David Packouz (Miles Teller), a massage therapist in Miami Beach, re-connects with his childhood friend Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill), who invites him to join his arms dealing company, AEY. As the company grows, David and Efraim receive bigger and bigger contracts to provide weapons and ammunition the US military, leading to a $300 million deal to arm the Afghan army. But the arms dealing business isn't easy to navigate, and the difficulties of the contracts endangers their business, their partnership, and their lives.
War Dogs is yet another satirical drama-comedy based on true events, in the vein of The Wolf of Wall Street, American Hustle, and The Social Network. Unfortunately, where those movies really shined due to their style, War Dogs doesn't feel like much more than an imitation. To be fair, almost every film takes inspiration from something else, but War Dogs is very clearly trying to be on the level of a Scorcese film, with the only problem being that throwing together all of the well-known elements o one of those films doesn't lead to the same result.
I think a big misstep was marketing this movie the way that it was. From the trailers, it looks like a traditional Todd Phillips-style buddy comedy like The Hangover trilogy, but it really isn't. I was glad to see something different, because while there are jokes present, the tone of the movie isn't nearly as light-hearted as it looked. Ironically, that was a weakness of the film as much as it was a strength. It's trying to be more serious and dramatic, but it never really commits to the darkness. The irritating voice-over narration spoon-feeds the audience information that the characters repeat, just so nobody misses a single detail. Just like in Suicide Squad, pop song after pop song plays over scenes, and while I did love the songs, they didn't really add anything to the scenes they were in.
Because this movie has been so heavily fictionalized from what actually happened (not that it ever claimed to be a documentary or anything), it's very easy to look at the characters as characters, and not as real people. The majority of the characters were enjoyable, with the stand-out being Jonah Hill. He plays a character that I've never seen him play before; Ephraim is just a complete psychopath, and you never really know what you're supposed to think of him. What Hill does so well is have Ephraim feel consistently "off", which is best expressed through his distinct laugh. The best character of the movie is Henry Girard, played very briefly by Bradley Cooper. Cooper is the best actor in the film, and he was the only antagonistic character who had any real screen presence except for Hill.
But Miles Teller, once again, just didn't work for me. This is certainly one of his best performances, and there are some scenes where he holds his own, but he's generally just so bland, and his character didn't really change or evolve at all. That's a big missed opportunity with David, because we see the characters do drugs sometimes, and the process of delivering on contracts seems to be stressful, but David just stays on the same level the whole time. As a protagonist, he just wasn't very compelling.
The most interesting elements of the film felt like they were being glossed over. I wanted to see deals go wrong, I wanted to see David and Ephraim be forced to make illegal dealings with people to keep the company afloat, and the characters having to take more and more risks. Since they made a bunch of stuff up for this movie, they might as well have added more conflict. Instead, they do one deal, it goes well, they talk about getting a lot of contracts, and then they try to figure out the $300 million deal. And we get to see David learn to tell the truth to his girlfriend, played by Ana de Armas (who cannot act). The romantic subplot in this film is completely useless, and almost every other emotional moment falls flat.
The editing of this movie also irritated me at times. The movie is separated into five or six chunks, and these chunks are indicated by a black screen with white text, which is a line that's coming later in the movie. It was supposed to set the tone of the next part of the film, and while it did work maybe once, it mostly felt like it was trying really hard to be stylistic. The last text card actually made me angry, because I could tell from the line that a certain character would be re-appearing, and it sort of spoiled a future part of the movie. Also, the film uses a lot of freeze-frames in scenes when voice-over is brought in, but something about it looked cheap, and it again felt like forced style without any real flair. It was all so flat.
If there's anything that War Dogs does well, it's how it tells its story. I was engaged in the story throughout, and there were some legitimately intense scenes. Lighting was used very effectively in some scenes, and the visuals looked consistently good throughout. On the other hand, some story developments felt cliché, and some were ripped straight out of other films. Still, they fit the story that was being told, and the story was never boring. I just never really got invested in the story; a lot of the conflict between characters was simple and predictable. I did appreciate the humour; the jokes almost always worked, and was integrated into the story in a very natural way.
