News

After first making a name for himself in Hollywood with roles in films like The Spectacular Now, the Divergent trilogy, That Awkward Moment, and Fantastic Four, Miles Teller experienced a resurgence in popularity following his scene-stealing performance in the 2022 blockbuster hit Top Gun: Maverick. The highly-buzzed-about sequel to the celebrated '80s classic featured Teller teaming up with silver screen staple Tom Cruise's test pilot and flight instructor Pete "Maverick" Mitchell as he teaches a new group of ambitious Top Gun graduates.

Prior to Maverick, Teller famously appeared in two well-received but financially underwhelming films: Todd Phillips' black crime comedy War Dogs and the war drama Thank You for Your Service. Let's take a closer look at the war movies and how he finally landed a slam dunk at the box office by starring in Top Gun: Maverick.

Your Ratingclose10 stars9 stars8 stars7 stars6 stars5 stars4 stars3 stars2 stars...

Todd Phillips is one of the most successful comedy movie directors of all time. The filmmaker began his career by directing comedies such as Road Trip, Old School, and Starsky & Hutch, and then helmed 2009's The Hangover, which instantly became a comedy sensation. This led to Phillips making two more Hangover movies, completing the trilogy. After the massive success of the Hangover movies, Phillips had a lot more freedom to take on whatever projects he wanted.

This led to him directing Joker in 2019. Joker was another massive success for Phillips, earning him an Academy Award nomination for Best Director. This year, Phillips also directed the much more controversial sequel Joker: Folie à Deux. However, before he directed either of the Joker movies, Phillips directed a dark comedy crime film in 2016, which was his first film after The Hangover Part III.

War Dogs Gets A Solid Review From Real Arms...

When you purchase through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Ana de Armas is a brilliant and beautiful actor and she has proven her acting chops time and time again by giving several brilliant performances in recent years. She even added James Bond to the growing list of films. The Cuban actress is fluent in both Spanish and English and she has made a great career for herself in Hollywood by working with brilliant directors and actors. So, if you also love Armas’ brilliant performances and want to see more of her here are the 7 best movies starring Ana de Armas you can watch right now.

7. Ghosted (Apple TV+) Credit – Apple TV+

Ghosted is a romantic comedy spy action-adventure film directed by Dexter Fletcher from a screenplay co-written by Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, Chris McKenna, and Erik Sommers. The 2023 film follows Cole who falls head over heels for...

Whiplash's cast consists of some fantastic actors, both those who have gone on to bigger things and those who used to be - or still are - household names. By the time of Whiplash's climactic ending, each cast member chosen for the film proves why they were picked for the project, and why it is one of the more acclaimed movies of the 2010s regarding its acting abilities. While Whiplash is not based on a true story that sports real-life characters or locations, it was inspired by writer-director Damien Chazelle's time as a music student.

The film's story is about an aspiring drummer being pushed to his limits to be the best musician he can be by an abusive, threatening, demanding teacher. Eventually, Whiplash culminates in one of the best movie endings of all time, led by two outstanding central performances. This ending is a large factor...

2016's War Dogs movie was based on real events, but the War Dogs' true story was different than what appeared in the film. At the center of the film, the two real-life protagonists, Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill) and David Packouz (Miles Teller) are low-level arms dealers who manage to win a contract with the Pentagon worth $300 million to arm American allies in Afghanistan. The premise alone makes it hard to believe that War Dogs is a true story, but while there are some embellishments, this strange tale has a lot of truth to the story.

The Todd Phillips movie has a lot of fun embracing the oddity of this crime story. Efraim and David's contract means they're responsible for arming allies of the US with weapons in Afghanistan. When things go awry, the pair set off on a globetrotting adventure that sees them meddle with corrupt politicians and volatile arms...

