Cinemazlowski Double review: 'Hell or High Water' and 'War Dogs'

We're reaching the tail-end of summer, when studios tend to dump out movies that have no-name casts or have turned out poorly in the hopes that no one will notice how bad the films are amid season-ending cookouts and last-minute vacations. So I won't waste yours or my time reviewing any of the new films hitting theatres this weekend, instead spotlighting two excellent films (albeit strictly for adults) that hit theatres last week.

 

The Western is a movie genre that has fallen largely by the wayside in the past few decades, as modern moviegoers lost interest in chases and shootouts between cowboys, and Indians now have to be called Native Americans. But occasionally a movie comes along that is labeled a "modern Western," in which the good guys and bad guys travel by vehicles but they still are fighting elemental battles of good and evil and struggling for survival in the bleak rural terrains and deserts of states like Texas and New Mexico.

 

The Best Picture-winning "No Country for Old Men" set a high bar for these kinds of films in 2007. Those who loved that movie should also enjoy the new movie "Hell or High Water," which stars Jeff Bridges as a retiring U.S. Marshal named Marcus Hamilton, who decides to take on his last case – finding and arresting a pair of brothers on a bank-robbery spree - with a hangdog intensity.

 

Shot in New Mexico but set in the hopeless desert towns of Texas, "Hell" features rising star Ben Foster as Tanner Howard, a bad-boy small-town resident who teams with his struggling brother Toby (Chris Pine, who plays Captain Kirk in the most recent "Star Trek" film trilogy) to rob a string of banks across the state in an attempt to pay off Toby's enormous child support backlog and save his dying ranch for his family.

 

As Tanner gets more reckless and Toby becomes more concerned about their luck running out, Marcus and his deputy Alberto (Gil Birmingham) employ old-school psychology and a whole lot of patience in the hopes of outwitting them. There's not much more to the plot in the script by Taylor Sheridan, who wrote last fall's superb drug-war thriller "Sicario," but the magic in this film is in the well-drawn characters, the spot-on dialogue and especially the atmosphere of quiet desperation and growing tension.

 

The premise is a timely one, amid a weak economic recovery that still puts the squeeze on average landowners who are buried under oversized mortgages and risking repossessions. Director David Mackenzie is British, yet brings viewers fully into this hard-scrabble world as if he had spent a lifetime as an oil rig worker – and viewers lucky enough to see this movie will be left with a thoughtful and frankly unforgettable experience.

 

While there is foul language throughout "Hell or High Water," it fits the atmosphere enough to blend in without being overly offensive for most adults. There are a couple of intense violent moments, but they are few and far between in this movie that's more concerned with psychological battles than gore and pyrotechnics. The one other R-rated element is a brief scene where one brother is engaged in blurred and clothed sex with a hooker in the far end of a hotel room while his brother ignores them.

 

Meanwhile, "War Dogs" is a wholly different look at two guys skirting the law in the name of what they deem to be a noble cause. Based on a Rolling Stone article about two former high school buddies who team up a decade after graduation to become arms suppliers for the U.S. military during the peak of the Iraq war, the movie is a full-throttle adrenaline blast of action, comedy and thrills that is likely to join "Hell or High Water" on my ten favorite films list at the end of the year.

 

The movie stars the dynamite duo of Miles Teller and Jonah Hill as David Packouz and Efraim Diveroli, two guys desperate to make fast money amid a slowing economy in 2005. David is the more grounded and responsible one, living with his girlfriend Iz (Ana de Armas) and earning decent bucks doing the detestable job of being a masseur for rich gay men.

 

When he runs into his childhood best friend Efraim at a funeral after a decade apart, he's quickly impressed by Efraim's high-living ways and wonders how he's managing to score big money. His friend invites him to join his one-man operation as a low-level arms supplier for the military, even though David and his girlfriend march in anti-war protests.

 

But when Iz announces she's pregnant, David's principles go out the window and he winds up joining Efraim in a dangerous mission to Jordan and then Iraq, as they personally have to show up and save a huge order of ammo from being seized due to a massive shipping error. As they experience the thrill of dodging both authorities and shady fellow dealers including Henry Girard (Bradley Cooper in an ace supporting turn filled with humorous malice), David has to decide how far he's willing to go at the same time he's realizing that Efraim may not be as friendly as he seems.

 

Granted, I'm a sucker for edgy political satire and cleverly executed action movies, but "War Dogs" puts those two elements together in perfect fashion to match "Central Intelligence" as my favorite movie of the summer. Co-writer/director Todd Phillips was clearly dying to prove he could do something special after becoming trapped helming all three of the rapidly worsening "Hangover" movies, and he pulls it off big-time here.

 

"War Dogs" is the wilder of the two movies in its tone, with Jonah Hill's Efraim prone to whooping profanities and additional foul language in multiple tension-filled scenes. Most of its violence consists of people being punched or shot at without any real blood. The two dealers are shown smoking joints, including before a humorous meeting with Pentagon officials, and Efraim is shown snorting cocaine behind David's back.

 

SPOILER ALERT: Ultimately, the drug use is portrayed negatively as it becomes clear that the movie shows Efraim in a negative moral light. END SPOILER.

 

Overall, for those who can handle an adult-oriented action comedy, "War Dogs" is a treat. Those who are easily offended should consider other fare.

 

Both movies ultimately show that a life of crime is a life filled with regrets, and that is another feather in their caps.