Directed by – John Michael McDonagh
Starring – Alexander Skarsgard; Michael Pena; Theo James; Tessa Thompson; Caleb Landry Jones & Stephanie Sigman.
Running Time – 98 minutes (1 hour 38 minutes)
★★★★✩
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Director John Michael McDonagh is well known for this dark sense of humour in Irish based films such as The Guard and Calvary. In this first feature film outside the emerald isle, I’m proud to report it still has the wickedly black comedy of its predecessors.
War on Everyone focuses on two corrupt cops Terry Monroe (Skarsgard) and Bob Bolano (Pena) who set out to blackmail and frame every criminal unfortunate enough to cross their path. Things take a sinister turn, however, when they try to intimidate someone who is more dangerous than they are. Or is he?
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“I’ve always wondered if you hit a mime does he make a sound?” asks Bob, which Terry processed by running the mime over with his car and replies “well now you know.”
This sets the course for the next 98 minutes of incredibly funny dark humour with my personal favourite being Terry and Bob looking for a black man in Iceland. However, sometimes it was trying too hard to be funny with some of these jokes falling like a led balloon.
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It didn’t take anything away from the enjoyment of seeing Skarsgard and Pena together. They bounce off each other really well and they were able to balance their personalities well enough to make you like these complete arseholes.
The most surprising and sort of film steal performance came from Theo James (the hunky dude from the Divergent films). Who plays a villain incredibly well and every time he came on screen, I felt uneasy, but his charm hides it like all the great villains.
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Also, on a personal note I maybe, kinda, sort of fell in love with Tessa Thompson as her character seemed to get Terry the heart he was missing.
Huge props have to go to McDonagh who had the balls to tackle subjects like child rape, putting a dark comedic edge to how racist cops seem to be lately and how they treat minorities.
Meanwhile, it’s great to see buddy cop films make a return to cinemas this year with all of them having different tones. Shane Black’s The Nice Guys had a classic feel towards it like Lethal Weapon, and then you have Central Intelligence with the personalities and chemistry of Kevin Hart and Dwayne Johnson turning the film into a franchise. Now the genre has some balls and bite thanks to War on Everyone.
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Verdict
Wickedly dark, but hilarious buddy cop film.
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