Lawyers, guns and money

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War Dogs (MA15+)
Starring: Jonah Hill, Miles Teller

SOME say war is the continuation of politics by other means.
But the War Dogs know it’s a business – plain and simple.
This is not a war movie. It’s not a buddy film.
It’s a story of the amoral bottom-feeders who make money off the patriotism and pain of others.
And it’s pretty damn good.
Marketed as a light-hearted comedy, War Dogs is a much darker film than that.
Hill and Teller play a couple of American twenty-somethings looking for their slice of the American dream.
The ability to bid online for US military contracts opens up a world of gun-running – and a $300 million Pentagon contract for AK-47 ammunition for Afghanistan pulls them into the orbit of some very heavy people indeed.
Teller, an unfortunate lad with a face like a twisted sneaker, gives the film its belated moral compass. Hill, fatter and funnier than ever, revels in providing the tale’s heart of darkness.
Lord of War was viewed as the definitive tale of arms trading – until now.
It’s a film that doesn’t preach, but has a serious message.
Democracy and capitalism have always gone hand in hand, but never more clearly than depicted here.
– Jason Beck