War Dogs explores the ethics of arms dealing and government contracts, based on the true story of David Packouz and Efraim Diveroli. The movie takes creative liberties but stays true to the backstories and motivations of the characters, depicting their arms dealings with the US government. David Packouz received a more lenient sentence due to his cooperation with authorities, while Efraim Diveroli served time in federal prison.

War Dogs follows two low-level arms dealers, David Packouz and Efraim Diveroli, who won a $300 million contract from the Pentagon to arm America's allies in Afghanistan, yet the movie doesn't go into detail about what happened to the pair after film ends. The 2016 crime comedy explored the ethics of weapons manufacturing and profiting off war. It was directed by Todd Phillips, known for The Hangover and Joker, and stars Jonah Hill and Miles Teller. War Dogs is based on a true story, but...

Iraq War Vet Jay Dorleus finds inaccuracies in War Dogs' vehicle chase scene in the Middle East, revealing insurgents did not use the tactics depicted. The 2016 movie stars Jonah Hill and Miles Teller as two young arms dealers who win a contract from the Pentagon. War Dogs earned mostly positive reviews from critics but was a box office disappointment.

An Iraq War Veteran analyzes Jonah Hill and Miles Teller's action comedy movie, War Dogs, for its realism, finding some key inaccuracies. Released in 2016, War Dogs chronicles the true story of Efraim Diveroli and David Packouz, two young men who were awarded a $300 million contract from the Pentagon to supply arms and ammunition to forces friendly to America in Afghanistan. The film, which is directed by The Hangover and Joker's Todd Phillips, features numerous sequences that take place in regions of the Middle East, including a tense car chase.

In a recent video for Insider,...

Thank You for Your Service finds Miles Teller leading an ensemble cast of real-life characters as it explores the mental health struggles that many military personnel face in real life. Based on the 2013 non-fiction book of the same name by journalist David Finkel, the 2017 movie doubles as a war drama and a biography. The narrative puts the spotlight on U.S. Army veterans of the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment during their deployment in Iraq in 2007. Instead of just glorifying their patriotism, Thank You for Your Service humanizes these soldiers and delves into their struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder (Ptsd) after returning home.

Jason Hall, the Oscar-nominated writer of the similarly-themed biopic American Sniper, helmed Thank You For four Service as both director and screenwriter. Apart from its star-studded cast, the war movie also boasts an original song titled “Freedom Cadence” by Bruce Springsteen that plays during the closing credits. Despite bombing at the box office,...

In Hollywood, it's common for movies to be adapted from novels, non-fiction books, and comic series. This is understandable since these sources usually have plenty of material, making work a lot easier for screenwriters. Such works also have already established fanbases that end up boosting the adaptation's box office gross figures.

Related: 10 Movies That Were Doomed By Audience Expectations

On a couple of occasions, studios and directors have also taken an unusual route by turning articles in newspapers and magazines into movies. Though journalism might be biased at times, these stories are normally written after plenty of research has been conducted, hence they provide all the necessary facts needed for the making of a film.

American Gangster (2007) Stream On Amazon Prime Video

Ridley Scott's American Gangster features outstanding performances by Denzel Washington and Russel Crowe, but it might not have been as brilliant as it is if not for the source material.

Audio journalism platform Curio is launching a new original series telling real-life stories read by iconic stars. Episode one of the four-part series, Retold sees acclaimed actor James McAvoy tell the real-life story that inspired the film War Dogs. The 2016 film follows the unlikely rise of teenagers Efraim Diviroli and David Packouz as they earn millions from the international arms trade during Iraq and Afghan wars.

‘War Dogs‘ is that rare based on a true story movie that seems to be desperately trying to be like other based on a true story movies, in this case; it’s apparent goal is to be a combination of a comedic version of ‘Lord of War‘ mixed with the energy and style of ‘The Wolf of Wall Street‘ and ‘The Big Short‘, only without the comedic aspects of,-, well, actually all three of those movies are pretty funny when you think about it. And I especially couldn’t help comparing the film to ‘Lord of War‘ and that’s where the film falters. It’s still interesting and well-made enough to be entertaining and good, but I think they were going for comedy, and honestly, above everything else, I didn’t laugh that much.

