War Dogs is a film starring Jonah Hill and Miles Teller. War Dogs comes directed by Todd Phillips who some may know for his work on The Hangover (2009). The film is based on the true story of David Packouz and Efraim Diveroli who were awarded a 300 million dollar military contract by the US government to arm America’s allies in Afghanistan.
This is a movie that’s similar to one of Jonah Hill’s previous films, The Wolf Of Wall Street. It’s about characters who are greedy, it’s about getting rich and it’s also based on a true story. Both War Dogs and The Wolf Of Wall Street are based on characters that are not really good role models and who place money, greed and their own selves before anyone else. These films however can be quite interesting to watch and learn from and even though they aren’t necessarily inspiring, they do provide the audience with some insight into the more dodgy things that happen in the world.
The acting in War Dogs is the biggest high point of the film. Both Miles Teller and Jonah Hill give performances here that are probably one of the strongest of both their careers so far. Bradley Cooper also appears in War Dogs, but he’s only a minor character, he’s always great to watch in films, but I do wish he had a lot more scenes in this one though.
The writing is well done for War Dogs, characters are presented to us in a way that they develop quite well throughout the film and there are lot of subtleties to the characters which you notice as you watch and also big moments that effect them as things progress. However at times it did seem obvious that at a certain point greed would overcome David Packouz and Efraim Diveroli which would lead to their downfall, it’s not like it was obvious but it is their main character trait for the two.
The pacing of the film from director Todd Phillips is well done and while for the most part the tone of the film is serious, there are also a few funny moments slotted in from time to time to keep things entertaining. However the film seemed almost like as if they were trying to get something similar to The Wolf Of Wall Street for cinema goers to watch, while it’s similar, it’s not as good a film. I’m not saying it’s a bad film, it certainly isn’t, it’s a good one, just not a great one for some reason. Maybe it’s the characters that are the reason, unlike Jordan Belfort, I just couldn’t find myself to like David Packouz or Efraim Diveroli at all in the end.
Overall War Dogs is a decent watch if you’re looking for, or have been waiting for a film that’s all about greed, making money and all the more or less glamourous sides of capitalism. Actors Jonah Hill and Miles Teller both do well with their roles, but I did wish there was more from Bradley Cooper. War Dogs is a solid drama with some funny moments in there from time to time, it’s just too bad the characters are completely unlikeable, otherwise maybe it would have been something great.
