2.5 out of 4 stars Title War Dogs Written by Todd Phillips, Stephen Chin, Jason Smilovic Directed by Todd Phillips Starring Jonah Hill, Miles Teller, Bradley Cooper Genre Drama Classification 14A Country USA Language English Year 2016 
 
 What makes a bro movie? 
 
 To start, you need a focus on over-privileged white guys in their 20s and their misadventures in the world of finance, sports, law enforcement or the criminal underworld. Then add an underwritten role for any up-and-coming actress willing to roll her eyes and sigh heavily while wearing either breezy sundresses or skimpy lingerie, but nothing in between. Oh, and you'll need lots of man-hugging, knucklehead humour and, naturally, at least three dozen instances of the main characters saying "bro." (Variations, such as "brah" and "broseph" and possibly even "brolo" are also acceptable, insofar that they are generally unacceptable.) So, basically, yes, almost every major mainstream movie can be classified as a bro movie. 
 
 But War Dogs is something else – Peak Bro, if you will. Its two heroes are brash twentysomething gun runners, who when not getting high or getting drunk or fist-bumping each other whilst both high and drunk, cruise around Miami in luxury cars, with matching vanity plates that read "GUNS" and "&AMMO." They fire off AK-47s like it's no big thing, get trashed at Florida's finest luxury hell holes, offer women $1,000 for oral sex on the spot, and say "bro" almost as much as they swear – come to think of it, they employ the three-letter word so often and in such vulgar circumstances that it becomes an obscenity all its own. Bro, bro, bro: slow down! 
 
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 War Dogs's uber-bro-ness shouldn't come as much of a surprise, though, seeing as it's directed by Todd Phillips, the man responsible for The Hangover trilogy (yes, they made three!), the high-water mark of bro cinema. In fact, Phillips's CV as both a director and producer reads like a syllabus for the most dedicated scholars of the bro-sthetic: Old School, Starsky & Hutch, Road Trip, Project X. The man has made a career out of chronicling, and glorifying, the lives of overgrown frat boys. 
 
 And were it not for one of War Dogs's stars, this new film, too, would be a write-off: a typical exercise of Phillips-ian excess. But Phillips has never worked with Jonah Hill before – and Jonah Hill can elevate even the most shallow of projects. The actor, best known for his contributions to the Judd Apatow cinematic universe, is a secret weapon of sorts: a natural comic player who is every bit as talented when it comes to finding the darker shades of a character. His financial predator in The Wolf of Wall Street is a perfect portrait of rabid immorality. His journalist in the underwatched True Story is a skillful manipulator. And his tightly wound man-child in Cyrus is an insidious familial terror the likes of which have rarely been seen. 
 
 In War Dogs, Hill plays the sociopathic Efraim Diveroli, a real-life arms dealer who – along with his partner and childhood best friend David Packouz (Miles Teller) – managed to win a huge government contract to supply weapons to U.S. troops in Afghanistan, which almost immediately goes haywire. To portray the scheming, selfish Diveroli – or at least War Dogs's version of Diveroli as the man himself did not co-operate with the filmmakers – Hill adopts a wheezy laugh that's downright maniacal, and carries himself with such a confident and intimidating manner that washes away any memories of the actor's more clownish performances. It's a terrifying, towering performance, and one that would normally lend Hill toward Oscar consideration, if only the rest of the film matched his talents. 
 
 Instead, Phillips delivers a mostly by-the-book rise-and-fall saga of two bros in way over their heads, complete with ostentatious title cards that, instead of subtly addressing the film's themes of greed and jealousy, only hammer the moral lessons with the grace of a rusty Kalashnikov. And the rest of the cast doesn't even try to live up to Hill's game, with Teller meekly disappearing into his role as the more palatable of the two merchants of death, and Ana de Armas given little to do but pout as Packouz's impossibly beautiful girlfriend. (Only Phillips's longtime bro-in-arms Bradley Cooper seems to be enjoying himself, playing a delightfully sleazy black-market big shot.) 
 
