Film review: War Dogs

Undated Film Still Handout from War Dogs. Pictured: Jonah Hill as Efraim Diveroli and Miles Teller as David Packouz. See PA Feature FILM Reviews. Picture credit should read: PA Photo/Warner Bros. WARNING: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature FILM Reviews.

Based on an article in Rolling Stone magazine and a subsequent book, War Dogs heavily dramatizes the true story of two enterprising twentysomethings, who became multi-millionaires as arms dealers to the US military.

Director Todd Phillips, mastermind of The Hangover films, and co-writer Jason Smilovic don’t let the truth get in the way of spinning an entertaining yarn.

They embellish the jaw-dropping rags-to-riches narrative with a hare-brained chase through the notorious Triangle of Death to the south of Baghdad, and some fizzing one-liners, which are used as chapter headings to bookmark each stage of the journey.

Miles Teller and Jonah Hill, who garnered numerous awards for their eye-catching work in Whiplash and The Wolf Of Wall Street respectively, are an incendiary double-act.

They clamber over various obstacles thrown in their characters’ paths and brazenly wisecrack in the face of death.

Phillips’ film opens with TV news footage from the war in Iraq in 2008.