Although to be honest, Todd Phillips has honestly, never particularly made me laugh, and...

Jonah Hill‘s “War Dogs” film acted as a dog whistle to a couple of “real-life gun runners,” the actor told TheWrap. The film follows two arms dealers, Efraim Diveroli (Hill) and David Packouz (Miles Teller) who receive a U.S. Army contract to supply munitions to the Afghan National Army worth an estimated $300 million. “I live in New York and I was in a restaurant and two guys came up to me and said, ‘hey we’re South African arms dealers and we’re really excited to see the movie,” Hill recalled during a recent interview with TheWrap’s Stuart Brazell.

A serious movie with a comedic element or a comedy with some serious undertones. It's hard to place exactly what War Dogs is.  If a gun was put to ones head, like the opening of the movie, then it's more serious than anything else. Sure, there's plenty of dark humour here, but ultimately the movie is trying to bring a serious subject to the masses. The movie is based on a true story two young men, David Packouz (Miles Teller) and Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill), who find themselves chasing a $300 million contract from the Pentagon, to arm America's allies in Afghanistan. The pairing of Teller and Hill is an interesting, albeit unlikely one. However, it's one that works very, very well with Jonah Hill being on top "asshole" form.  That said Teller is no slouch either, shifting from massage therapist to death and destruction dealer with ease. To round things off,...

This tale of twentysomething arms dealers can’t quite match its star’s tremendous performance

Jonah Hill is so repellent – all swagger, sweat and unapologetic sexism – in War Dogs, that for a while, you don’t immediately realise what a blitzkrieg of a performance he delivers. Bulked up considerably for the role, he plays Efraim Diveroli, one half of a real-life pair of twentysomething Yeshiva schoolfriends from Miami who made millions by hawking dodgy supplies to the Us military. He looks like a doughnut stuffed with testosterone and reckless ambition; his hyena laugh has a combination of pleading neediness and mania that makes it chillingly effective. It’s the force of Hill’s tremendous, committed performance, plus the chemistry with costar Miles Teller (very much the straight man here as Efraim’s business partner, David Packouz) which carries a film that takes too many cliched routes to ever match the quality of its lead actor.

Todd Phillips’ excitable real-life story of two twentysomething dudes keeps telling us how bad arms dealing is but how cool they are

Todd Phillips’ smug bro adventure stars Jonah Hill and Miles Teller as two adorable twentysomething arms dealers having some pretty wild times in Miami and Fallujah. It puts an excitable spin on the true story of David Packouz and Efraim Diveroli: young stoner dudepreneurs who got rich brokering minor arms deals to the Us military and were finally busted for flogging dodgy Chinese ammo. (The movie is based on a 2011 Rolling Stone article about their exploits.)

With its generic hints of The Hangover (which Phillips directed) and the boiler-room machismo of The Wolf of Wall Street (which took Jonah Hill to the big league), this is a strangely tiresome film with little in the way of comedy, preoccupied with reassuring the audience of its savvy satirical credentials by...

★★☆☆☆ Raucous entertainment and early promise inevitably succumbs to drab predictability in Todd Phillips' War Dogs. Based on the true story of David Packouz (Miles Teller) and Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill), two twentysomething friends who bluffed their way into a multi-million dollar Pentagon contract and were subsequently arrested by the FBI, here we have a film that is The Wolf of Wall Street with Ak-47s and a hundred million rounds of ammo rather than shoddy stocks and bonds.

