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War Dogs (2016), R, ★★1/2

Here's the deal...
Right off the bat, coming out the theater, I had fun watching the movie half of the time but then I got tired of the formulaic music choices and did not balance the comedy with the drama which the latter conquered the film because of it is a true story about two young guys impersonating arms dealers to make shady business deals with shady businessmen. The two young guys are jerks that you want to punch well, mostly Jonah Hill's character, because I started to feel dour thinking about the experience. Director Todd Phillips has a particularly interesting story to tell to persuasively tell us what's going on in the arms business with satire, however, ever since The Hangover Part II, his creativity has gone astray and interfered with the overall feeling of being tonally confused and mostly, not having a fun experience.

In 2005, David Packouz (Miles Teller) is a massage therapist who is living with his girlfriend, Liz (Ana De Armas). On the side, David tries to sell bedsheets to a retirement home, but states that old people do not care because they care about the remainder of their lives or dying. At a funeral, David reunites with an old friend named Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill). They hang out with weed dealers. After a deal going wrong, the weed dealer pulls off a gun on him and David and after Efraim walks to his car, he pulls off a bigger gun and shoots it up in the air, scaring the dealers away.

David and Efraim discusses Efraim's new line of business - gunrunning. Efraim explains to David how to exploit the news regarding the war for terrorism for profit. David initially declines but when he learns that Liz is pregnant, David is obligated to make more money by lying to her saying that they are selling bedsheets to the U.S. army, which she is all right with. After learning the techniques of arms dealing and government regulations, David and Efrain start up their own business and get funding and they travel to Jordan.

Yeah, young lords of war. 
Whether or not if I liked it, which I can't say I can recommend to see, in the end, I just followed two contentious jerks who want to grasp on their hands on arms to make deals for a lot of money. And, plus, I did not find that they were such likable guys. The other device that hurt the movie was Miles Tellers' narration. Placing narration in movies inserts poetry as to what characters are thinking and what characters are or were feeling when in the process. Here, I felt like Teller was over-exploiting and over-explaining what they were doing and then how they felt after the deal was made. I'd rather if they just show the process and not tell the process. It's like that the filmmakers were giving instructions while we know what they are. They want to become The Big Short mixed GoodFellas and The Wolf of Wall Street. It's just too much going on in style.

Jonah Hill has played jerks before and again, he actually gives a good performance because he fully gets into character and we, the audience, have fun at moments but in the end, we know we do not want to hang out with him or make any deals with him. Miles Teller, has unfortunately had an up-and-down career since his role in Whiplash, as he plays the straight role as he is brought in for the ride. But, he does not offer much in the role but he is still solid. Ana De Armas has nothing much to do except get angry and be on the side and be pregnant because I wanted more personality from her role. And, Bradley Cooper, in a small supporting role, is actually pretty good as a mysterious client.

Director Todd Phillips, structures his film as a dark comedic satire in both a political and entertaining way. So, I followed them with some enthusiasm but after the movie was over, I felt kind of cold and said to myself, "I don't know if I want to see this again." But, also, I felt like speaking of GoodFellas earlier, Phillips wanted to profusely incorporate Martin Scorsese's style into the story with some narration, music (some choices being on-the-nose and not as compelling) and camera angles. So, regarding my experience, it's not a movie I can embrace to say, "Go see it!", but wait to rent. It was Phillips' best movie in a while but he still has a way to go in terms of creativity and storytelling.

**1/2


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