainstream way, it comes across as simultaneously too much and not enough. When it works, it’s like an extended bit from The Daily Show, presenting with a straight face the absolute absurdity of the world we’re trying to forge. When it doesn’t, it lurches into some strange netherworld in which the chaos it’s depicting begins to seep into the film itself, so that we’re left with a cautionary satire whose absurdity is more assaultive than enlightening. (Angelika Film Center, Dallas, TX)