War Machine (2026)
7.44 /10
2188 Reviews
Rate This Movie:
On one last grueling mission during Army Ranger training, a combat engineer must lead his unit in a fight against a giant otherworldly killing machine.
Videos & Photos
cast
... 81
... Army Sgt Maj Sheridan
... 7
... Class President
... Army Officer Torres
User reviews
March 9, 2011 (Holy !@#$, I feel old.)
> When once distant UFOs become a terrifying threat and an alien invasion force begins attacking Earths major costal and riverside cities, a U.S Marine staff sergeant and his team are sent into battle only to find they must take it upon themselves to defeat an unknown enemy and protect what remains of Los Angeles.
Look, I enjoyed "Battle: Los Angeles (2011)" for what it was. It was a'ight. Likewise, this movie is also a'ight.
I will say though, that the U.S. military propaganda feels more in your face here. Also, Alan's acting feels off sometimes, especially in his final speech.
P.S. In case all of that went over your head, I'm saying "War Machine (2026)" is literally "Battle: Los Angeles (2011)".
Go 'head. Watch the two movies back to back, side by side, then come back and tell me it ain't the same movie.
Director:
Genres:
Release Date:
2026-02-12
Run Time:
110 min
MMPA Rating:
R
Reviews of
War Machine
March 9, 2011 (Holy !@#$, I feel old.)
> When once distant UFOs become a terrifying threat and an alien invasion force begins attacking Earths major costal and riverside cities, a U.S Marine staff sergeant and his team are sent into battle only to find they must take it upon themselves to defeat an unknown enemy and protect what remains of Los Angeles.
Look, I enjoyed "Battle: Los Angeles (2011)" for what it was. It was a'ight. Likewise, this movie is also a'ight.
I will say though, that the U.S. military propaganda feels more in your face here. Also, Alan's acting feels off sometimes, especially in his final speech.
P.S. In case all of that went over your head, I'm saying "War Machine (2026)" is literally "Battle: Los Angeles (2011)".
Go 'head. Watch the two movies back to back, side by side, then come back and tell me it ain't the same movie.
Just in time for the US's war of aggression in Iran comes "War Machine."
A bravado ridden affair where the US military rules the world and its working class tough guys (and one girl) take on all aggressors, including giant 80's-style VCR-like UFOs with legs, missiles, and ray guns.
Viewed as simplistic military action, entertainment its alright. Lots of people get killed in grisly style, and things go "ka-boom."
In summary, given the current war mongering climate US military propaganda is unsurprisingly front and center in this basic sci-fi war film. A mediocre watch.
War Machine (2026) is a standout for anyone who appreciates a straightforward, high-tension film that avoids the typical political traps of the military genre. It delivers a raw experience by focusing on the physical and mental endurance of the characters rather than pushing a specific agenda or narrative.
Alan Ritchson brings a grounded intensity to the role of "81," making the transition from a grueling Ranger selection process to a sci-fi survival scenario feel surprisingly realistic. The film excels because it stays focused on the technical aspects of the situation—how the squad adapts to an unknown threat with limited resources and sheer willpower.
The lack of propaganda is one of its strongest points; it doesn't try to lecture the audience or romanticize the conflict beyond the survival of the men on the ground. It is pure, high-stakes cinema that relies on atmosphere and pacing to keep you invested.
A simple action film starring muscleman Alan Ritchson, known from the DC series Titans and Reacher. A visibly aged Dennis Quaid also makes a cameo appearance. All in all, it's a straightforward and bloody film. The characters remain nameless, identified only by numbers. The film is entertaining but lacks depth, requiring careful attention.
Read at Screenopolis: https://screenopolis.com/reviews/war-machine-burns-hot-goes-nowhere
War Machine is the latest Netflix movie glorifying American tough guys kickin’ ass. The plot is familiar: alien comes to earth, bad-ass soldiers are deployed, carnage ensues, tough-guy outsmarts the alien, ho-rah America!
War Machine has been compared a lot to Predator, not only because the plot is similar, but also because it features current Arnold Schwarzenegger-esque tough-guy Alan Ritchson in the lead role. You may remember this mountain of a human from Reacher on Amazon Prime or the zany The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare with Henry Cavill.
Ritchson plays tough-as-rocks engineer/soldier 81. He is a number, not a free man. Ritchson’s character never gets a name. He does not need one. It would only distract you from admiring his bottomless reservoir of pain and grit.
