Review of War Dogs (2016) by Junelkean — 21 Jan 2018

Following the footsteps of Martin Scorsese, Brian DePalma and Adam McKay, "The Hangover Trilogy" director Todd Phillips has given us the reason why Hollywood should continue in making crazy-criminal gangster pictures such as 2013's "The Wolf of Wall Street" and "American Hustle." And by the end of his latest movie War Dogs, he has given us the reason why we should not trust him in taking over this kind of material, despite of his famous works like "Due Date" and "The Hangover.".

War Dogs starts as a promising war satire that features two gun runners, David Packouz (Teller) and Efraim Diveroli (Hill) in their misadventure: bidding on U.S. military contracts to assist with the ongoing Iraq war. But as it reaches its second act, the movie turns into a self-serious and uninteresting tale - things get a little tedious as the movie collapses within its own. Director and co-writer Phillips has failed to pull-off the tonal transition from comedic to dark. It is also a perfect example on how two charismatic actors like Teller and Hill be saddled into boring characters, in spite of Teller's compelling arc.

VERDICT: War Dogs is a dark comedy with too much of the dark, but missing in comedy.