'WAR DOGS' - REVIEW

Release Date: Friday the 26th of August (UK Release)

Directed By: Todd Phillips

Written By: Stephen Chin, Todd Phillips and Jason Smilovic

Produced By: Mark Gordon, Todd Phillips and Bradley Cooper

Starring: Jonah Hill, Miles Teller, Ana De Armas and Bradley Cooper
Distributed By: Warner Brothers

The representation of Capitalist America has of recent years been a long standing kick off point for the majority of American releases in the past few years.The pairing of this with vibrant and down on their luck characters is something of a thematic heart in director Todd Phillips' filmography. With comic hits such as 'Old School' and 'The Hangover' under his belt, Phillips' latest is a biopic focusing on the exploits of two American's who clocked on to making a fortune through arms dealing to The Pentagon. 

The year is 2005 and massage therapist David Packouz (Teller) is feeling short changed with his life. With a baby on the way, money is at the forefront of his mind but with it in short supply, a career change is essential. That career change arrives in the shape of Efraim Diveroli (Hill) a slick, heavily tanned individual with a penchant for back stabbing and emitting a high pitched giggle at regular intervals. With old friends reunited, David is introduced to the world of arms dealing in which the door is open for hundreds of thousands of dollars to be hoovered up in small arms deals, not the big ones you understand but the smaller deals known as 'crumbs'. With the invasion of Iraq in the background, war is an incredibly profitable business and as the business builds, so do the risks.

From his introduction during the first act, its clear that the star of the show is Jonah Hill’s Diveroli. Admittedly a good ten years senior than the real life convict (as is Teller), Hill manages to emulate a brash yet forward thinking businessman who isn't a million miles away from his 2013 character Donnie Azoff, trading the phosphorescent white teeth for a bulkier frame and a heavy tan. Teller’s more cautious and at times anxious Packouz is very much the focal point of the story as his world is turned upside down and we jump from an incredibly mundane life working as a masseuse, to the dusty, bullet riddled roads of Jordan. At his side at various intervals is his girlfriend Iz (Armas), a severely lacking part which serves as no more than as someone to give David someone to lie to and heighten his sense of guilt by bearing him a child (The ever repeated “Criminal Father” angle played to very little effect here).

With Phillips’ known penchant for comedy expected when watching this, it comes as a jarring surprise that tonally, this film seems incredible indecisive and instead moulds into a combination of both comedy and drama, forming the rarely successful ‘Dramedy’. Unfortunately there is no exception here as the mishmash of tone makes for a confusing watch. Whereas the likes of ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ managed to balance both its dramatic set pieces with ever present underpinnings of comedy, ‘War Dogs’ jumps scene to scene with each one varying in tone, losing any immersion and alignment with the characters. That said, the attempts at comedy fall somewhat flat with the majority of mild chuckles, the result of low brow slapstick.

Thats not to say there aren't any redeemable elements about the picture, with slick and swooping camera angles along with snappy montage sequences, there’s a distinct heir of Scorsese esque mirroring. Indeed, everything down to the intermittent freeze frames and over head narration courtesy of Packouz carries a distinct aroma of the aforementioned ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ including the tale of an everyday man corrupted by greed. This also highlights one of the big issues of the film as the two leads cross borders breaching varying laws, there are no reasons to vouch for these two scumbags making this a film with no redeeming qualities for its characters. This intensifies somewhat further with the brief appearance of Bradley Cooper playing a shady and all too sinister arms dealer who’s appearance lacks any depth with the exception of someone who can pull off a pair of tinted sunglasses indoors.

Given its lack of comedy and in particular relation to its darkly serious subject matter, the film feels somewhat like a missed opportunity for a great scathing piece about the indictment of two young graduates with money on their mind and no knowledge of the severe corruption which is in abundance during war time, not to mention one of the most scandalous wars in recent times. Whilst Teller and Hill give strong performances, the visual flair fails to make up for a lacklustre script which being based on a singular Rolling Stone article penned by Guy Lawson, isn't too surprising. 

"Everyone's fighting over the same pie and ignoring the crumbs. I live off the crumbs" - Efraim Diveroli