You see, 81 had a brother, played by Jai Courtney. His brother was nameless too, so we will call him Bro. 81 and Bro served in Afghanistan. Bro was cocky. He really wanted to be an Army Ranger with 81, who was weary from being so bad-ass. When Bro’s truck pooped out, 81 was deployed from the 101st Rudimentary Foreshadowing Brigade to lecture him on the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics and clean out his gunked-up radiator.
Then the bad guys bombed them. Bro and 81 are hurt. 81 pulls a massive chunk of metal from his knee, grabs his Bro, and tries to get back to base. Spoiler alert, they do not make it. Bro dead, 81 has hurty knee, cue the grit. So much grit.
Guilty from not saving his Bro, 81 signs up for Ranger tryouts, even though he is 20 years too old, badly injured, and has *gasp* facial hair! Pete Hegseth would shit his vodka-soaked pants if he saw this guy in formation.
After numerous skinny white kids get booted from tryouts, the commander, played by a finger-pointy Dennis Quaid, thinks 81 does not have what it takes to cross the finish line and be a Ranger. He thinks 81 is too bad-ass, and sensitive, and deep, and dreamy.
Rather than kick 81 out, they drop him in the forest with a pack of nobodies to prove his bad-assery. Finally, after all this setup, the alien shows up. The ass-kicking proper gets underway.
Now, here is the problem with this movie: who in the hell cares about Bro or the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, or Ranger school, or finish lines, or any of the setup? I came here to watch explosions, not emotions and grit.
War Machine‘s lengthy setup is unnecessary and ham-fisted. Watch the first five minutes of Predator (split between these two videos below). Predator accomplishes in minutes (and better) what War Machine burns a half an hour to do (and much worse). It also has awesome theme music from Alan Silvestri.
In walks Arnold, he slaps arms with Dillon, fuck yeah! Let’s do this thing. That is all we need. Arnold is bad-ass, Dillion has a dangerous mission, blah blah blah, cue Long Tall Sally. We ain’t got time to emote. Predator does not waste one nanosecond being anything more than it was, a stupid action movie with paper-thin characters (some of whom are sexual tyrannosauruses). The result is a supremely satisfying movie filled with great one-liners.
War Machine desperately needs to stay in its lane. Nobody wants a meditation on the human condition with a stupid flick like War Machine. We want non-stop alien butt-kicking peppered with corny jokes and latent homosexuality.
Nevertheless, once the alien shows up in War Machine, the movie improves. The attacks are relentless, exhilarating, and bloody. The alien robot racks up an impressive body count in short order. It is pretty bad-ass, although not as bad-ass as 81, who is smart and has all those gigatons of grits. Remember that thermodynamics stuff with Bro? Yeah, that is how you kill an indestructible robot from another world. You shove rocks in its nose until it overheats. Boom.
The only way to enjoy this movie is to totally shut down every part of your critical thinking. If you stick to the spectacle, the movie is fine and enjoyable. If you spend any time thinking about this movie, it sucks rocks.
In addition to the terrible setup, this movie has a worthless cast. None of the supporting characters contribute anything of value. They are your standard-issue “military guys” and a lone bald-headed woman (who is mildly bad-ass until she’s not) direct from central casting. Even Jai Courtney’s role felt as limp and lifeless as his character’s body. Dennis Quaid phones in his role as gruff commander who must be within minutes of mandatory retirement age.
However, the most demoralizing part of this movie is the end – yeah I am going to spoil it. It is for your own good. After killing the unstoppable alien machine, 81 gets back to base. He is triumphantly promoted to Ranger. There is a lot of saluting, back slapping, and fist pumping with fluttering American flags. Woohoo!
Then they send the poor sap back out to fight. Congratulations 81 your reward for surviving is to go right back out and die. No rest. No shower. No plate of tater tots. Get to the chopper and fight the unstoppable killing robot – again. 81’s ending is meant to feel rousing and full of even more grit, but it only feels super depressing.
Aww.
If you can shut off your brain, you might like War Machine. I did enjoy the battle scenes with the alien. However, the movie tries too hard to be more than it is. It wants to go somewhere special but ends up going nowhere.
Was fun, without expectation and breathaking, sometimes with good scenes of action however is only a movie to enjoy in family, not more.
**Netflix executive after playing Metal Gear Solid for the first time: "Holy crap, I have the perfect idea for a movie!"**
War Machine is a movie where John Armyman fights a Metal Gear while saying badass one-liners and eating nails for breakfast, because he's that cool and badass - isn't that right kids? Don't you want to sign up to the US army now?
The acting was good and the CGI was passable, but the movie is so unbelievably generic that I have nothing more to say about it. Oh, and it ends on a cliffhanger and teases a sequel in the end.
