Sure, there's voiceover, freeze frames, and morally reprehensible characters, but it reads more like a parody film than an inspired one.

| Feb 23, 2017

By the end we have warmed -- almost -- to the innocent villainy of two con folk serving a greater maladroit maleficence.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 27, 2016

Utterly specious.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 10, 2016

It should have made for a propulsive, stylish thriller. Entertaining as it may be, original it certainly isn't.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 28, 2016

By bantering with the lads and slapping their wrists at the same, War Dogs is left with countless rounds of illicit ammo and no clear satirical target.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 26, 2016

Hard to imagine a less imaginative rendering of this story.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 26, 2016

There is certainly comic value in the way the two weed-smoking Miami-based friends somehow turn themselves briefly into "players" in the international arms business. Phillips tells their story with plenty of gonzo-style zest.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 25, 2016

The satire hits with powder-puff force thanks largely to the film's ruinous lack of moral shading around David and Efraim's exploits.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 25, 2016

Preoccupied with reassuring the audience of its savvy satirical credentials by perpetually telling us how amoral arms dealing is - but yet how funny and cool these particular arms dealers are.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 25, 2016

There are moments when War Dogs approximates the effective politics-channelling comedy of The Big Short.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 25, 2016

Emerges from a similar dark place as The Wolf of Wall Street and The Big Short, but its howl from the abyss is muted.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 23, 2016

At best, War Dogs is a missed creative opportunity; at worst, it's a quasi-celebration of two vile schemers, one that ignores the brutality of the world they capitalized on.

| Aug 22, 2016

Instead of outrage or any sense of shock and surprise, all the film has on offer is mild entertainment. Given the company, that feels like a bit of a miss.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Aug 21, 2016

The characters have no memories, no identities, no range of interests, no personal connections, no idiosyncrasies beyond the dictates of the plot and the numbingly clear point that the filmmakers use it to make.

| Aug 21, 2016

Since wrapping The Hangover trilogy, Phillips's creativity hasn't developed - it's devolved.

| Aug 20, 2016

"War Dogs" starts off longing to shock us with its incredible tale. It ends up presenting its story so generically that it loses the quirky irregularities of real life. We can't be outraged because we're never really challenged.

| Aug 19, 2016

War Dogs is that rare contemporary comedy that knows how to make a laugh stick in your throat.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 19, 2016

I'm getting a bit weary of movies "based on a true story" that chronicle big-time scams by sleazeball upstarts.

| Original Score: C+ | Aug 19, 2016

It's adequate and little more, with an occasionally inspired Jonah Hill and a less-than-memorable Miles Teller delivering sporadic laughs and occasional jabs.

| Aug 19, 2016

It's a terrifying, towering performance, and one that would normally lend Hill toward Oscar consideration, if only the rest of the film matched his talents.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 19, 2016