This movie had the same tone and feel as The Wolf of Wall Street, and that is not meant to be a compliment. Much in the same way that Scorsese's film focused on a reprehensible jerk who dragged everyone down with him, War Dogs focused on David Packouz (Miles Teller) and Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill), two young dudes who were making money hand over fist by supplying the US military branches with their munitions by bending (or outright breaking) several international laws.
I think, like Wolf of Wall Street, we were supposed to find something cool about these gun runners, driving a truck load of handguns through Fallujah and buying up second-hand arms out of Albania, but either both actors lacked the charisma to pull-off a convincing anti-hero or, more likely, both of these asshats were insufferable. In one particular scene (frequently shown in the trailer), they should have died, but it was only through sheer luck and a military helicopter that they survived. This can be tolerated if the characters have some compelling backstory to suggest that such recklessness has purpose. Neither of the gun-runners had anything redeemable in their lives. When David eventually has a change of heart and tries to get out, I didn't care. When they went to jail, I didn't feel it was tragic, but instead found deep catharsis in idiots getting their comeuppance.
Bradley Cooper was good, but merely window dressing on a really flat, grossly cynical movie that made no attempt to critically engage with the complexity of the subject matter.
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