The movie is also thinly veiled propaganda for the US military that constantly portrays them as badass war heroes that save their country, at a suspicious time when everyone knows they're more about spending billions of tax money bombing poor people they don't like in the middle east. The gruesome death scenes at least entertained me a little bit...
This is a poor remake
Can we just make sure that everyone knows that this is a contemporary reimagining of the Predator-movie with Arnold? Ok? Everyone on board with that? Cool. Then we can continue.
Alan is not Arnold. The actor is large, and he moves well, maybe even better than Arnold, but he has no charisma, and lacks screen presence in this role.
The monster is not the Predator. This is all CGI, which gives it no weight, you cannot interact with it other than with other cgi things, like pullets and rocks, and it has no personality, reason, motivation. It just is. It is clearly inspired by the Deathbringer in Horizon Zero Dawn computer game, but this one is pretty pale compared to that one too.
The characters are overall pretty forgettable, you do not relate or care for any of them, which makes the stakes lower. The movie is shot well and looks more than ok, but it has no heart.
It is a poor action movie, compared to what it aspires to be, with a poor protagonist, compared to Dutch in Predator, and will be forgotten fairly quickly, as far as movies go.
Cast & Crew of
War Machine
Cast
... 81
... Army Sgt Maj Sheridan
... 7
... Class President
... Army Officer Torres
... 15
... 60
... 109
... 96
... 122
... 57
... 38
... Master Sergeant Hughes (Blackhawk)
... 44
... 135
... 13
... 42
Crew
... Director
... Screenplay
... Producer
... Producer
... Screenplay
... Story
... Executive Producer
... First Assistant Director
... Co-Producer
... Producer
... Editor
... Costume Design
... Makeup Designer
... Hair Designer
... Special Effects Supervisor
... Stunt Coordinator
... Gaffer
... Visual Effects Supervisor
... Visual Effects Producer
... Producer
... Producer
... Original Music Composer
... Visual Effects Supervisor
... CG Supervisor
... CG Supervisor
... CG Supervisor
... Animation Supervisor
... Lead Animator
... Compositing Supervisor
... Compositing Lead
... Executive Visual Effects Producer
... First Assistant "B" Camera
... Casting
... Casting
... Casting
... Production Design
... Art Direction
... Art Direction
... Supervising Art Director
... Art Direction
... Set Decoration
... Unit Production Manager
... Production Manager
... Production Manager
... Post Production Supervisor
... Post Production Supervisor
... Production Supervisor
... Production Supervisor
... Set Decorating Coordinator
... Assistant Art Director
... Graphic Designer
... Assistant Set Decoration
... Set Decoration Buyer
... Set Dresser
... Scenic Artist
... Set Designer
... Set Designer
... Set Designer
... Sound Designer
... Sound Designer
... Sound Designer
... Casting Associate
... Casting Assistant
... Casting Associate
... Costume Supervisor
... Assistant Costume Designer
... First Assistant Editor
... Assistant Editor
... Assistant Editor
... Post Production Coordinator
... Director of Photography
... Camera Operator
Similar Movies To
War Machine
The Fourth (2023)
10/10
Eager to celebrate the 4th of July, a group of young black and Latino friends experience a police encounter that shatters the meaning of the holiday.
Release: 2023-03-10
Screamers: The Hunting (2009)
4.926/10
A group of humans arrive on Sirius 6-B to investigate an SOS signal sent out from the planet, which has been supposedly deserted since the destruction of the man-made weapons known as "screamers." Once the squad arrives, they find a group of human survivors eking out an existence in an old military outpost.
Release: 2009-02-17
Aliens (1986)
7.967/10
Ripley, the sole survivor of the Nostromo's deadly encounter with the monstrous Alien, returns to Earth after drifting through space in hypersleep for 57 years. Although her story is initially met with skepticism, she agrees to accompany a team of Colonial Marines back to LV-426.
Release: 1986-07-18
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
6.227/10
Mad Max becomes a pawn in a decadent oasis of a technological society, and when exiled, becomes the deliverer of a colony of children.
Release: 1985-06-29
Screamers (1995)
6.237/10
SIRIUS 6B, Year 2078. On a distant mining planet ravaged by a decade of war, scientists have created the perfect weapon: a blade-wielding, self-replicating race of killing devices known as Screamers designed for one purpose only -- to hunt down and destroy all enemy life forms.
