War Bros
When two friends in their early 20s (Jonah Hill and Miles Teller) win a profitable arms-dealing contract with the U.S. military, they seem to have it made. But things take a turn when they get a project they’re not quite ready for and find themselves in over their heads. While there are some promising aspects to the film — it’s based on a true story and is under the helm of The Hangover director Todd Phillips — we’re not quite sure about how it will all play out.
War Dogs opens in wide release Aug. 19.
PAIGE: This is such a great trailer. I like when they sync up the music really well in trailers. It looks so fun and jaunty and obnoxiously American. Self-absorbed American excess is a beautiful genre all of its own.
NICOLE: It does seem like this movie will be intense. I mean, it comes from the minds behind The Hangover, which I loved. It worked in The Hangover, but I’m not sure if it will work here. I can see people getting extremely offended by this movie.
CHRISTINA: I don’t know how I feel about this film. I thought the article/book it is based on was supposedly more of a critical look at our country’s military and international policies, but it looks like this has traded out any reflection on such things for partying hard. But maybe that is just this trailer.
JAIMIE: I feel OK about this movie. I am neither super thrilled or immediately disgusted. It just seems like another bro movie about bros doing mega-bro things while acting like bros.
NICOLE: I do want to see this movie because the storyline is intriguing, but I’m over Jonah Hill at this point. I might just go and buy the book. (For those who also want to buy the book, I looked it up, and it’s $6.99 for Kindle.) Hill’s persona is what I imagine other countries think Americans are like — arrogant and stupid.
CHRISTINA: It does seem that Jonah Hill is falling into the trap where all he does is play the same characters over and over — which is a shame, because I do think he can act. I am a fan of Miles Teller, though. He was great in Whiplash and The Spectacular Now.
PAIGE: But I did Wikipedia this film, and apparently it was once supposed to star Jesse Eisenberg and Shia LeBeouf, which woulda been a really different movie. I kinda hate Miles Teller after seeing Fantastic Four. He has an aggressively douchey face. And Jonah Hill looks like he’s just reprising his Wolf of Wall Street character, except he doesn’t even have Leo with him, so what’s the point. On the other hand, I saw Bradley Cooper’s face whiz by for like, two seconds, so that cancels out some of that.
