Five years after an on-air meltdown, desperate TV reporter Simon Hunt (Gere) comes to his old buddy Duck (Howard) - now a network high-flyer on a flying visit to Sarajevo - with a tantalising scoop.
 
He's found 'The Fox', a notorious but elusive Balkan warlord wanted for countless ethnic-cleansing atrocities. Bringing him to justice would make Duck's name and restore Hunt to the forefront of war correspondence. The $5million bounty would come in handy, too.
 
Joining the pair on their impossible mission is eager-beaver journalism graduate Benjamin (Eisenberg, a dead ringer for mop-topped TV wag Simon Amstell), son of the network head.
 
Since common sense dictates that nobody would be stupid enough to hunt The Fox on his own territory, everyone - friendly and otherwise - assumes that the trio is a CIA hit squad. Unfortunately, they come armed only with a slick line in bulls**t.
 
Switching tone chaotically from frivolity to grim-faced suspense and back again, Shepard appears to be taking his cue from David O. Russell's Gulf War lark Three Kings.
 
It's a strangely compelling mish-mash of black humour, buddy caper, political drama and action thriller, liberally steeped in conspiracy theories and brushed with a touch of revenge.
 
The disconcerting effect is heightened by oddly inserted flashbacks and cameos ranging from the comedic (James Brolin's oily TV anchor) to the unexpected (Diane Kruger as a vaguely involved mercenary) to the downright inexplicable (Joy Bryant as Duck's girlfriend).
 
Were it not based on Scott Anderson's Esquire article recounting the time he and a handful of esteemed hacks (including Sebastian Junger, writer of The Perfect Storm) went in search of Bosnian fugitive Ratko Mladic, you'd dismiss it as so much hogwash.
 
A flawed but intriguing and genre-defying oddity.

Elliott Noble