Undelivering, scattershot true life dramatization

Rating: 4/10 (17 July 2017)

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
In the summer of 2005, David Packouz (Miles Teller) makes a living on Miami Beach, giving back massages to wealthy clients for peanuts. Then, at a family funeral, he crosses paths with Efram (Jonah Hill), a brash young guy of about the same age, whose made a killing by making online arms deals of depleted army stock that the US government no longer needs, and wants to bring him in on the deal. But as the boys delve deeper into this murky world, the risks get greater and everything conspires to fall apart around them.
When it comes to war, and the politics and motivations behind it, we're living in a far more cynical, acutely self aware age, where people are no longer falling for the jingoistic, stirring rhetoric used to whip up support for it, and can see beneath the surface of what it's about just fine. And so a different type of film emerges, in the shape of War Dogs, where our heroes aren't rounded, noble figures, but shady, arrogant ba$tards who are really operating behind the scenes. Sadly, despite the potential, the film isn't the soaring hit it should have been.
Director Todd Phillips seems to have a background in mainstream comedy films, including The Hangover series, and while this is billed as a comedy itself, the darker tone and more uneasy subject matter make it harder to see in this way. Performances wise, Hill has never played his obnoxious American arsehole act to such great effect, making his Wolf of Wall Street character practically Paddington Bear, whilst Teller provides fine support as the slightly more restrained other guy. There is a neat sense of style, savvy Goodfellas style narration and some cool dramatic moments, but none of it comes off in quite as coherent and satisfying a manner as one would have hoped.
If you want a film with a morally conflicted protagonist making a killing during war time, Lord of War with Nicolas Cage (which, ironically, was released in the year the film is set) is a more satisfying option. **