Review of War Dogs (2016) by Haotian X — 10 Jul 2017

I'm having a hard time finding something to say about this movie, positive or negative. It's just... fine. It's a harmless film about war profiteering and how easy it is to fraudulently make money.

.. until you get caught. There is nothing really notable about the movie, but it's not bad either. The story is interesting enough, but I expected it to have a little (or a lot) more mirth to it coming from writer/director Todd Phillips, whose previous credits include modern comedy classics like 'The Hangover', 'Road Trip', and 'Old School'.

But despite Phillips at the helm and Jonah Hill in one of the lead roles, there is not one laugh throughout the entire film. Not that that's bad, there isn't supposed to be... it's just surprising, and I feel like it's also a somewhat wasted opportunity.

This movie could have been awesome as a dark comedy. Unfortunately, the film takes itself a little too seriously, while at the same time, it doesn't take the subject matter seriously enough. There are heavy shades of 'The Wolf of Wall Street' here, but the film never commits to that over-the-top style or tone.

It's contradictory - it celebrates the characters' 'boys behaving badly' antics on one hand, while trying to be a morality lesson on the other. It doesn't work. The result is a tepid, pseudo-cautionary tale of how money corrupts.

Aside from that, the characters are so poorly developed that you never identify with them or give a shit about anything that happens to them. Then there is the unnecessary use of voice-over narration, which is criticized as a lazy way to tell a story even in the best of circumstances, and this movie is not the best of circumstances.

The whole film is just surprisingly juvenile for such a veteran filmmaker. This movie does succeed in entertaining on a surface level, though I suspect the intent was for it to be far more meaningful than it is.