Four-star General Glen McMahon (Brad Pitt) is sent to Afghanistan with the assignment of bringing the war to an end. He decides that a strategy of adding more troops on the ground will win hearts and minds as the war torn country is rebuilt and, to back him up, he has a team of loyal associates. He wants to end the war by winning it, and becomes increasingly obsessed with victory at the same time as his efforts become increasingly futile.

Pitt plays Glen as a proud, obnoxious, not very bright, but fiercely determined, general. Pitt, sporting grey hair, uniform and a gruff accent for the role, is charismatic and pleasurable to watch. He has his moments and a couple of great lines, but sadly his star status cannot save the woeful script. Surrounded as he is by a group of able actors as his team mates, including John Magaro, Anthony Michael Hall, Emory Cohen, and Topher Grace (Will Poulter also does a turn as a loyal but somewhat confused young soldier), there are a few funny moments to be had here and there, but again, the poor writing means that nobody is funny or interesting enough to carry the film through.

Stylistically, the film never ties together quite correctly either. The opening montage and accompanying voiceover (borrowed no doubt from other examples of the genre) feels disjointed, and the choice to maintain the narrator throughout the film was a bad one. The narrator explains war politics, sometimes logical and at other times foolish, poking fun at its general absurdities. It somehow manages to be at times confusing, on other occasions stating the obvious, and still other times relied upon to bring the laughs that are sorely lacking.

War satires over the years have included the likes of Dr Strangelove, MASH and Tropic Thunder, all of which much manage to provide a sharp critique of war and as well as being laugh-out-loud funny. War Machine is neither. You can tell it's trying really, really hard to be funny and contemporary, for example, in its casting of Ben Kingsley as President Hamid Karzai, who we first meet trying to make a Blu Ray player work, but it simply never takes off.

War Machine hits America with what it believes are cutting, hard truths at around its half way point. But the bottom line is that the film simply isn’t as witty or as smart as it pertains to be. Like many war movies, it is largely about the futility of war, but (like fellow Netflix original movie Sand Castle) it doesn't have anything new or interesting to say about it. As one saving grace, there is a rather brilliant cameo at the end, but two hours is too long a wait for one gag.

When Beasts of No Nation came out and was awarded with accolades and acclaim alike, there was hope that Netflix could be a leader in not only the production of original television and documentary, but also in feature film. Sadly, looking at the products of Netflix in this area over the last twelve months – which have ranged from the painfully unfunny to the just plain dull – it may be time for the subscription service to call it a day and just focus on what they’re good at.