By: Ali Habous
Todd Phillips is no stranger to popular buddy comedies; he directed The Hangover trilogy, Old School, and Due Date. Here we have Phillips taking a shot at satirical comedies while bringing his own touch to the table. War Dogs is to him what The Wolf of Wall Street was to Martin Scorsese and American Hustle to David O.Russell. However, as expected this film is not as good as those two and it lacks some crucial elements that prevent it from reaching its full potential. Even though there are some redeeming qualities in War Dogs, buddy comedies and satire are not a very good match and this one is simply not solid enough to warrant a place alongside better satirical titles.
War Dogs is a true story about two friends trying to do whatever it takes to make money. This, of course, means you will get to see bad people engaging in corrupt actions and enjoying the rewards of their greedy mindset. The film presents the idea that war is good to certain people like weapons contractors because they simply get to make millions of dollars.
All the while they have no remorse in trying to fool the government just to close their deals. Even though the film is funny in general, it presents a serious and an engaging subject that will grab the viewers quickly and hold their interest throughout. As you already guessed from the poster, Jonah Hill is the main bad guy and even though he sounds awfully young, he is a good enough actor to carry the film and provide the most interesting character on screen. His character flops around from side to side in unexpected ways and gives, what could be his best performance yet.
Todd Phillips is a talented director but he is no expert in satire, he is more of a pure buddy comedy expert and it shows. He tries to go for the Scorsese touch but his movie ends up looking like a student’s effort to imitate a satire master. The movie surprisingly lacks the thrills to go along the thought-provoking subject, and it seems like it was planned on a posted note that goes like this: funny dialogue + good cast + interesting subject about corruption = a good film.
That is not nearly enough to take this idea to its full potential and a filmmaker like De Palma would certainly have taken more of a risk with the screenplay and the story.
War Dogs is an entertaining film with a good cast and an attention-grabbing story, but it doesn’t come close to realizing its full potential and it doesn’t provide any memorable moments. That is largely due to the fact that the filmmakers decided to go by a rule book that they made up by watching better titles and not adding anything new or of value to the table.
Rating: 6.5/10
What did you think of War Dogs? Do you agree with Ali? Let us know in the comments below…
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Could have been way better. However, it was entertaining. Nice review.