A couple of opportunistic best friends take on the contract of a lifetime, which will either get them rich, killed or both. In “War Dogs”, the latest film from writer/director Todd Phillips, centers around the on-going war in Iraq, with tensions at an all-time high. Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill) offers childhood friend David Packouz (Miles Teller) a chance to make big bucks by becoming an international arms dealer to the nations that the United States are banned from doing business with. Together, they exploit a government initiative that allows businesses to bid on U.S Military contracts. Starting small allows the duo to rake in money and live the high life they could only dream of. They soon find themselves in over their heads after landing a $300 million deal to supply Afghan forces, a deal that puts them in business with some very shady people, including Top Ten Most Wanted fugitive Henry Girard (Bradley Cooper). The two are put in the middle of a dangerous game that could see them paying a life-threatening debt. “War Dogs” is rated R for adult language, sexual references and drug use.

Todd Phillips takes his biggest step creatively, maturing his filmography with this newest offering. After watching a couple of trailers for “War Dogs”, I definitely got that Phillips vibe of a comedy first offering for its duo of well-timed comic leads. The actual presentation couldn’t be further from the truth, as “War Dogs” is very much a gritty thriller drama that succeeds on most of the chances that Todd takes for this script. That’s not to say that there isn’t comedy sprinkled throughout the film. This movie certainly had its moments where I laughed aloud to a theater that was surprisingly empty for opening night. One thing that my readers should know is that the trailer showcases about 90% of the actual comedy meat within the movie. The film mostly relies on R-rated material to smooth the tensions of a growing greed between the two leading men in the movie, before the other shoe falls from them being in over their heads. What the screenplay reminded me of was a combination of “The Big Short” and “Lord of War”, with the former being the prime example for the growing genre of gritty modern life crime stories. “The Big Short” does it much better, and ultimately the film hinders Phillips from ever finding his own voice and running with it. With that said though, I can certainly appreciate the chances in tone that he took with this movie.

For one, the film is divided into chapters, giving it that feeling of a crime novel that carefully paces us along to each new level of rising concern for our characters. Each chapter has a visual text from a line of dialogue within the upcoming scenes, and while this touch does feel like obvious foreshadowing, I enjoyed it because it really sort of documents when everything went wrong for this duo of friends, and where their greed became the deciding factor in all of their business decisions. The overall pacing of the movie could be a little better, with three acts that feel like jigsaw puzzle pieces that don’t always fit properly. The first act feels very rushed, with a lot of different landscapes and story arcs coming and going along the ever-changing character struggles within this timeframe. I did enjoy this first forty minutes or so, but this is where something that I will talk about later will come in, with exposition playing an important role for the pieces you set up on the proverbial chess board. The second act contradicts the first by slowing everything down. This was definitely the weak part of the film for me, but it wasn’t terribly boring or bone dry in entertainment. It just feels completely different from the pacing that we got in the first half of the film. The third act is where the movie really changes without much notice. Once our duo embark on a major business opportunity, the scene is accompanied by dark and ominous musical tones that paint a picture of imminent danger. This makes little sense considering nothing alarming has happened yet, and I honestly would’ve saved this tone shift for twenty minutes later, when you start to understand the adversities that lie ahead. I did however love the ending of this movie that just kind of leaves the audience with the final decision. It’s wrapped up in a way that completely leaves everything open, and I think that’s brilliant because the biggest decisions in our lives don’t always come with an overpowering yes or no answer.

I very rarely say this about a movie, but this one could’ve used another forty minutes for character exposition and long-range setup for the harsh realities that they are about to face. Someone who reads that and thinks this film was too long at 109 minutes, might not agree, but the finale of this movie lacked the kind of emotional response from me that something like “The Wolf of Wall Street” hit with surreal earnest. One reason for that is definitely the character exposition.

What Phillips does appropriately for the film is make Miles Teller the center piece and narrator for the movie’s on-going stories. Teller shines wonderfully again, proving that he can unleash an emotional register that is vastly different from the films we know him from in the earlier roles of his filmography. I have always liked Miles, and I hope that this movie can get him on the right track, when he took on roles in the Oscar winning drama “Whiplash”. Jonah Hill is kept as kind of a shadowy figure here. There’s a lot about his role as Efraim that has us questioning his motives, and Phillips is wise enough to leave this character mostly in the dark. Where I don’t agree is the lack of chemistry between them, that is mostly reduced to musical montages. Those scenes are important because their downfall will hit the audience harder with a blanket of sorrow for their misfires. That feeling never really comes, and to me it felt like we didn’t see enough of their friendship to contrast the obvious foreshadowing in Teller’s family telling him how Efraim is bad news. Bradley Cooper surprised with a nice ten-to-fifteen minute cameo that achieved some darker tones for Cooper’s repertoire. I’ve always known that Cooper is a surprisingly underrated actor when it comes to his deliveries, but one thing that the movie gives me that I’ve never seen is Cooper as that sleazy villain who is hiding something. What Cooper can deliver in just a look, tells me that this man needs more antagonist turns. He is simply spellbinding in this performance.

Besides everything I already mentioned, the movie features some classic rock tunes that really Americanize the kind ideals and business practices being introduced to these foreign landscapes. The soundtrack is really kicking, and I found myself being re-introduced to classical favorites like “Don’t Fear the Reaper” by Blue Oyster Cult, “So What Cha Want” By Beastie Boys, “Sweet Emotion” by Aerosmith, and my personal favorite for the big decisional finale; “Everybody Knows” by Leonard Cohen. All of these are brilliantly inserted, and don’t feel as force-fed to the audience as say something like “Suicide Squad”, which totally felt very obvious for the kinds of tones and attitudes that film was trying to convey.

Overall, “War Dogs” garners enough firepower to make this a fun ride through Dick Cheney’s ammunition ridden America. Todd Phillips takes the biggest creative leap of his young career, and mostly succeeds in giving us an entertaining and skillfully crafted eye-opener of a time that examines the economic imperitives of war. Phillips is smart enough to entice the audience with one-liners from the on-time duo of Teller and Hill, but also by treating the real life story with the kind of dark-hearted edge that it deserves.

7/10