The Big Short was one of the strangest success stories of 2015. It was directed by Adam McKay, the guy who gave us Anchorman and Step Brothers and had not shown he was able to direct Academy Award winning movies, but his film about the recession in the mid-2000s became one of the most acclaimed movies of the year. It won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay and McKay was even nominated for Best Director, which is just strange to think about. It was certainly worthy of all of those accolades, but in hindsight it looks like a miracle that it worked so well. Todd Phillips is trying to do the same thing with his new film, War Dogs. He is known for his outrageous R-rated comedies (The Hangover, Old School, Due Date), but he is taking a stab at the dramedy genre with this based-on-a-true story flick. Much like The Big Short,...

There is a scene towards the middle of Todd Phillips' War Dogs that sees the film's two 20something stoners-turned-arms dealers, David and Efraim (played by Miles Teller and Jonah Hill), running from gun-wielding insurgents down a desert highway after their hired driver had stopped for free gas in Fallujah. They're saved at the last minute by an American patrol coming the opposite direction down the highway in Humvees. This really didn't happen to David Packouz and Efraim Diveroli — the subjects of a much-publicized Pentagon criminal investigation and Guy Lawson's subsequent Rolling Stone article — but it did

read more...

Long before ordering Miles Teller and Jonah Hill off to the front lines, The Hangover director Todd Phillips came close to enlisting Shia Labeouf and Batman V Superman star Jesse Eisenberg for his gleefully over-the-top action comedy, War Dogs.

Opening in theaters today, August 19, Phillips revealed to Cinema Blend that the thriller formerly known as Arms and the Dudes originally had Labeouf attached to the part of vain gunrunner Efraim Diveroli, with Eisenberg slotting into the role of his partner-in-war-crime, David Packouz.

So, what changed? According to Phillips, a deal didn’t stick, though considering that both he and screenwriters Stephen Chin and Jason Smilovic wrote the script with Jonah Hill in mind, it would appear things worked out for the best.

Just to speak to that first part, [Jesse Eisenberg and Shia Labeouf] were attached for a moment, and then we ended up pushing the movie an entire year and both guys became unavailable.

The kids are heading back to school, it’s getting a touch cooler (the multiplex is still a great place to beat the heat), the superheroes have packed it in (for a couple of months), so are we ready to return to the Middle East, or at least the big conflicts in the sand? That’s how we started out the year, with Michael Bay’s Benghazi docudrama. Well, there were two little films that followed, set in that hostile local. Two “dramadies”, one fact, the other fiction, to be precise. Tom Hanks was a “fish-out-of-water” in Hologram For The King, while Tina Fey was a TV news reporter (based on a real person) in Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. Yes, this new flick is a comedy, or at least that’s what the near constant onslaught of trailers and TV spots have been hammering home for the last several months. Hey,...

War Dogs, not unlike The Big Short, attempts to make entertainment out of outrageous, behind-the-scenes sausage-making that ultimately had an impact on the American economy. While Todd Phillips‘ film is not as insightful as Adam McKay’s picture, it’s a good time, even if it remains somewhat politically neutral. The boys get rich off of a war they oppose while praising Dick Cheney’s America for making it happen.

Miles Teller stars as David Packouz, a massage therapist living in Miami with pregnant finance Iz (Ana de Armas). At a funeral he crosses paths with his middle school pal Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill), a shape-shifter who is whomever you want him to be while he’s standing right in front of you. Fighting for small crumbs on a government bidding site designed to even the playing field, David and Efraim make small arms deals until one appears they can’t resist.

Todd Phillips’ dramedy “War Dogs,” starring Miles Teller and Jonah Hill arrives in theaters this Friday, August 19. For those unfamiliar with the picture, it’s based on the true story of two young men, David Packouz (Teller) and Efraim Diveroli (Hill), who won a $300 million contract from the Pentagon to arm America’s allies in Afghanistan. If you’re deciding if you want to go see it, here’s what the critics thought.

IndieWire’s David Ehrlich wrote in his review that the gunrunner comedy “shoots blanks,” but he does praise Hill for his performance: “Teller gets the job done, but this isn’t his movie. Hill, on the other hand, is extraordinary…Hill embodies everything that’s best about the film around him: He’s funny, daft and broken in a way that’s more fun to gawk at than it is to fix. In a story that’s...

