War Dogs

I don't know enough about the original story to determine the accuracy of Todd Phillips's "War Dogs", but it's an enjoyable movie. The tricks pulled by David Packouz and Efraim Diveroli just go to show that the people in the business of weapons have no principles (even violating arms embargoes). They're out to make money by any means necessary. To be certain, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq proved quite profitable for weapons manufacturers. The mistake that Packouz and Diveroli made was getting caught.

It's not a masterpiece, but it does a respectable job showing the degrees to which these types go to enrich themselves. A very slimy world indeed.

The movie starts off narrated, interesting and very cohesive. They do a great job of introducing characters and foreshadowing what is later to come. The characters are very well developed and their relationship especially at the start is funny and light hearted. The acting is great if you like films like "superbad" and "neighbour's".

The plot itself is based off a true story and is really interesting from start to finish. The action is great with slight comedy here and there. It has very wolf of wall street vibes and is a thrill ride.

When Bradley Cooper gets involved there is a lot of mystery and suspense. You really don't know whats gonna happen and your interest becomes even greater. The contract part was extremely predictable. The ending was very weird, without spoiling it, someone goes to jail for what seems a really short amount of time considering the crime. Then someone gets given money which is somewhat satisfying. But you really don't get a feeling of revenge or justice.

Summary: Overall I was really surprised at how good this was. Its not just your average comedy. It has great characters, acting, story, and is a blast to watch. Highly recommended.

Right off the bat the best part of this movie is the acting: Teller and Hill have great chemistry on screen. Jonah does a particularly good job at playing the "guy you love to hate". I can't attest to the faithfulness of their portrayal of the real life people since I don't know anything about them. The rest of the cast does a great job as well.

The marketing for this movie was, unfortunately, deceitful: the trailer made it out to be this upbeat, funny, over the top comedy - which it's not. In reality the movie has a much slower pace, not a lot of situational humor and is certainly not filled with hilarious quips (the bulk of which are in the trailer). This is not to say that the movie was bad or not at all funny, it just wasn't what I expected (and I am sure I'm not alone).

My final critique will go unnoticed for the majority of viewers but I found it personally offensive so I have to report it: some of the movie takes place in Albania, only the set for Albania is actually Romania. Which is fine, I understand that they probably did this for practical reasons and as a Romanian movie goer I just have to accept it (we all recognized it immediately though). However, at some point in the movie an "Albanian" woman says something, only she says it in Romanian. This may not seem like much but it totally took me out of the movie and ruined the experience for me. I find it completely unacceptable that they could not hire an Albanian to say those few lines. The two languages might seem interchangeable to the rest of the world, I am sure, but that was very much NOT the case for me and everyone else in the theater.

I am a paying movie goer as well and I expect to be just as entertained as everyone else. This is, of course, not the first time that I've seen this in a film. But when a producer does something like this it shows me that they don't respect their movie, so they can't expect me to.

My rating, however, is not based on this final bit of criticism. I gave it a 7/10 for slow pacing and lack of humor, which is the opposite of what I expected.

I'd still recommend it, just don't expect to be blown away.

After watching it for a second time I decided to change my original rating from 7/10 to 8/10, mainly because the acting is just great and I respect the fact that the movie made me think about it and made me want to see it again.

Similar tone to Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, It was a lot more serious than what I expected after seeing the trailer. It's not the first time I've seen either Miles Teller or Jonah Hill in something more dramatic, I just may have assumed their first real outing together in a movie would be more of a straight up comedy.

Semi based on a true story of two young guys from Miami who became arms dealers, Miles Teller narrates the story of how David Packouz teamed up with this best friend from the tenth grade, Efraim Diveroli and got in too over his head.

I was expecting more comedy from the two rather than just two young stars being entertaining. The movie is not disappointing with the team of Teller and Hill. If you are a fan of either one of these guys you are going to love the film.

Jonah Hill gives a performance that seem to be something between what he did in 21 Jump Street and the Wolf of Wall Street. The part just fits him so well as he plays a con man who tries to be everyone to everything on the outside but is really evil in the inside, and no matter how much you discover about his evil, Hill still makes the character likable.

But the likability is more met for Miles Teller, who Hill is supporting with greatness. Teller plays the sympathetic role of a man whose lost in his life at a time when his girl is about to have a baby, and he needs the money.

Director, Todd Phillips weaves a story about how people have profited from the war, and done bad things to profit from a bad war. It's almost like the Big Short, with it's explanation about how the arms game really works, but I always felt that the actual story was getting overshadow by the personalities of the two stars worthy of watching.

But overall, It is a very funny film and very entertaining, thanks to the Hill, Teller combo

http://cinemagardens.com

Hangover/Due Date director Todd Philipps makes a film base on the true story of young, entrepreneur gun-runners David Parkouz and Efraim Diveroli who managed to secure a ridiculous contract to supply arms to the afghan army via the pentagon.

Miles Teller plays the struggling and ambitious David who bumps into his childhood buddy Efraim played by Jonah Hill who is somewhat of the opposite, a loose cannon, fearless and a little trigger-happy. Now, Efraim has found himself a little niche in the market, the market of arms dealing and strikes up small deals with the US military. David needs a job to support his expecting girlfriend, the stunning Ana de Armas who looks a little like Penelope Cruz only more beautiful and has one of those exotic accents. Efraim sees an opportunity for David and the two team up to what leads to the deal of the century for all parties involved.

Now, the film has plenty of other film references most notably Scarface, even one of the promotional posters is a respectful nod to the DePalma/Pacino's film. But it's actually Lord of War Efraim is a huge fan of in real-life and it's probably more like Lord of War than Scarface, yet it has tinge of Pain & Gain, another crazy true story movie. Maybe it's Miami? But it has that vibrant and funny yet serious storytelling style that makes the film almost unbelievable and shocking.

The rest of the cast does include Bradley Cooper who also produced the film, playing the harden, borderline war-criminal, pretty much the Branson of the arms market and someone you don't really want to be messing with. There's Kevin Pollack playing the bankroll and an awesome cameo of venture capitalist playboy millionaire Dan Bilzerian.

It's accompanied by a great soundtrack with tracks from 50cent, Beastie Boys, Iggy Pop, UB40 and CCR but the awesome score threw me completely thinking it was Harry Gregson-Williams or Steve Jablonski, no, it was Cliff Martinez with those ambient sounds.

The film is highly entertaining, funny in parts but this is not a comedy; its perfectly paced with some great scenes like the duo gun-running across the triangle of death and some nice camera work. However it's not to epic portions, not that it should put anyone off watching this, it's still a very watchable and enjoyable film and I don't think they could have done it any better.

Running Time: 8 The Cast: 8 Performance: 8 Direction: 8 Story: 8 Script: 8 Creativity: 8 Soundtrack: 9 Job Description: 8 The Extra Bonus Points: 5 for a slick story, good editing and a great score/soundtrack to boot.

78% 8/10