BEFORE: Miles Teller carries over from "Bleed For This", and he'll be here tomorrow also as we reach February and kick off the romance & relationships chain. "War Dogs" was a bit of a last-minute add to the list, it wasn't part of the initial chain I devised in late December, but it came into my possession about 2 weeks ago and I was able to slot it in here.
Boy, what a January it's been - between bank robberies ("Going in Style", "Hell or High Water"), murders ("Like Minds", "The Postman Always Rings Twice"), kidnappings ("Split), war ("Hacksaw Ridge"), and torture ("Silence"). Plus we saw prison escapees walk across Asia ("The Way Back") and plane crash survivors try to survive in Alaska ("The Grey"). Pee-Wee Herman took a trip across the country, Alice went back to Wonderland, and we caught some Fantastic Beasts. Orcs turned out to be not so bad in "Warcraft", Albert Nobbs turned out to be a woman, and De Niro couldn't keep from pissing people off in "The Comedian". And there were family squabbles in "Matilda", "People Like Us" and "The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby" (three times!). Plus Western fighting in "Appaloosa" and prizefighting in "Bleed for This".
I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted. After all that's gone down, it almost makes sense that I'm ending the month with a comedy about war munitions. Seems about right.
THE PLOT: Loosely based on the true story of two young men who won a three hundred million dollar contract from the Pentagon to arm America's allies in Afghanistan.
AFTER: Eh, I don't know. A comedy about two guys getting stoned and selling weapons isn't really my cup of tea, especially when it's not a laugh-out-loud comedy, more like a dark comedy that reminds us that everyone in the government and everyone dealing with the government, and everyone outside the government that THEY'RE dealing with is corrupt. Do we need to know this? Can't we just assume that everyone in the world of guns and ammo are not very nice, trustworthy people? (Ironically, nobody here is what you'd call a "straight shooter"...)
This is the story of two guys who ran arms deals despite having no idea what they were doing. No knowledge of shipping, international laws or treaties, statutes on military contractors, etc. But why bother to learn the right way of doing things when you can just fake it and forge ahead? This may be the American dream in a fashion, but it's a terrible example of it. At a time when any gun control legislation is D.O.A., do we really want to champion people who had no regard for the few gun laws that our country DID have?
They learn that you can't lie down with dogs without waking up with a few fleas - this happens because they put the almighty dollar ahead of ethics. Who cares if that guy's on the terrorist watch list, as long as his money's good, right? Hmm, there might be a law against repackaging ammo before selling it to the army, but as long as we don't confirm that fact, we're in the clear, right? Umm, no.
NITPICK POINT: They make a big deal out of the company name, AEY, and the fact that it doesn't stand for anything - but the character freaks out so much when he's asked this question, that leads the viewer to believe that it DOES stand for something. But what? We never find out. Why make such a big deal plot point out of this and then never deliver any kind of answer, did the screenwriter just forget? And if it truly doesn't stand for anything, then isn't it like the worst company name ever?
I never understand why certain songs keep getting used again and again as music cues - the "classic rock" songs heard in this film were outdated at the time the story is taking place (2005?) and are all another 12 years older by now. Aerosmith's "Sweet Emotion", CCR's "Fortunate Son", Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here", and The Who's "Behind Blue Eyes" may all be great songs, but they're all from the 1970's, so they're about 3 decades off. "You Keep Me Hangin' On" by Vanilla Fudge is even older, and Dean Martin's "Ain't That a Kick in the Head" is positively ancient, couldn't they license any music from the correct decade?
Also starring Jonah Hill (last heard in "The Lego Batman Movie"), Kevin Pollak (last seen in "Grumpier Old Men"), Ana de Armas (last seen in "Blade Runner 2049"), Bradley Cooper (last heard in "10 Cloverfield Lane"), Patrick St. Esprit (last seen in "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire"), Eddie Jemison, Shaun Toub, JB Blanc, Barry Livingston (last seen in "You Don't Mess with the Zohan"), Aaron Lustig, Gabriel Spahiu, with cameos from Wallace Langham (last seen in "Taken 3") and the real David Packouz.
RATING: 4 out of 10 duffel bags filled with cash
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