War Dogs 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Review
Brad Sturdivant
November 24th, 2016
Although billed as an action-comedy, WAR DOGS really plays out like a b-level version of THE WOLF OF WALL STREET, but with much less debauchery and much more murder. WAR DOGS is a fast paced, sometimes humorous story about two young guys succeeding in an industry they have no business being in and under circumstances that are too insane not to be true. But even though the events transpiring on screen were beyond belief, director Todd Phillips failed to fully bring the audience into their world, at least not to the extent the story called for.
David (Teller) is a masseuse living in Florida with no real prospects and very little ambition outside of selling bed sheets to nursing homes. While at a funeral, he meets up with his best friend from junior high, Efraim (Hill). He learns that Efraim owns a gun running business, supplying weapons to the US government in what is mostly a legal operation. Desperate for a real job, David and Efraim team up and exploit every legal advantage in the government’s weapon procurement process. But things get testy for the duo when they bid for, and win, a very large job to supply the Afghan army with weapons over several years.
It has become commonplace over his last several movies, but once again I have to mention how much I enjoy Jonah Hill onscreen. Sure, he’s basically playing the same character and using the same shtick to get laughs, but it works for him and to some degree, his inclusion in WAR DOGS makes the film worth checking out. I’ve also come to appreciate Miles Teller and he plays well as the straight laced guy to Hill’s crazy, out of control character. The two lead actors make the film more enjoyable than what it probably should have been and kept the audience involved when lesser actors would have lost us.
The advantage of having someone like Todd Phillips direct a movie like this is that everything is going to be tight and succinct. He moves the story from one plot point to the next and doesn’t waste much time in the process. The downside is that Phillips really doesn’t know how to tell a story. He knows how to handle actors funny lines and get out of the way, but I couldn’t help but feel like WAR DOGS needed a little more attention. The grandness of what David and Efraim did seemed to be lost on Phillips and a more talented director could have done a better job of making the audience feel a little more. However, in Phillips’s defense, neither character was that likeable; Efraim was portrayed to be a sleazebag and David seemed to only be happy with the underhanded techniques when it suited him. But even with that, it felt like a movie about two kids duping the government and beating out huge corporations should have been a bigger deal than it was made out to be.
WAR DOGS was definitely an enjoyable film, thanks mainly to Jonah Hill, but I would stop short of saying it was a good film. It had enough laughs and moved quickly enough to keep everyone entertained, but there was a lot about this story that went untouched and stopped it from ever reaching its potential.
4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY REVIEW
Video: I thought WAR DOGS looked great on Blu-ray and it looks equally good on 4K Ultra HD. The improvements are subtle, but they’re there. After David and Efraim make their money, they move into high rise apartments that overlook Miami Beach (at least I think that’s where they were). The shots in the apartment really stood out as improvements over the Blu-ray and the details looking out of their apartments were much more noticeable. The dreariness of Albania was also an improvement, albeit on the opposite end of the spectrum. The various shades of gray and black stood out as the entire setting had a little more “umph” than in the Blu-ray counterpart.
Audio: No Dolby Atmos track is a bit of a bummer, but the DTS track does a fine job.
There are no 4K exclusive features included on the 4K disc, but it does include a copy of the Blu-ray, which includes the following special features:
General Phillips: Boots on the Ground (8:40): Fluff piece about how good Todd Phillips is.
Access Granted (10:10): The real David and the reporter that wrote the Rolling Stone article give some interviews about the film. This is also a fluff piece, but it was cool seeing both of them in real life.
Pentagon Pie (2:50): I’m not even sure what this is. Singing rats tell the story of David and Efraim.
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