War Dogs: More Than Just Jonah Hill Humour & Dan Bilzerian Armour

Despite having been hospitalised for snorting too much fake cocaine while filming The Wolf Of Wall Street, dedicated thespian Jonah Hill is back to blowing the pseudo snow in War Dogs.

Chocked with a cavalcade of choppers, comic relief and cameos by the likes of Dan Bilzerian and the real life David Packouz, War Dogs gently raises the Iraq War’s ethical points of debate.

Having enjoyed much favour in the U.S. so far and set to debut in Singapore next week, War Dogs revolves around 20-something-year-old masseuse David Packouz (played by Miles Teller) and his best friend Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill), who have discovered that acquiring arms and selling them to the U.S. military can garner a quick and sumptuous buck. The actual source of their overnight wealth is unbeknownst to David’s pregnant wife Iz (played by Ana de Armas), who believes that her spouse is selling bed sheets.

“Based on a true story” always begs the question within the discerning moviegoer: How much of these on-screen events actually happened in real life?

Packouz and Diveroli sprinting away from the Fallujah in a truck with an empty fuel tank while their smuggler extends half his body out of their vehicle to refuel its tank by hand (quite a mouthful but you can imagine the predicament), certainly calls to mind the scene in 2012’s Argo where police cars chase an airplane and manage to catch it, which never occurred except in Ben Affleck’s imagination.

From trailers, War Dogs appears to be boys’ school bad behaviour set in sandy wastelands and strewn with Semitic jokes, but gradually reveals itself to be slightly greater than presumed. Many viewers will find War Dogs inspiring, especially with its feel-good victory scenes where its young underdog hustlers f**k up some commas to the beat of classic rock anthems.

Everyone’s been an underdog hustler at some point in their lives, which is what draws the most empathy for Hill’s and Teller’s characters. Although the casual cinemagoer might rate this movie to be only slightly above average, aficionados of the Seth Rogen, Michael Cera and Hangover-style of comedy will surely give War Dogs 5 lit joints out of 5.

—

Stay updated and social with Popspoken: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook