When you hear the name Todd Phillips what do you think of? Most
likely it's his hit comedy trilogy, The
Hangover, one of the most successful R-rated franchises ever. Audiences
really loved the first one, not so much the all-too-similar sequel, and REALLY
HATED the final movie, which was slower, darker, and considerably less funny.
Phillips was trying to show a different side to all of the partying and boozing
and nobody wanted any of that. It was almost like Phillips was in training for
what he really wanted to be doing.
That movie is War
Dogs, which is a lot like The Hangover Part 3 in that it uses the cover of
comedy as a lure for a walk on the seedy side. From the ads and trailers you
probably think it's a wild romp through the world of major arms dealing, and
you'd be right, but this is really a movie about the nature of friendship and
how greed can rip that apart. All done with a snazzy flourish, of course,
because that's how we like stories depicting the corruption of the American
Dream. Much like Martin Scorsese's The
Wolf of Wall Street or
Michael Bay's Pain &
Gain, this hyperkinetic real-life tale boils down to dudes just being
dudes.
The entertaining duo of Miles Teller and Jonah Hill play Dave and
Efraim, two "regular" Florida guys who, rather remarkably, become the
biggest arms dealers for the United States military, scoring contracts in the
hundreds of millions of dollars. How in the world did that happen? It's not
like scoring a school lunch contract with the government. Like most of these
stories it begins small, with Dave a struggling but well-meaning guy looking to
keep a roof over his head and that of his girlfriend, Iz (Ana de Armas), who
recently became pregnant. He's barely scraping out a living as a licensed
massage therapist, while a get-rich-quick scheme to sell high quality bedsheets
to nursing homes dies quickly because "nobody cares about old
people". 
What do people really care about? Guns. Efraim, Dave's childhood
best friend, has been selling them online out in California. He's made a lot of
money and a lot of enemies, including those within his own family.
Personalities don't get much bigger than Efraim's, he's constantly
"on", acting every bit like a wannabe Scarface, who happens to be his
idol. Now he's on his own, bidding on smaller military contracts, the
"crumbs" as he calls it, and still making serious cash. But he needs
help from someone he can trust, and that's where Dave comes in. 
While the promise of big money is an obvious attraction, what's
interesting is the moral gymnastics Dave uses to convince himself this is a
good idea. It's ten years ago at the height of the War on Terror, and Dave is
firmly against the war; so is his wife. So cashing in on the fighting isn't
something he thinks he can do. It's obvious what the real convincer is, though,
and it's excitement; a break from a dull life of following orders It isn't long
before Efraim, Dave, and all of their fledgling company AEY Inc. are getting
bigger contracts, and with that more money. In one of the coolest early scenes
we see a breakdown of the $17500 cost to outfit a single soldier. All of those
individual components have to come from somewhere, and that's where guys like
Efraim and Dave come in. But it's not easy; they have to follow U.S.
regulations and obey certain laws while sourcing from countries that may not
have similar rules. Sometimes that means getting in bed with some nasty people,
like those on the Terrorist Watchlist. 
Few can play a complete a-hole better than Hill, and his Efraim is
a spray-tanned, slick-haired riot. If Teller's Dave is one-dimensional in his naiveté,
Efraim is far more complex than he appears to be. With his outrageous howl of a
laugh and gangsta attitude Efraim's chronic selfishness and thirst for danger
energizes the film's funniest bits, like when they drive a truck full of
weapons through Baghdad's "Triangle of Death". Any rational person
would be horrified, but Efraim and Dave see it as another notch on their belt.
The final act can't keep up with the momentum of the earlier acts, and the
friction between the duo is rushed and anticlimactic. Nor do the scenes with
Dave and Iz connect on any level, which may have to do with him being such a
cardboard character. That's not to say Teller is bad; he's actually quite good
but doesn't get nearly as much to chew on as Hill. 
Is there a moral to this story that Phillips and his co-writers
hoped to impart? If so it's lost in a hail of bullets and one-liners, and
that's not such a bad thing. We already know that war profiteering is terrible
and that our government is complicit, mostly through sheer incompetence. Why
beat a dead horse? Or perhaps more accurately; why load an empty clip?
Rating: 3 out of 5
