War Dogs For Film Night

It’s another week and another film night! This week I watched War Dogs, a film from 2016 which I had seen previews of years ago, then forgot about. I was browsing around Amazon Prime and noticed that it had been added, so I thought I would give it a watch.

It’s based on a true story about two guys who would be arms dealers, eventually getting a deal to work for the pentagon which would be worth $300 million dollars. The guys are in way over their heads, it’s the biggest deal they’ve ever done, and things start to go wrong. It stars Jonah Hill as Efraim Diveroli and Miles Teller as David Packouz, who are two best friends, along with Ana de Armas as Iz, David’s girlfriend, and Bradley Cooper as Henry Girard, an arms dealer.

The film starts with David who’s living with his girlfriend Iz, and works as a massage therapist, but is dissatisfied with his job and income. He sinks all his savings into buying luxury linen, but then realises that he’s wasted all his money, and can’t sell all the boxes of Egyptian cotton he’s bought.

While at a friends funeral, he runs into his old best friend from high school, Efraim, who had moved to LA years ago, but after falling out with his uncle while they were selling guns, decided to move back to Miami and start his own company called AEY. David then finds out his girlfriend is pregnant, and since his luxury linen is not selling, decides to work for Efraim after he offers him a job working for him.

They get orders from the US government for the war which is going on in Iraq, and when they run into a problem getting an order which they promised, they head out to Jordan to delivery the guns themselves, by truck. They successfully deliver the goods, and the Captain is impressed with how they managed to get him the guns, and they fast get a good reputation.

They start to get bigger and hire staff, and then get a huge deal worth $300 Million, known as the Afgan deal, but it’s too big for them to handle. David meets Henry Girand while in Vegas, who’s a legendary US arms dealer who is able to help. But when questioned on why he doesn’t just do the deal himself, he reveals that he’s on a watch list.

The deal starts to go bad when the pair realise that what they’ve got is Chinese ammunition, which is illegal under an embargo, so the pair decide to swap the crates with Chinese markings for cardboard boxes and bags.

Efraim then finds out that Henry is making more on the deal than he originally thought, and tries to cut him out, informing David. David is happy with everyone making money, but Efraim wants it all his own way, goes into David’s office and tears up the deal he signed, all while David is in Albania sorting out the big deal. Henry retaliates, getting some gangsters to kidnap David, and hold him at gunpoint.

David decides that he no longer wants to do this, so leaves and heads back to Miami to tell Efraim he wants out, and wants his share. Efraim refuses, and after they both meet with their silent partner, they get arrested by the FBI for the crimes.

At the end of the film David sees Henry one more time, who tells him he’s sorry about the kidnapping, and offers him a cut of the Afgan Deal.

I really liked the film, it was a good watch and pretty entertaining. I can recommend it if you’re looking for a crime type of drama with a bit of comedy thrown in.