*Minor Spoilers Ahead* Terry Monroe (Alexander Skarsgard) and Bob Bolano (Michael Pena) are the black sheep of their branch of the New Mexico police department. Their obviously dirty and corrupt, they snort coke on the job and say just about every racist phrase that pops into their heads. After an admittedly funny incident where they pushed their official boundaries just a tad, they return off of suspension. Their boss Lt. Gerry Stanton (Paul Reiser) is weirdly tolerant of their behaviour but he warns them that they've run out of chances. According to him, the next complaint they get filed against them, they're gone. Terry and Bob laugh this off (Terry especially seems to be paying as little attention as possible) and they file out of the office. They try to keep a low profile but a mysterious network led by Lord James Mangan (Theo James) and Russell Birdwell (Caleb Landry-Jones) reveals itself. Terry also finds a new girlfriend in Jackie Hollis (Tessa Thompson) and Bob is trying to decide his future with his wife Delores Bolano (Stephanie Sigman).
War on Everyone is the newest project by John Michael McDonagh. His biggest claim to fame is another dark police comedy The Guard (its a solid/underrated movie) so I was excited to see this. The subject matter War on Everyone is pretty dark and suitably so. Terry and Bob are fighting against some pretty evil people. The problem is that the plot is so far in the background, you almost forget that there is a through line to it. I was interested in spending time on Bob and Terry's adventures but the movie meanders so much that you feel it losing focus despite the overall story still being involved somehow. Don't get me wrong, I laughed a good amount and the hijinx these guys get into tends to be the more interesting part of the movie. I still felt myself wanting a more consistent story to go along with these very exaggerated characters.
The plot isn't very strong but the movie compensates by having two larger-than-life characters at the centre. Bob and Terry are you're average dirty cops if you gave them nasty drug addictions and matching god complexes. They really don't give a crap if they're actions offend anyone or if they break the rules. Beating up criminals after they're in custody is part of the job and doing cocaine and drinking on duty is their version of their daily medicine. Their language is really filthy and while I thought some of the comedic dialogue was really good, it is straight up offensive. If you're easily put off by strong language, don't watch this movie. The movie admittedly gives them a couple of decent subplots to expand their characters a bit too. I liked Terry and Bob but their personalities highlight one of the big problems with the movie. They're so obviously corrupt and they're so offensive that no one would ever let them get away with what they do. Their actions turn them into cartoons at different points in the movie and it pushed it a little past plausible deniability. This is done for the sake of comedy but I could have used a wink at the camera or something meta dialogue to compensate for the unrealistic actions of Terry and Bob.
Buddy cop movies (even if they're parodies) need strong chemistry between the partners (e.g. Michael Pena's other cop movie End of Watch). The chemistry between Skarsgard and Pena is strong even if we don't get a ton of insight into how their partnership became so strong. Pena is solid but I was pretty impressed by Skarsgard. He isn't playing a pretty boy type and Terry was a big departure from what I saw him do in the past. I also thought he had strong chemistry with Tessa Thompson. I thought she was also really good and her subplot was handled well. Theo James did about as much as he could with his character, which borders on a typical cliché British villain. Caleb Landry-Jones wasn't bad but his character was pretty weird. They made some odd choices with his character that left me almost scratching my head wondering why.
This movie was pretty close to becoming something special. You have 2 funny and interesting characters sharing the screen and someone who specializes in this type of movie directing the camera. But they needed to tighten things up a little more, give us a more interactive story and maybe tone down a little of the non-PC dialogue. But this is still funny and it works so I'll give it a 7/10.
War on Everyone is the newest project by John Michael McDonagh. His biggest claim to fame is another dark police comedy The Guard (its a solid/underrated movie) so I was excited to see this. The subject matter War on Everyone is pretty dark and suitably so. Terry and Bob are fighting against some pretty evil people. The problem is that the plot is so far in the background, you almost forget that there is a through line to it. I was interested in spending time on Bob and Terry's adventures but the movie meanders so much that you feel it losing focus despite the overall story still being involved somehow. Don't get me wrong, I laughed a good amount and the hijinx these guys get into tends to be the more interesting part of the movie. I still felt myself wanting a more consistent story to go along with these very exaggerated characters.
The plot isn't very strong but the movie compensates by having two larger-than-life characters at the centre. Bob and Terry are you're average dirty cops if you gave them nasty drug addictions and matching god complexes. They really don't give a crap if they're actions offend anyone or if they break the rules. Beating up criminals after they're in custody is part of the job and doing cocaine and drinking on duty is their version of their daily medicine. Their language is really filthy and while I thought some of the comedic dialogue was really good, it is straight up offensive. If you're easily put off by strong language, don't watch this movie. The movie admittedly gives them a couple of decent subplots to expand their characters a bit too. I liked Terry and Bob but their personalities highlight one of the big problems with the movie. They're so obviously corrupt and they're so offensive that no one would ever let them get away with what they do. Their actions turn them into cartoons at different points in the movie and it pushed it a little past plausible deniability. This is done for the sake of comedy but I could have used a wink at the camera or something meta dialogue to compensate for the unrealistic actions of Terry and Bob.
Buddy cop movies (even if they're parodies) need strong chemistry between the partners (e.g. Michael Pena's other cop movie End of Watch). The chemistry between Skarsgard and Pena is strong even if we don't get a ton of insight into how their partnership became so strong. Pena is solid but I was pretty impressed by Skarsgard. He isn't playing a pretty boy type and Terry was a big departure from what I saw him do in the past. I also thought he had strong chemistry with Tessa Thompson. I thought she was also really good and her subplot was handled well. Theo James did about as much as he could with his character, which borders on a typical cliché British villain. Caleb Landry-Jones wasn't bad but his character was pretty weird. They made some odd choices with his character that left me almost scratching my head wondering why.
This movie was pretty close to becoming something special. You have 2 funny and interesting characters sharing the screen and someone who specializes in this type of movie directing the camera. But they needed to tighten things up a little more, give us a more interactive story and maybe tone down a little of the non-PC dialogue. But this is still funny and it works so I'll give it a 7/10.