It is one of those "based on a true story" movies that makes for a better Wikipedia article than a screenplay. Back in 2005, David Packouz (Miles Teller) is a two-something struggling to make ends meet until he reunites with a childhood friend, Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill). The two of them become arms dealers for the U.S. Military. They stumble their way through completing orders of escalating size until they get one that is too big for them to handle. David has a pregnant girlfriend (Ana de Armas) and Efraim is shady as fuck. They start getting into big trouble when they team up with a supplier who is on a terrorist watchlist (Bradley Cooper). Things end poorly, as you'd expect.
Even if you haven't seen this movie before, you have: Humble beginning, rags to riches, illegal activities, double-crossing, then taken down by the government. Watch Goodfellas. It's a lot better. Familiarity with the beats of the story is fine if I like the characters. I saw this for Teller and Hill who are two of my favorite actors. But, Teller is too passive to root for and Hill isn't interesting enough to make his commitment to his sleazy character worth it. The two actors have surprisingly little chemistry. Given that this is from the director of the Hangover movies (and not helped by the advertising) I expected this to be more of a comedy. And it's not good enough to not be funny, if I'm being blunt.
Lastly, this is the second movie this month with a distractingly bad soundtrack. I guess that's my new pet peeve. Every single song choice was on the nose and I don't think a single song from 2005ish was used, even when characters are listening to the radio. That's just weird.
I see the appeal of making a movie about this scandal. It's a crazy story filled with interesting details. I get the sense that this was trying to be Pain & Gain (ridiculous characters and reminders that this is a true story). War Dogs is too generic though and it has no business being generic.
Verdict (?): Strongly Don't Recommend
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