Jonah Hill and Miles Teller fire up big-time laughs, but don't ignore the crazy-ass political absurdity that burns through War Dogs. (Crazy-ass political absurdity being right up in our faces these days.) Based on the 2011 Rolling Stone article, "The Stoner Arms Dealers," the movie is so achingly true it defies belief. I mean, who'd accept that two twentysomething yeshiva boys from Miami could strike it rich by bidding on U.S. military contracts?

But that's what was going down in the mid 2000s, during the Bush-Cheney invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.

One of my favorite young actors, Miles Teller has been gaining steam as emerging A-lister over the last couple of years. This week, Teller is getting the same treatment that fellow near A-lister Jonah Hill got from me a few days ago from yours truly, in honor of their upcoming film War Dogs. Teller is very good in the film, as he pretty much always is, and even if it probably won’t launch his star any higher, it’s another interesting role in his quickly growing oeuvre. He deserves the attention, that’s for sure, so we’ll be showering him with it a bit more today… Once again for those of you who are curious, War Dogs is dramedy about two young men who became unlikely gun runners. It’s based on the true story of David Packouz (Teller) and Efraim Diveroli (Hill), who inexplicably won a $300 million...

A car pulls up in an icy industrial nowhere in Albania and men in long black coats get out, dragging an American stripped down to his underwear. He is narrating in the archetypal voice of Penthouse Forum, some variation on, “I never thought that a career in international arms trafficking would happen to me, but…” His name is David Packouz (Miles Teller) and he is a licensed masseur from Miami Beach. In voice-over and extended flashback redolent of warmed-over, badly watered-down Martin Scorsese, he will explain how he and his yeshiva buddy Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill, playing a less indelible numbers-crunching sociopath than he did in The Wolf Of Wall Street) made a killing on an initiative that guaranteed small businesses a share of government supply orders during George W. Bush’s second term.

After just a couple of years of work, they would land a $298 million Pentagon contract ...

War Dogs is based on one of those true stories that no one would actually believe if it were written as fiction. In the mid-’00s, two kids named Efraim Diveroli and David Packouz managed to secure a $300 million contract with the United States government to supply allied forces in Afghanistan with arms and ammunition. They then embarked on a globetrotting misadventure that saw them dealing with shady crooks and corrupt politicians and dangerous soldiers in the name of making a fortune. Most astonishingly, both men were twentysomething stoners with no experience handling anything of this size or scope. As much as the film may diverge from the truth for the sake of cinematic drama, the core story remains jaw-droppingly true. The Origin Story The dizzying rise and...

Read More...

It didn’t need to bill itself as such on its poster: War Dogs is obviously a movie about the modern, sad version of the American Dream. If you’ve ever been to a cinema you’ve encountered this rags to prison jumpsuit story a hundred times over. Yet director Todd Phillips’ (of The Hangover fame) first foray into more serious fare, for all its obvious derivativeness, somehow acquits itself decently. Yes, the movie showcases the immaturity of its characters alongside that of its director’s abilities in this field. But the formula works because this sort of tale is so gripping and thanks to the solid performances by its talented young stars, Miles Teller and Jonah Hill.

Teller is David Packouz, a young man who, like many in our modern bumbling economy, finds himself adrift in a dead-end job and no prospects at prosperity. Packouz (a real life character...

Miles Teller is blonde now. The “Whiplash” and “War Dogs” star is currently sporting a mop of electric yellow hair, courtesy of Joseph Kosinski’s currently filming “Granite Mountain,” which casts Teller as a firefighter tasked with battling a wicked Arizona wildfire back in 2013. For Teller, it’s the next big step in a seemingly ever-evolving feature film career that, less than a six years in, already contains starring roles in festival favorites, Oscar contenders, superhero franchises and bawdy comedies.

