War Dogs Review

Ratings are based on 1 to 10 Reels

7 Plot: Although liberties were taken, this was written by real life and is pretty awesome.
8 Directing: Phillips leaves behind the Hangover series and does a smashing job.
9 Acting: Hill and Teller do a great job channeling Packouz and Efraim.
7 Cinematography: Phillips gives us some wonderfully shot scenes, in and out of the US.
9 Pacing: Great story and it never at all slow or boring.
8

Fellow movie-goers: Wonderful depiction of true life events when David Packouz and Efraim Diveroli set out to sell arms to the US Government.

Here is the premise: Two friends in their early 20s (Hill and Teller) living in Miami Beach during the Iraq War exploit a little-known government initiative that allows small businesses to bid on U.S. Military contracts. Starting small, they begin raking in big money and are living the high life. But the pair gets in over their heads when they land a 300 million dollar deal to arm the Afghan Military; a deal that puts them in business with some very shady people, not the least of which turns out to be the U.S. Government.

Jonah Hill and Miles Teller shine in this Hollywood version of David Packouz and Efraim Diveroli’s 300 Million dollar deal with the US Government, although Hollywood takes a few liberties (as they are known to do) they stay surprisingly close to the real life story of these two infamous men. Since it is a true story, and a pretty darn exciting one at that, it truly writes itself so the story is even more interesting knowing it really happened.

Director Todd Phillips makes sure the viewer is never bored, his pacing of War Dogs makes it exciting and it never gets bogged down at all. Although not a big part of the real life story, Phillips (who also co-wrote the screenplay) and team decided to move part of the story to the war zone (Packouz and Efraim did the majority of their deals in front of the computer.) This move was a smart one, giving the film more intrigue and danger to the two entrepreneurs; I don’t normally like it when true events get the Hollywood treatment, but in this case it worked for the viewer’s sake.

Michael Trichel

Price
Taste
Presentation
Atmosphere

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *