Army of One (2016)

O.k. I will let them get away with the totally inaccurate depiction of Pakistan, but this movies is just not fun to watch. This movie does not fit into the genre of comedy, it's not a drama and the inaccurate depiction of Pakistan makes it unfit to be a biography as well....

So overall not a good movie, the only good thing in the movie is Nicolas Cage, but there's only so much he can do!

Seems like the movie-makers did no research about Pakistan, but as I said earlier, I will let them get away with the depiction of Pakistan. But the sad part is that the movie has no story whatsoever, no direction nothing.

Fmovies: Right, now I have to state that I wasn't aware that this was actually based on real events. Yeah, I had not heard about the guy who actually underwent this trek to find Bin Laden himself.

But anyway, I sat down to watch "Army of One" with my better half, because my wife is a fan of Nicolas Cage. I, however, am not a fan of his, not in any way; I think he has one expression for every scene and every character - and that is constipated.

I will say that Nicolas Cage impressed me tremendously here with his performance in "Army of One". It was good to see him in a role such as this, and get to see a more diverse and offbeat side to his acting. I was actually genuinely impressed with what he pulled off here. And this is easily the second best performance of his entire career, with the best (in my opinion) being "Matchstick Men" from 2003.

The story in "Army of One" is about a fairly unstable civilian who decides to set out to find Bin Laden and bring him to justice, since the American army had no luck in doing so.

Now, I do like Russell Brand, but I didn't think he was the right cast for this movie. It was just a bit too off to see him in this movie. He is a funny guy, for sure, but he is better at comedies of a whole different genre.

"Army of One" is actually a very enjoyable movie, and it is a movie that is fun and turned out to be entertaining. I was surprised with how good I found the movie, so I can actually warmly recommend that you take the time to watch "Army of One", whether or not you are a fan of Nicolas Cage. It is a movie that tells a good story.

Not many would remember a popular Indian TV show from early 90s called Mungerilal Ke Haseen Sapne. It was about this office peon (an utterly unimportant person in social order) with an active imagination. Typically the episodes would deal with his daydreaming scenarios. Army of One is a story about a similar man. Only thing is that it's about a real life person (Gary Faulkner) who did went on with his quest to capture Osama Bin Laden, all by himself. Now, its something of a debate whether all the incidents in his narrative are true but one thing is certain that he did end up traveling to Pakistan, on multiple occasions, with his Katana blade, without much trouble. That's classic privilege because most Asians would be stopped at airports if they were even carrying a pen knife.

Well, for Gary the orders apparently came from God himself (Played by Russel Brand in the movie). Well if God is in-fact like Brand, then we've no hope. On the other hand, it could be a smart move if he's just channeling through comedians now-a-days. Probably works for the better. Reports say that Faulkner got dangerously close to finding Osama despite his bumbling, idiosyncratic demeanor. The CIA even considers recruiting him. Well, as far as expendable foot soldiers go, Faulkner might actually be a fine candidate. Although, Nicholas Cage went a little over the top in his portrayal of Faulkner, I think that any man embarking on such an insane quest is in-fact hysterical. So Cage's performance makes sense.

If you put aside the main plot for a moment, you'll realize that the movie does have have a heart. Gary's relationship with a single parent Marci is beautiful and touching. Marci's adopted daughter has Cerebral Palsy and to her, Gary is the most interesting person in the world. While he might be the Don Quixote swinging his sword (Katana in this case) at the windmills but when he comes home, he finds the real purpose of his quest. Its a funny movie and if you like watching Nicholas Cage going nuts, its full of it. It's gratifying to see Hollywood recovering from the grimness surrounding 9/11 and daring to bring some levity around the tragedy. Kind of reminds me about the Bollywood movie Tere Bin Laden and its sequel. Watch Army of One when you've nothing else to do.

Army of One fmovies. I know Nicolas Cage takes a lot of "flak" from reviewers, but I'm always interested in what he'll come up with next. Here he portrays Gary Faulkner, from Greeley, Colorado, an actual person, who was commanded by God to travel to Pakistan by himself and capture Osama bin Laden.

If it sounds silly and ridiculous, and it is, but I at least got some laughs out of the movie especially in the middle part of the film, after which it unfortunately falls apart. To me, Cage is always charismatic on the screen, and I thought Wendi McLendon-Covey was well cast as Marci here, who ends up in a relationship with Gary.

Overall, a disappointment from the very talented filmmaker Larry Charles, with a script from Rajiv Joseph and Scott Rothman. Some laughs here, but not enough to carry the movie.

I enjoyed this film from the start. It was truly a hidden gem.

Gary Faulkner (Nicolas Cage) is a blue-collar compatriot currently on dialysis for kidney disease. Gary claims to have a vision where God comes to him, urging that he travel to Pakistan and capture Osama Binladen for the good of the American people. This message, combined with a deep-rooted love for his country lead him to do just that! On several occasions police report catching him attempting to cross the Afghan border carrying guns, knives, hash, and even Christian scripture.

Larry Charles has directed some fairly controversial material over his lifetime including Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000-2017), Religulous (2008), and Bruno (2009). Everyone likely expected his film to poke fun at Gary Faulkner for loud political biases. But that would have been too easy. It speaks to Larry Charles' directorial authenticity that he did not take the bait with this one and run with it.

Cage has a pretty bad track record for the better part of his career. And while this film failed pretty miserably from opening weekend to nearly being a "straight to DVD" title, it was a very enjoyable story.

This movie has a striking resemblance to "Adaptation (2002)" (Cage as lead). Both of these have lead characters with a sociopath feel and are coincidentally two of Cage's strongest performances to date.

Be sure to stay for the closing credits if you like to see actual imagery about the people and events a film is based depicting. I particularly enjoyed the footage of Faulkner when he is on The Late Show with David Letterman. Avoid (at all costs) going off to research David Faulkner until after watching this. The experience will be all the better for it.

----- 8/10 STARS -------- Review by Searsino -----

Saw this movie last weekend, did not know what to expect. I never heard of Gary Faulker before, but I remembered that a couple years ago there was a crazy American who traveled to Pakistan to capture OBL. I thought is was a hoax, nobody can be that stupid. So Meet Gary Faulker, people.

Nicolas Cage played the role very good, I did not see Nicolas Cage but a very annoying American patriot. Russel Brand played the role of god. He Was no Morgan Freeman god, but for this movie he played the part very convincing. Wendi McLendon-Covey acted a bit wooden and I really did not believe here role in the beginning of the movie. Extra notion for Rainn Wilson who played a small role in the movie as a some kind of jester.

Plot of the movie was very funny and fast pacing. Remember, this is not a documentary but a comedy. Watch this movie, if you want a real laugh.