YMMV / War Dogs

• Evil Is Cool: Henry Girard is a ruthless War Dog himself who willingly (albeit confidentially) admits he's on a Terrorist watch list. He also has a few honorable moments that, combined with his cool appearance and a fantastic performance by Bradley Cooper, plants him firmly in this trope.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Henry saying the Afghans who get shot out by the Taliban not giving a shit where the ammo for their AK-47s comes from becomes a little uncomfortable after the Taliban reclaimed Afghanistan 5 years after the movie's release and the US have withdrawn their troops from the country. Just ask the Afghans how they feel about not getting their AK-47 ammo from the now-dead Afghan Deal now.
• Love to Hate: Efraim is this to some. He's an utterly unrepentant unsympathetic Jerkass but Jonah Hill's charismatic performance makes him entertainingly evil.
• So Okay, It's Average: Critical opinion is that the film features decent performances from the leads but fails to be either funny enough or dramatic enough to be memorable.
• Spiritual Successor:
  • To Pain & Gain. Both dark comedies based on articles and showcase the dark side of the American Dream. Both even share the same highly-saturated color scheme.
  • To The Big Short, following people involved in a shady industry, told through a dark, comedic tone. It even covers the same time period of 2005-2008.
  • To The Social Network, following two friends who get into business together and become rich, but have a falling out over one's manipulations. Both even end with one friend suing the other.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Even those who liked the movie still noted that it didn't delve very deep into the themes it was touching.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: The two leads are Villain Protagonists and con artists. The 'sympathetic' protagonist David still needlessly lies to his girlfriend and family. Neither him nor Efraim seem to care about each other either. Thus it can be hard to sympathise with either of them or care about what's going on for some.
• Took the Bad Film Seriously: Most of the criticism went to the writing and directing, but Jonah Hill was noted to really deliver an intense performance. Any praise about the film went to him (even netting him a Golden Globe nomination), despite its average reception.
• Uncertain Audience: The trailers made the movie look like a Black Comedy more akin to The Hangover with lots of Crosses the Line Twice situations. The actual film is a Based on a True Story dramedy that is far more serious than the trailers would let on. General consensus is that the film has too much seriousness to be enjoyable as a comedy, whereas it has too many Todd Phillips comedy touches to be an effective drama.

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