 Hill, of course, will emerge unscathed from whatever battle scars War Dogs leaves on his IMDb profile. But audiences, well, we might be stuck with bro cinema for some time yet. Bro, say it ain't so. ||||| CLOSE Two young men win a $300 million contract from the Pentagon to help arm America's allies in Afghanistan. Jonah Hill and Miles Teller star in 'War Dogs' based on a true story. 
 
 Miles Teller and Jonah Hill play young arms dealers who get in way over their head in 'War Dogs.' (Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures) 
 
 All it took for the Jonah Hill tour-de-force to finally materialize was a machine gun, a jones for Scarface and sleazy, smarmy bravado. 
 
 Director and co-writer Todd Phillips (The Hangover) unleashes Hill in a breakout way in War Dogs (** 1/2 out of four; rated R; in theaters Friday), a stranger-than-fiction, real-life tale involving two amateur war profiteers getting way too involved in the dangerous world of global arms dealing in the mid-2000s. The film is loaded with a gripping plot and enjoyably sketchy characters but hobbled by an uneven tone that ricochets between zany comedy and serious crime thriller. 
 
 David Packouz (Miles Teller) is a twentysomething college dropout getting by in Miami Beach as a massage therapist when he reconnects with childhood best friend Efraim Diveroli (Hill). No one in David’s life is really fond of his old pal, but he nonetheless looks up to Efraim for his self-confidence and devil-may-care style. 
 
 David, in need of a bigger paycheck to support his pregnant girlfriend (Ana de Armas), enlists with Efraim's business selling weapons to the government. The duo quickly moves up the military-industrial food chain and snags a great contract to deliver Berettas to American soldiers in Baghdad, a situation that soon goes south. 
 
 War Dogs is at its best with quick banter and slick action scenes, especially when the boys fly to Jordan and cross into Iraq, where they unwittingly drive through the “Triangle of Death” . Unfortunately, the momentum fades after David and Efraim win a $300 million contract from the Pentagon to outfit the Afghan army. Then various betrayals and girlfriend drama ensue and karma takes the safety off. 
 
 Bradley Cooper co-stars as a shady international weapons man in 'War Dogs.' (Photo: Warner Bros. Entertainment) 
 
 Phillips is known mainly for his comedies but shows a keen eye for dramatic tension. War Dogs struggles at times with what it wants to be, but like the filmmaker's funnier fare (Road Trip, Old School ), it does mine the director's gift for exploring the extreme limits of friendship with entertaining pairings. Teller’s David is the more strait-laced of the two, still finding ways to make bad decisions early and often, and complements the decadent Tony Montana Jr. vibe of Hill’s faux criminal kingpin. 
 
 The Wolf of Wall Street hinted at the great work Hill can do with the right antagonistic role, and War Dogs lets him steal the movie at gunpoint, going full wannabe gangster, shooting off his mouth or an AK-47 with equal precision. 
 
 Teller is solid in his straight-man role, and Bradley Cooper has a fun turn as a shady international arms dealer whose connections give David and Ephram access to an impressive Albanian arsenal. 
 
 While the sheer number of bullets outnumber the laughs in War Dogs — to be fair, there are a lot of bullets — Phillips’ direction and Hill’s wild-child performance are the bomb in this escapade of doltish dudes doing dumb things. 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2bs5Yo9 ||||| "War Dogs " is too good of a true story not to get the Hollywood treatment, even if the end result doesn't entirely do justice to the moral ambiguities and larger geopolitical implications of one of the craziest hustles in modern American history. 
 
 Essentially, in 2007, a couple of 20-something stoners from Miami Beach landed a nearly $300 million contract from the Department of Defense to supply ammunition to the Afghan military. And, unbeknownst to the U.S. government at the time, many of the supplies they were selling were over 40 years old, manufactured in China and basically unusable. 
 
 It's an absolutely insane story of the ambition, delusion and megalomania of a few young strivers who managed to find a lucrative place in the international arms game. The events have been chronicled extensively in the press over the past eight years, including by journalist Guy Lawson, whose Rolling Stone article "The Stoner Arms Dealers" and book became the basis for the film. 
 