In the end, War Dogs is one of the most average movies I've seen all year. The only time it really dips in quality is during the romantic subplot, and it should have committed to its dark material more, but I still had a good time watching it. Well, it was closer to a neutral time, but any movie that can make me feel anything, no matter how briefly, it's worth something. It's certainly a well-put-together movie, but since so much of it feels like an amalgamation of other films, it's not a film that's going to stay in my mind for very long. I wish the film had managed to meet its full potential, because there are so many good elements in it, but it just left me with a feeling of "meh".
War Dogs is yet another satirical drama-comedy based on true events, in the vein of The Wolf of Wall Street, American Hustle, and The Social Network. Unfortunately, where those movies really shined due to their style, War Dogs doesn't feel like much more than an imitation. To be fair, almost every film takes inspiration from something else, but War Dogs is very clearly trying to be on the level of a Scorcese film, with the only problem being that throwing together all of the well-known elements o one of those films doesn't lead to the same result.
I think a big misstep was marketing this movie the way that it was. From the trailers, it looks like a traditional Todd Phillips-style buddy comedy like The Hangover trilogy, but it really isn't. I was glad to see something different, because while there are jokes present, the tone of the movie isn't nearly as light-hearted as it looked. Ironically, that was a weakness of the film as much as it was a strength. It's trying to be more serious and dramatic, but it never really commits to the darkness. The irritating voice-over narration spoon-feeds the audience information that the characters repeat, just so nobody misses a single detail. Just like in Suicide Squad, pop song after pop song plays over scenes, and while I did love the songs, they didn't really add anything to the scenes they were in.
Because this movie has been so heavily fictionalized from what actually happened (not that it ever claimed to be a documentary or anything), it's very easy to look at the characters as characters, and not as real people. The majority of the characters were enjoyable, with the stand-out being Jonah Hill. He plays a character that I've never seen him play before; Ephraim is just a complete psychopath, and you never really know what you're supposed to think of him. What Hill does so well is have Ephraim feel consistently "off", which is best expressed through his distinct laugh. The best character of the movie is Henry Girard, played very briefly by Bradley Cooper. Cooper is the best actor in the film, and he was the only antagonistic character who had any real screen presence except for Hill.
But Miles Teller, once again, just didn't work for me. This is certainly one of his best performances, and there are some scenes where he holds his own, but he's generally just so bland, and his character didn't really change or evolve at all. That's a big missed opportunity with David, because we see the characters do drugs sometimes, and the process of delivering on contracts seems to be stressful, but David just stays on the same level the whole time. As a protagonist, he just wasn't very compelling.
The most interesting elements of the film felt like they were being glossed over. I wanted to see deals go wrong, I wanted to see David and Ephraim be forced to make illegal dealings with people to keep the company afloat, and the characters having to take more and more risks. Since they made a bunch of stuff up for this movie, they might as well have added more conflict. Instead, they do one deal, it goes well, they talk about getting a lot of contracts, and then they try to figure out the $300 million deal. And we get to see David learn to tell the truth to his girlfriend, played by Ana de Armas (who cannot act). The romantic subplot in this film is completely useless, and almost every other emotional moment falls flat.
If there's anything that War Dogs does well, it's how it tells its story. I was engaged in the story throughout, and there were some legitimately intense scenes. Lighting was used very effectively in some scenes, and the visuals looked consistently good throughout. On the other hand, some story developments felt cliché, and some were ripped straight out of other films. Still, they fit the story that was being told, and the story was never boring. I just never really got invested in the story; a lot of the conflict between characters was simple and predictable. I did appreciate the humour; the jokes almost always worked, and was integrated into the story in a very natural way.
In the end, War Dogs is one of the most average movies I've seen all year. The only time it really dips in quality is during the romantic subplot, and it should have committed to its dark material more, but I still had a good time watching it. Well, it was closer to a neutral time, but any movie that can make me feel anything, no matter how briefly, it's worth something. It's certainly a well-put-together movie, but since so much of it feels like an amalgamation of other films, it's not a film that's going to stay in my mind for very long. I wish the film had managed to meet its full potential, because there are so many good elements in it, but it just left me with a feeling of "meh".
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