War Dogs: an entertaining, exciting, and rarely funny true story

Rating: 7/10 (31 August 2016)

Miles Teller and Jonah Hill star in the remarkable true story of two young arms dealers who became way over their head when they try to snag a $300 million dollar deal. Todd Phillips who brought us the Hangover trilogy gives us a reveal of how much money is invested into the US military, and it can be easily intercepted by two twenty something year old's.
Watching Jonah Hill and Miles Teller felt like these two had been working together for years and therefore another successful duo seen on screen this year. We witness the events through Miles Teller's eyes as David Packouz a former massage therapist who jumps from his hollow career to the dangerous arms trade. Though Teller's performance is standard he effectively acts to be the average Joe in the scenario and guides us through the story as the narrator and helps us relate to the character in the situation. We may not totally approve of what this pair are doing we are in favour that Miles Teller ends up okay.
But at the heart of it is Hill's performance as the Scarface impersonating money thirsty gangster Efraim Diveroli. Hill gives us a great performance unseen by any other young actor trying to be a rich arms trader, but unfortunately carries a very annoying laugh throughout the film.
Also making an appearance is the always charming Bradley Cooper who passes the torch to the aspiring dealers in providing his assistance in the trade. Although his appearance is brief he still gives us a dangerous Robert De-Niro style meeting.
War Dogs although based on true events is a surprisingly entertaining and an easy to watch experience. However the film does juggle with its serous dark themes and comedic moments which doesn't quite reach what it wants, as what you get are rather hit and a miss jokes that don't work at the right times, but what you do get are effective jokes that takes a breather from all the seriousness which is much better. This also only really takes place during the middle of the film and from the beginning and end we have the more dark atmosphere of what's going on.
All in all War Dogs is entertaining and fascinating in revealing its true story and I'm sure won't let anyone down, but it does not quite make a good balance in humour and drama. 7.6/10