IN THE LOOP: not as smart as it thinks it is

The humour on show in IN THE LOOP is drier than the most barren stretch of desert on Earth on a particularly dry day following a long dry spell. The humour is so dry it's in danger of shriveling up.
It's just too damn dry for it's own good.
What I'm trying to say here is that IN THE LOOP is not even 25 per cent as funny as it thinks it is.
This political satire pokes fun at the clash of cultures between a barely disguised George W Bush led US administration and an equally thinly disguised Tony Blair-era British Labour government in the lead up to an only ever vaguely defined outbreak of American-led hostilities in the Middle East.
The film's targets aren't the leaders themselves but their mid-level ministers and operatives - the people whose competing machinations are pushing the two countries towards war.
It's a study in incompetence, intrigue and ego which pits the bumbling insecure, pintsized British Secretary of State for International Development, Simon Foster (Tom Hollander) against the PM's uber-aggressive foul mouthed Director of Communications Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi channelling Alastair Campbell) and the supercilious unscrupulous and disturbingly Donald Rumsfeld-like US Secretary of Defense Linton Barwick (David Rasche). 
Throw in attempts by a peace-loving US General (James Gandolfini) and a war-averse State Department assistant secretary to block the march to war and the result is armour piercing satire - except it isn't. 

The script by noted British satirist and comedian Armando Iannucci is more clever than sharp. It raised a few appreciative half-smiles and a couple of chuckles but for the most part it succeeds in being clever rather than funny, and I'm not using clever as a compliment. Just how the script came to be Oscar nominated is one of 2010's biggest mysteries.
I never got bored but I didn't feel particularly entertained either. IN THE LOOP is a collection of sophisticated observations on politics that never really goes anywhere. I kept waiting for the story or the humour or something to kick up a gear and start firing on all cylinders but it never did.