Miles Teller is everywhere this year. He's moderately entertaining as an actor but not sure how long he'll stick around. Whiplash was really good, but when he is forced to be a more charming individual, it typically comes across as creepy. I'm thinking mostly of his Divergent work, which works for that purpose. In The Spectacular Now, he almost pulls off the Cusack charm of Say Anything. But not quite. We'll see if his career makes it beyond being the dickish, oddly charming bad guy.
War Dogs has Teller in a more understated performance against Jonah Hill's more volatile character. They play old high school friends who get involved in selling guns to the US government. As they hunt for bigger deals, they get deeper into trouble, buried under the weight of delivering on a contract they are structurally incapable of completing. At least legally.
I enjoyed it. Not super incredible but interesting and well shot. Out of all of Todd Phillips work, War Dogs strikes the best balance of comedy and drama, which he's been trying and failing to do with the Hangover sequels. If he can improve a little more, he might have an incredible movie in him.
Not sure if Jonah Hill is actually good or just loved by critics for inexplicable reasons. Enjoyed him in Wolf of Wall Street. Here he's amusing, but read some reviews saying it would be an Oscar performance if the movie was better. Not so sure about that. His laugh is funny, but also feels so fake and clearly acted that it took me out of the movie when I first heard it. Is that really award worthy?
First Viewing: 2+2+2+2+2 = 10