War Dogs

I was going to do a ranking of Todd Philips flicks but i decided not to, see his career is an odd one. Road Trip was your late 90s/early 00s college comedy, but one that hold up, he upped the ante with Old School, a hilarious film and one of the best Fratpack films out there. Then he got a summer blockbuster offer in Starksy & Hutch, which isn't a bad film, just one that didn't hit all the notes, his next i wasn't a fan of, School for Scoundrels, now was this the end of his career? No, i say it was the end of the first chapter, his second is his more balls out & semi darker comedies, The Hangover trilogy i love, i love every one of them. The first was what a fucked up weekend should be like, i have had plenty, not quite to that level of debauchery but definitely have done some illegal shit in my time, the second gets too much hate for being the same thing, the third is a dark comedy masterpiece in my mind, highly misunderstood, i don't give a fuck what anyone says. In between those last two he did Due Date, a film i admittedly was underwhelmed by but it wasn't a bad film by any means. Now comes chapter 3, one in which he follows the foot steps of Jay Roach & Adam McKay into a more serious type of film, and much like McKay you can see inspiration from Martin Scorsese sprinkled throughout. War Dogs is a great film in my mind, both Miles Teller & Jonah Hill continue to impress, Teller is no longer Cpt. Douche as he was years ago, no that honor goes to Hill, a true piece of shit, but his laugh, holy fuck his laugh, epic, he plays the piece of shit so goddamn well. The satire is there, it shows a lot of the political turmoil of the mid 00's and just how broken the system has become. I would not have suspected this type of film from Todd but holy fuck, he delivered a great one, not quite as good as Big Short but a step in the right direction, would love for him to do a gritty drama next, maybe not quite like Sicario, but in the vein. This also has an amazing soundtrack, they may not fit the decade but fuck it, mid 00's music sucked for the most part(atleast mainstream music). I will champion this film and champion Todd Philips for a long time, i loved this film!It was well written, well shot, well acted, brilliantly scored, I have no complaints with it, now does that mean it is perfect? No, but it is the type of film i wanted it to be and blew away my expectations. I don't want folks thinking this is Scorsese's level, it isn't, but it is highly inspired, i mean fuck i have done stuff inspired by John Waters & Quentin Tarantino but that doesn't mean i am on their level, hell my stuff is garbage a lot of the time, but this film i think will have folks waiting to hate it just because of Philips, put that aside and enjoy his craftsmanship!