Dirty Cops: War on Everyone

I liked Alexander Skarsgård and Michael Pena in it. They had the chemistry that makes for good buddy cop movies.

The buddy cop parts of War on Everyone was really cool too with Paul Reiser as that boss that always comes down on them hard for being good cops(although in the case they are far from good cops). The look and feel of War on Everyone feels like a classic cop show from the 1970s, which was very cool.

But they needed far better material. The movie lacks interest for my taste. Love the concept, thought the implantation of the concept was a bit of a snooze.

Overall, it is worth checking out.

This is one of those movies that you'll either love or hate.

I loved it.

The opening scene had me thinking that it was too over-the-top, and I wasn't going to like it, but I just kept laughing. Out loud.

Being from New Mexico, some of the jokes at the expense of the ABQ PD had extra spice.

Black comedy isn't for everyone. If you don't like the dark side, you aren't going to enjoy this one. I can understand the reviews from those who like their comedy dark but just didn't connect with this one, too. Different strokes and all. It is wacky, crazy, and out there, not just black.

I found the chemistry between the two buddy cops great, there are some truly wonderful lines amongst their banter.

If you can get over the "silly factor" involved with being so over-the-top, I think you'll enjoy the ride, otherwise you'll be one of those that "HATED IT".

If I had to give this film a pass-or-fail grade I would give it a thumbs up, but not very enthusiastically. A lot of the elements of this movie I really like on their surface, but for some reason they don't all come together as a cohesive and coherent motion picture. On the plus side the acting is good and a lot of the sardonic humour played very well for me.

On the down side this movie just seemed to have a lack of direction and a real "point" it was driving toward. I've read other reviews here about how the lack of point itself may be the point, but I think that is letting the filmmaker off the hook. I don't think that's really what they were going for.

It feels like they wanted at times to make a very black comedy about power, corruption, and the pointlessness of it all (for some), but at other times it's more of a light-hearted and sarcastic "buddy cop" flick, and they two just don't quite gel.

Good acting, it looks great, and a lot of funny moments make this a worthwhile watch though.

I really liked War On Everyone, to me it was an alternate reality made through the trope of American cop movies and TV from the 70's. Not the real 70's but the film fiction of the 1970's but with the movie actually set in modern times.

I also noticed the viewer has to pay attention or you will miss the connection of each scene to the next (no checking your cell phone). War On Everyone is a tightly woven film where a homage to 70's film/TV style might be too obscure for anyone under 50 or someone who never watched old 70's cop stuff. The movie probably needed some objective editing from someone besides the writer/director.

I'm 54 and I thought War On Everyone was very funny. :-) I have a tomboy mom who took me to every car chase movie that came out in the 70's - R rated included - and her favorite TV shows (that me and my brother were 'forced' to watch) were Mannix, Dragnet, and Adam 12. I loved Starsky and Hutch 1975 (Huggy Bear reference in WOE). It probably helped me like the movie.

The movie does not pull it's punches in swearing, offensive racial slurs, and bawdy humor but it strangely passes the Bechdel test when the two main female characters have a scene where they talk to each other about their travels.

War On Everyone is movie where everyone has their faults but seems to ask the questions, "Does societies definition of right and wrong mean anything, are there acceptable degrees of wrongness and is there a line that even "bad" people won't cross?"

This week's Odeon's Screen Unseen was my highly anticipated War On Everyone, highly anticipated for a number of reasons. Firstly, I really enjoyed John Michael McDonagh's Calvary with Brendan Gleeson, both written and directed by McDonagh, just like this film. Secondly, Michael Peña being one of my favourite actors since the film Crash and have liked him in everything since. Thirdly, this year's Tarzan, Alexander Skarsgård, having enjoyed his John Clayton/Tarzan I was eager to see what else he can offer.

Peña and Skargård play Bob and Terry, two corrupt cops who wreck havoc across New Mexico taking and doing whatever they want under the protection of their badge and guns, roughing up criminals in their unorthodox policing methods, who are unfortunately enough to get in their way. Skargård's Terry being the hulking, unhinged, drunkard that swaggers about punching most people in the face; a lot, and Peña's Bob is the intellect of the two, smart-talking and quick-thinking being his forte, throwing out quirky philosophical comments at any given moment. The chemistry between the two is highly entertaining, provoking you to want to know what they're going to do next.

The two of them rampage about town in Terry's indestructible 1970 Chevrolet Monte Carlo and no one is safe, apart from the meek, so justice is on the agenda, just not the kind of justice the precinct would warrant, especially their Lieutenant, played by Paul Reiser. Their shake downs of crims eventually leads them to smug, rich Brit, crime-Lord James Mangan, who is just wrong, very wrong indeed but played well by Divergent's Theo James, donning his home accent and wonderful tweed attire.

The film goes all over the place, (even to Iceland) and although not hard to follow, it feels like a mess, thinking I had missed something along the way. A lot happens in the 98min runtime but I can't say it's fast pace, it felt unbalanced quite a few times during the movie but the events that do unfold are dark and brutal if not amusing.

There's quite an assortment of characters besides the key players, notably the absconding informant, Reggie, the squirmy, feminine Birdwell, Paddy Power, Pádraic and the stunning Jackie Hollis, played by Creed's Tessa Thompson. With all the colourful characters it made the story feel like a disjointed, poor version of a Tarantino movie but and lacked a great soundtrack, apart from the Glen Campbell that seems to be playing most of the time during the film.

It's a rough, tough buddy-cop movie like no other, could well have been written by Elmore Leonard whilst on LSD. It's very much a McDonagh's movie, being quite refreshing in effortless style, only Americanised and yet, there's great potential to improve on this film.

Running Time: 7 The Cast: 8 Performance: 8 Direction: 7 Story: 5 Script: 8 Creativity: 6 Soundtrack: 6 Job Description: 6 The Extra Bonus Points: 5 for being quite outrageous and offensive in parts.

66% 7/10