War Dogs

Starring: Miles Teller, Jonah Hill, Bradley Cooper, Kevin Pollak, Ana de Armas, Patrick St. Espirit
Directed by: Todd Phillips
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Comedy, Drama
2016

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Two men (Miles Teller, Jonah Hill) win a $300 million arms contract from the U.S. military and go to great lengths to deliver on the deal and secure their future.

Review:

Tim: War Dogs felt like another version of The Wolf of Wall Street. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It's based on a true story, about young men who amass great wealth through shady, immoral, and illegal practices. Whereas the Martin Scorsese film was about the financial sector, this movie is about arms dealers. There's certainly room for more of these kinds of movies, but it did create some feeling of predictability about the whole thing. That being said, director Todd Phillips has enough experience to turn this into a solid movie. I enjoyed this film.

The story here is based on a true story, but obvious liberties have taken place. I'm somewhat okay with that, but I do wish more of the story was based on actual events. Still, the basic story is intact and it's a crazy, almost unbelievable story. This is the kind of film people say "the truth is stranger than fiction" about. Two young guys become international arms dealers and secure a $300 million weapons contract from the United States. Sounds about right. One of the highlights of the film was just learning about the environment during this time period and trying to answer the question, "How the hell could this happen in real life?" It's pretty fascinating to see that side of a government that we're normally not exposed to. I learned a lot about how the government used to secure weapons. It's all pretty fascinating stuff.

It certainly helps that the two leads here are Miles Teller and Jonah Hill. Now, I don't really like Teller as a person- he seems like kind of a jerk. However, he's a solid actor and brings that talent to this film. He's got enough of that everyman charisma to connect with the audience, so we care about him even when he's making questionable choices on screen. Hill was wonderfully cast. While his weight is still a big question for me (has he been gaining and losing weight intentionally for roles, or what?) and was a little distracting here, he does deliver a strong performance (and only furthers the Wolf of Wall Street connection). There's a few moments where his performance felt a bit forced, but for the most part, he was operating in his wheelhouse and worked effectively. It was fun seeing Teller and Hill interact.

Bradley Cooper was fine in a smaller supporting role. It felt like he took it just because it was a bit of a weird and eccentric role, or as a favor to director Todd Phillips (who he owes for The Hangover. I suppose Cooper's presence was welcome, but he didn't really add a whole lot to the film. It was fun seeing Kevin Pollak, but he was sadly underutilized here. He's a strong actor and yet isn't given much to do. The film desperately needed stronger female characters. Ana de Armas was okay, but her role had a minimal impact on the overall film. This was a very dude-centric film and that hurts it some.

The movie itself is entertaining. Phillips does a good job of keeping the action moving. There's a few highlight scenes throughout the movie- like the drive through Iraq. It's a bummer that scenes like that were heavily fictionalized, but it works as an entertaining scene in the context of the film. The movie might have been a tad long at 1 hour, 54 minutes, but it only drags in a few places. For the most part, I was able to stay focused on what was happening. Now, I didn't have much of an emotional connection to any of the characters and the predictable character arcs do hurt the film. There wasn't a ton of suspense about where this was going to end up.

So, while War Dogs is a far cry from a great movie, it's a solid effort at telling a somewhat true story. It was entertaining and interesting and mostly held my attention. This movie may be slightly more memorable than most. It's a solid film, one that you feel okay about investing your time in watching.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Wolf of Wall Street, Bleed for This, Moneyball, True Story