Charlie Wilson's war is the story of how Texas congressman Charlie Wilson (complete with cowboy boots) orchestrated Afghanistan's defeat of the Soviet army.

Based on true events, the comedy revolves around idealistic Charlie (Hanks) whose on-off socialite lover Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts) asks for help repelling the Soviet army in Afghanistan.

Charlie starts a campaign to increase funding for Mujahideen freedom fighters, and aligns himself with maverick CIA agent Gust Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman).

Click here for Charlie Wilson's War trailer.

The pair begin to get high profile political figures on their side, while simultaneously increasing funding for US covert operations from five million dollars to one billion dollars to provide the rebels with arms and ammunition to overwhelm the Soviet forces.

Hanks is on top form as the playboy-loving scotch-swilling congressman whose greatest achievement before helping the Afghans was getting re-elected.

He refers to his team of beautiful, scantily-clad assistants as 'jailbait', and found out about Afghanistan while he was in a hot tub with - all within the opening few scenes.

This is another fantastic film to add to Hanks' already hugely impressive CV, but despite flawless performances from Hanks and Roberts, it is Hoffman who really brings the film to life and gives it the comedy edge.

Perhaps one of the best moments is a fantastically comic and smooth sequence in Charlie's office, where his assistant Bonnie (Amy Adams) and Gust come in and out of different doors conducting separate meetings with Charlie - which all turns out to be pointless as Gust has bugged the Scotch bottle and heard every word.

The real horrors of war don't really feature in the film, but the story doesn't really call for it - it's about one man's quest to help "save Afghan for the Afghans" - and it is brilliantly made.

Tom Hanks is superb as the charismatic congressman, and has some fantastic one liners, like "You know you've reached rock bottom when you're told you have character flaws by a man who hanged his predecessor in a military coup."

Classic stuff.


Click here for showtimes for Charlie Wilson's War at Odeon Silverlink.