 Director and co-writer Todd Phillips, best known for chest-thumping comedies like "The Hangover" trilogy, reaches beyond his comfort zone to tell this complicated and fraught tale. The film struggles to find the right tone, and instead of consistency goes for a more disjointed kitchen-sink approach that juggles satire, bro fantasy and high-stakes thriller with varying results. 
 
 Miles Teller stars as David Packouz, a struggling massage therapist who takes up with Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill) in a moment of desperation. A much shadier figure but a childhood friend nonetheless, Efraim has the plan to game the government contracts system and make a few bucks from the war. 
 
 David gets to play the family guy who just wants to provide for his beautiful partner Iz (a one-note Ana de Armas) and newborn daughter. The audience has to care about someone after all, and it was never going to be Efraim, a schemer who fetishizes "Scarface," money, women and guns, and who goes from general creep to all out sociopath as the film progresses. Hill makes him sleazy to the core, with a hyena-like laugh that will make your skin crawl (possibly out of embarrassment). 
 
 As with so many of these fast-rise-and-faster-fall stories, at first David and Efraim are having a "Hangover"-style blast — running from armed militia in Iraq to hand deliver Italian guns to an American outpost, and doing cocaine in the clubs with South Beach babes all around. The tone in this first part feels almost a little too light-hearted and gleeful for the subject matter. Are we supposed to think of these dudes as subversive heroes and delight alongside them in the money, the drugs and the adrenaline of engaging in something so risky? It's never quite clear. 
 
 Things do get substantially darker (and more over the top) when the guys take on the $300 million contract that will eventually be their downfall. This is where the film, and Teller in particular, really come alive focusing more on the practicalities and headaches of the illegal business of repackaging the Chinese munitions. Bradley Cooper has a small role as a mob-like, blacklisted arms dealer in this section, too. 
 
 "War Dogs" seems to want to be everything from "The Social Network" to "The Big Short" and while it flirts with moments of greatness, the script just can't compete with the brains of those other films. Or maybe that's because the audience is getting the story straight from David, whose real-life version has a cameo in the film and is far too valorized to be believable. 
 
 In the end, this rendition of Efraim and David's wild story probably plays a lot like the movie version they would be likely to fantasize about. It's an entertaining lark when it could have been a shattering indictment — of America, of these dudes and the military industrial complex. 
 
 "War Dogs," a Warner Bros. release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for "language throughout, drug use and some sexual references." Running time: 114 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four. 
 
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 MPAA Definition of R: Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian. 
 
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 Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr
– Director Todd Phillips of bro comedies like The Hangover and Old School takes a dramatic turn in War Dogs, based on the true story of two dudes from Miami who win a government contract to supply weapons to US troops. Critics agree it doesn't quite live up to its potential: "It's an entertaining lark when it could have been a shattering indictment—of America, of these dudes, and the military industrial complex," writes Lindsey Bahr at the AP. While it "flirts with moments of greatness," it also "struggles to find the right tone, and instead of consistency goes for a more disjointed kitchen-sink approach that juggles satire, bro fantasy, and high-stakes thriller with varying results." While he mentions the film's "uber-bro-ness," Barry Hertz spends much of his review praising Jonah Hill. He "washes away any memories of the actor's more clownish performances," he writes at the Globe and Mail. "It's a terrifying, towering performance, and one that would normally lend Hill toward Oscar consideration, if only the rest of the film matched his talents." "The Wolf of Wall Street hinted at the great work Hill can do with the right antagonistic role, and War Dogs lets him steal the movie at gunpoint," agrees Brian Truitt at USA Today. The film's highlights include entertaining banter, "a gripping plot and enjoyably sketchy characters," he writes, noting Miles Teller and Bradley Cooper are also good. Meanwhile, Mark Jenkins describes War Dogs as "an amusing if underachieving bad-boys farce" at NPR. The first hour is a rush, but then the flick falters. "Interlaced with the fact is much more fiction," and it "would probably have been more compelling if the filmmakers hadn't strayed so far from the true story."