Implausible and awkward portrayal of the real-life story

Rating: 2/10 (22 March 2019)

While both of the leads (Miles Teller and Jonah Hill) make an unlikely pair, the unusual career field they find themselves in seems even more unlikely. Admittedly knowing next to nothing about the arms business or military contracts, the two somehow prove quick studies and soon find they're in way over their heads (lowest bidders in a multi-million dollar contract to supply millions of rounds of ammunition to the US Department of defense).
"War Dogs" is based on a true story, so we know that part happened. What is never explained is how two such bumblers could ever fool anyone to get themselves in such an unlikely situation...Miles Teller takes a backseat to Jonah Hill's mouthy character, and seeing the idiotic way Hill handles his first foray into "arms sales" would make anybody thinking about doing business with these two, make tracks in the opposite direction. Hill's character is a braggart, a loudmouth, and far too over-confident in situations that get increasingly implausible as the movie progresses. Hill's character exudes all the competence of a chimp with a gun as he makes bigger and bigger arms deals and instantly turns himself into a clownish figure that NO. ONE in their right mind would buy a box of pencils from - let alone several million dollars worth of ammo.
Given a real-life backstory that was ripe for parody, or at least satire, this movie could have been something else entirely then it really is - an absurd, unrealistic, and mawkish story about a couple of real idiots who happened to get very lucky.