War Dogs
Warner Bros. | Release Date: August 19, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
57
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
12
Negative:
8
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
Time Out LondonDave CalhounAug 22, 2016
War Dogs simply doesn’t dig deeply enough into the duo’s personalities to be more than a fitfully entertaining escapist spin on a ripped-from-the-headlines yarn. Read full review
60
EmpireJohn NugentAug 22, 2016
Buoyed by riveting lead performances, and driven by a compelling real-life story, this is proof that Phillips can handle grown-up material. All without a naked Ken Jeong. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghAug 18, 2016
There’s a limit to how much patience one has for spending time with terrible people living large. But for all the lackluster familiarity of the film’s style, the story is too interesting, too baffling to deny. Read full review
60
Village VoiceChris PackhamAug 16, 2016
The film’s breezy drive and bursts of comic energy largely divert attention from the flatness of its world and characters. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerAug 19, 2016
War Dogs ends up being no better than its protagonists at delivering the goods. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyAug 17, 2016
Despite all the time War Dogs spends with these two characters, it never develops them past the initial impression that one is basically a good guy and that the other is bad news incarnate. Read full review
58
IndieWireDavid EhrlichAug 16, 2016
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 supposedly about the payoffs and perils of taking big risks, he’s the only one who puts his money where his mouth is. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangAug 18, 2016
In the end, there’s no outrage in War Dogs — no lacerating insight, no gonzo satiric energy, nothing more than warmed-over cynicism and some mild titters at the spectacle of boys being boys under uniquely deadly circumstances. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubAug 18, 2016
A solid piece of in-the-moment entertainment that fails in its attempt to be something more. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzAug 17, 2016
War Dogs is a film about horrible people that refuses to own the horribleness. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreAug 17, 2016
Tone is tough when you’re snickering at “gun nuts” while you live the good life off underhanded ways of selling them. The movie takes swipes at Bush era bungling and corruption while reveling in it, because, well, these guys had fun doing it? Read full review
40
Time OutJoshua RothkopfAug 16, 2016
When Phillips’s regular ace Bradley Cooper shows up—as a scowling war profiteer—it just feels like stunt casting and a missed opportunity for levity. Read full review
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