War Dogs - Milquetoast comedy

It is a complete shame that Jonah Hill and Miles Teller felt that they needed to appear in a movie dealing with the complexity of war profiteers during the Iraq War directed by the guy who made The Hangover movies. Both Hill and Teller are talented actors, and thankfully they do the best they can in War Dogs with the minimal amount of direction they’ve been given. War Dogs doesn’t feel like a complete failure, it feels like a complete bore. It is so aggressively average, so unabashedly weak in its comedy that it just falls flat on its face.

David Packouz (Miles Teller) is a young man who after reuniting with his school friend Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill) is talked into being an arm dealer for the US government. When they are given one of the biggest contracts of all time they scramble to fill their end of the bargain.

While the acting is as good as it possibly can be the characters are still a total bore. Miles Teller is just an average guy who only occasionally does anything interesting in the film, spending most of the movie being high and complaining. Ana de Armas, who plays Packouz’s girlfriend, is devoid of any personality at all. Her character continuously takes back Packouz despite the abnormal amount of times he has lied to her about selling guns. An odd appearance from Bradley Cooper who simply never blinks and just says really weird things for the 15 minutes that he actually appears. The only possible saving grace is Jonah Hill, who really feels as though he has fully committed to his character of Efraim. The director seems to have told him to do some weird Joker impression that results in an unnecessarily crazy portrayal. He is the most commanding presence on the screen though.

Beyond that the film only fails because of its inane aspirations. While the movie spends its early moments trying to ponder the dubious profession of the main protagonists it never actual succeeds in vilifying their actions. The film does not force us to watch antiheroes, it states that war profiteering is bad, but then treats Packouz and Diveroli as entertaining heroes. It isn’t Wolf of Wall Street, it’s a bad Scarface impression.

It also has terrible editing. It attempts to utilize a chapter format, but it doesn’t feel as though the chapters are actually separate from each other in any way. It also has incredibly odd choices in music. Matching a dramatic arrest scene with the poppy entrance to The Who’s “Behind Blue Eyes.” Once again trying to sympathize despicable characters with the line of “No one knows what it’s like to be the bad man.” Apparently neither does the team behind this movie.