Director: Todd Phillips
Year Released: 2016
Rating: 1.0
Masseuse David (Miles Teller) teams up with old high school friend Efraim (Jonah Hill) to bid on contracts with the U.S. government to supply them with guns and ammo - an early foray (to deliver Berettas to Baghdad) proves successful, but a later attempt, to smuggle AK-47 ammo out of Albania to Afghanistan, is their downfall. For one thing, this is too derivative to stand out on its own - like a mash-up of Lord of War (with Nicolas Cage) and Wolf of Wall Street (Hill's essentially playing the same character ... except with more ... girth) - and secondly, Phillips isn't particularly good at drama (comedy's more his thing ... and even that's in short supply here), so when he needs 'emotional weight' he leaves it up to David's wife Iz (Ana de Armas) to throw tantrums over 'trust issues' (yet, she doesn't mind having a luxury apartment). The ethical question posed - is it okay to profit off of war? - is pretty much cut and dry: should have stuck with rubbing and tugging.
