Black comedy

Rating: 6/10 (11 February 2018)

This film stands as an enjoyable adventure romp in the best TC style, but at heart it is a black comedy, although that may come as a surprise to non-Americans constantly bombarded by the notion that the USA is the bastion of virtuous western civilized values, particularly as, unlike "Wag The Dog", this is not fiction, but 'alternative facts'. There are sources that will tell you how this film deviates from the true facts, but it is sufficiently close to what actually happened to send out a valuable warning.
And the warning is basically what is likely to happen when an individual with a defective moral compass goes through life saying "Yeah, sure. That sounds like fun". The extreme version is provided by Barry's brother-in-law, who has no moral compass whatsoever, but is driven exclusively by the gratification of his own immediate desires, to a degree that even the flawed Barry finds shocking. It is a timely lesson, given the way the Trump presidency and related worldwide turbulence is challenging everybody's values and calling us to reassess the world we want to live in from here on.
It's also a warning about how an "America First" policy will continue to feed injustice and divide the world along competitive lines, just when we are most needing to work together to solve the problems the planet and human society are facing.
so you can enjoy this film at the most superficial level, or on a much deeper one, but either way it is good entertainment.