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 global arms game.
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“I mean, honestly, how I first got it (the role) was my dad sent me an email saying that he just saw that (War Dogs director) Todd (Phillips)’s company had gotten the rights for this article Arms and the Dudes (in Rolling Stone magazine), “Here’s the article, I just read it, I think you’d be ideal for it”.
This image released by Warner Bros.
Director Todd Phillips, best known previously for helming the Hangover series, has taken a page from Adam McKay’s career path manual, and gone and made a serious film that manages to take advantage of the comic skills he has developed while still delivering a wicked right cross by the film’s end.
The downside of the premise is that the film never really achieves the potential it sets to achieve. With the war in Iraq raging on, Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill) offers childhood friend David Packouz (Miles Teller) a chance to make big bucks by becoming an worldwide arms dealer. But David believes his luck has changed when he runs into a childhood friend: Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill), a foul-mouthed but successful entrepreneur.
One way or another, these two guys will get their fair share and more. The tone in this first part feels nearly a little too light-hearted and gleeful for the subject matter.
So the two men bought up as many contracts as they could, stealing them out from under larger contract companies and fulfilling the orders with outdated and inferior arms purchased online from all over the world.
The backstory of how the film came to be is equally as fascinating.
Enter Henry Girard (Bradley Cooper), a legendary arms dealer rumoured to have sold the government the rope used to hang Saddam Hussein. The movie “War Dogs” is basically a biographical crime war movie which is filled with awesome comedy and tummy-striking humorous scenes.
Thing is, Phillips – the merry madman behind “Old School” and the “Hangover” movies – is in over his head fashioning a crime saga. We then go back to the beginning, when David is struggling to make it as a masseuse following the loss of other jobs and a falling out with his parents. It’s an entertaining lark when it could have been a shattering indictment – of America, of these dudes and the military industrial complex.
In a bit of irony, assorted movie-related websites state the running time as low as 90 minutes and as long as 149 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four. The questions “War Dogs” asks are mainly “how can I do that?” and “where do I sign up?”
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In the film these “kids”, David (played by Whiplash star Miles Teller) and Efraim (Jonah Hill), are portrayed as a Laurel and Hardy-style comedy duo. Pictures shows Miles Teller in a scene from, “War Dogs”.