In Teller’s newest feature, the Todd Phillips-directed “War Dogs,” the actor again changes direction, thanks to an action comedy that casts the actor alongside Jonah Hill as a pair of unlikely arms dealers who get in over their heads when they attempt to close a big deal with the U.S. government. But although the film has all the hallmarks of a Phillips film – namely, it’s about...

A comedy only in the bleakest way, satire only in the sense that the whole world has become a parody of itself. Appalling and amusing in equal measure. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

I have read the source article (and I like it)

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

War Dogs was originally called Arms and the Dudes, which is a clever title, except it makes the movie sound like some sort of stoner comedy about bumbling weapons dealers from the guy who made the Hangover movies. And it’s not that at all. Oh, it is directed and cowritten by Todd Phillips, who wrote two and directed all three of the Hangover flicks, and it is about young arms dealers who frequently partake in illegal substances. But it’s not The Hangover with Guns. War Dogs is a comedy only in the darkest,...

You wouldn't necessarily expect that the guy who directed Old School and The Hangover would wind up making a really great war movie at some point in his career, but that is exactly what Todd Phillips just did. Kind of. War Dogs is a movie about the side of war that is rarely talked about, perhaps only in faint glimpses, and Phillips, with the help of a perfect duo in Miles Teller and Jonah Hill, has given us a great look at that side of things. But he didn't lose his comedic sensibility along the way.

War Dogs tells the based on a true story of two twenty something year-old friends, David Packouz (Teller) and Efraim Diveroli (Hill) who were best friends in school, but haven't seen one another in years. When they meet up at a funeral, David, who is fed up with his life as a massage therapist,...

Picture this: An old sedan comes to a stop at a desolate pile of rubble in the blue-hued ruins of modern Albania. A handful of masked men leap out of the car and forcibly remove the hooded hostage who’s been flailing around in the trunk. They throw him to the ground, shove an Ak-47 in his face and pull back the cloth covering his face. It’s Miles Teller. Freeze frame. Cue the voiceover: “My name is David Packouz, and you might be wondering how I got myself into this mess.”

Those aren’t his exact words (pretty close, though), but you get the idea — from its cold open to its abrupt closing line, there isn’t a single moment of Todd Phillips’ “War Dogs” that won’t make you feel as though you’ve seen this stridently American movie a hundred times already. In some respects, that’s...

I don’t think that Jonah Hill quite gets the appreciation that he deserves within the industry. Yes, he’s been cited by Oscar twice with Academy Award nominations in Best Supporting Actor (the first for Moneyball and the second for The Wolf of Wall Street) and has anchored a hugely successful comedy franchise, but still, he comes off as under-appreciated. Perhaps when he makes his directorial debut in a year or so that will change, but for now, he’s still underrated in my book. This week, he has a new film out in War Dogs, which could be another hit on his resume. He also has last week’s successful Sausage Party, an animated movie in which he is one of the voices. He certainly keeps busy, right? For those of you who are curious, War Dogs is dramedy about two young men who became unlikely gun runners.

Ryan Lambie Published Date Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - 06:32

Whatever you think about 2016‘s crop of mainstream American movies, maybe we can at least agree that it hasn’t exactly been a classic year for big-screen villainy. The otherwise spectacular Oscar Isaac looked awkward and out-of-sorts as the blue-faced supervillain at the heart of X-Men Apocalypse. Jessie Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor in Batman V Superman was more a caffeineated milquetoast than the bull-necked puppet master of the DC comics. As for the main threat in Suicide Squad... all we can say is, dancing and CGI smoke don’t an imposing villain make.

And yet, as the summer fades to autumn, along comes Jonah Hill to bring us one of the most mesmerising bad guys of the year so far. Not that, with his smiling blue eyes, high-pitched giggle and “Hey bro!” persona, he seems all that villainous at first. But then,...