Release: 1995-09-08
Stripes (1981)
6.561/10
Hard-luck cabbie John Winger, directionless after being fired from his job and dumped by his girlfriend, enlists in the U.S. Army with his close pal, Russell Ziskey. After his barely satisfactory performance in basic training, the irreverent Winger emerges as the figurehead for a ragtag band of misfits. However, his hijinks threaten to cause an international scandal when he inadvertently commandeers a military assault vehicle behind enemy lines.
Release: 1981-06-26
Mad Max 2 (1981)
7.391/10
Max Rockatansky returns as the heroic loner who drives the dusty roads of a postapocalyptic Australian Outback in an unending search for gasoline. Arrayed against him and the other scraggly defendants of a fuel-depot encampment are the bizarre warriors commanded by the charismatic Lord Humungus, a violent leader whose scruples are as barren as the surrounding landscape.
Release: 1981-12-24
Shallow Grave (1994)
6.993/10
When David, Juliet, and Alex find their new roommate dead with a large sum of money, they agree to hide the body and keep the cash. However, this newfound fortune gradually corrodes their friendship.
Release: 1994-12-22
G.I. Jane (1997)
6.488/10
In response to political pressure from Senator Lillian DeHaven, the U.S. Navy begins a program that would allow for the eventual integration of women into its combat services. The program begins with a single trial candidate, Lieutenant Jordan O'Neil, who is chosen specifically for her femininity. O'Neil enters the grueling Navy SEAL training program under the command of Master Chief John James Urgayle, who unfairly pushes O'Neil until her determination wins his respect.
Release: 1997-08-19
Aquarium of the Dead (2021)
5.1/10
A scientific mishap causes the species of an aquarium to become zombies.
Release: 2021-05-21
Diary of the Dead (2007)
5.548/10
A group of young filmmakers encounter real zombies while filming a horror movie of their own.
Release: 2007-05-26
Blood Lake: Attack of the Killer Lampreys (2014)
4.719/10
After chomping through the fish population, thousands of starved lampreys begin attacking the citizens of a sleepy lake town, and the community scrambles to stay alive.
Release: 2014-05-25
Watchmen (2009)
7.355/10
In a gritty and alternate 1985, the glory days of costumed vigilantes have been brought to a close by a government crackdown. But after one of the masked veterans is brutally murdered, an investigation into the killer is initiated. The reunited heroes set out to prevent their own destruction, but in doing so they uncover a sinister plot that puts all of humanity in grave danger.
Release: 2009-03-04
Day of the Dead (2008)
5.225/10
When a small Colorado town is overrun by the flesh hungry dead, a small group of survivors try to escape in a last ditch effort to stay alive.
Release: 2008-04-08
Basic (2003)
6.507/10
When a hurricane hits a US Army base on the edge of the Panama Canal, an elite covert operations team of US Army Rangers recruits are on a routine jungle training exercise that goes horribly awry. Only two recruits are rescued, one of which is badly injured, but both have different accounts regarding the fate of their leader, legendary and ruthless Army Ranger Drill Sergeant Nathan West, and the rest of their platoon. Tom Hardy, an ex-army Ranger turned maverick DEA agent is brought in to solve the mystery and uncover what really happened out there.
Release: 2003-04-18
Funny Games (1997)
7.3/10
Two psychotic young men take a mother, father, and son hostage in their vacation cabin and force them to play sadistic "games" with one another for their own amusement.
Release: 1997-09-11
Mobile Suit Gundam: ALC ENCOUNTER (2024)
0/10
A voice draws two destined individuals together for a showdown, awakening 1/12-scale statues of the Nu Gundam and Sazabi, leading to a fierce battle inside the mall.
Release: 2024-11-24
Plaguers (2010)
3/10
When an alien contagion is released aboard a spaceship transforming its victims into demonic flesh-eaters, the crew must either destroy the infected or join them.
Release: 2010-01-15
Someone's Daughter (2026)
0/10
A criminal defence lawyer, Sam, (Pascale Bussières, Ma Vie en cinémascope, When Night is Falling), finds herself kidnapped and abandoned on a remote island along with former client Paul (François Arnaud, Heated Rivalry, Fucktoys, The Borgias), who she previously cleared of sexual assault charges. As they make their way through the unrelenting Canadian wilderness, Paul’s behaviour forces Sam to question the man she once defended. As doubt gives way to fear, she finds herself facing a choice no lawyer should ever have to make.
Release: 2026-07-21
Bone (1972)
6.188/10
When a criminal breaks into the Beverly Hills home of a wealthy couple experiencing marital problems, he unwillingly provides the spouses with an unlikely resolution to their conflicts as well as a solution to his own secret.
Release: 1972-07-01