Guerra Contra Todos

Irish-born, London-based writer/director John Michael McDonagh's previous two films, The Guard (2011) and Calvary (2014), were jet- black comedies set in his native country, and both featured knockout performances from their lead, Brendan Gleeson. McDonagh's debut features were warmly received by critics, especially Calvary, which played out a rather twisted revenge tale against a backdrop of religious guilt. Neither managed to generate much commercial success, but nevertheless made McDonagh hot property and offered him the chance to work in the U.S., much like his brother Martin after In Bruges. Has John gone the way of his brother and delivered a misfire in the mould of the messy Seven Psychopaths?

Well in a way, yes. More akin to the broad, bad-taste tale of a corrupt, hateful cop on a journey of redemption in The Guard than the contemplative weight of Calvary, War on Everyone moves the action to Albuquerque, New Mexico and replaces Gleeson with the sharply- dressed, acid-tongued duo of Alexander Skarsgard and Michael Pena as bad cop and badder cop. Skarsgard plays Terry Monroe, an alcoholic, Glen Campbell-loving giant of a man who is prone to violence. Pena is Bob Bolano, an intellectual family man who enjoys philosophical arguments with his wife (Stephanie Sigman) while berating his fat children. They are the worst kind of cops imaginable; both are corrupt beyond belief, taking cuts of every stash or bundle of money they find, and generally f*****g up scumbags left right and centre.

McDonagh has great faith in his actors to make these truly despicable characters seemingly defined by their quirks likable, and it's a testament to the leading men that they actually manage to pull it off. Pena can do this kind of thing in his sleep - he could be playing Hitler and will still charm the pants off anybody watching. The real revelation is Skarsgard, showing a real knack for comic timing after previously being resigned to more stoic roles. Apparently Garret Hedlund pulled out at the last minute, and what a stroke of luck that turned out to be. At almost 6"5 and permanently hunched, Skarsgard often resembles a slow-witted giant come to stomp the place to pieces, instantly banishing all memory of the ripped hunk of The Legend of Tarzan. The duo's chemistry really holds the film together, as the remainder is little more than a mishmash of violence, colourful characters and homages.

Another way to make loathsome characters more sympathetic is by pitting them against someone even more heinous. Here the big villain is English aristocrat James Mangan (Theo James), a narcissistic psychopath whose planned heist with Muslim convert and police informer Reggie X (Malcolm Barrett) ends in a bloodbath. Terry and Bob still want their cut though, but the well-spoken Lord may prove too powerful to intimidate, especially with police chief Gerry Stanton (Paul Reiser) and City Hall breathing down their necks. It's not a particularly interesting story to build a collection of shakedowns, car chases and shoot-outs around, but some relief is offered in the relationship between Terry and former stripper Jackie (Tessa Thompson), who form a sweet romance amidst all the misanthropy. A certain step back after the mastery of Calvary, War on Everyone will offend some but have others in stitches, and I'm somewhere in between.

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.

Alexander Skarsgård and Theo James performed fairly decent, but Michael Peña seemed bored and too monotonic in his role. Interesting story, but weirdly played out. Directing and cinematography was decent. IMO, this film failed to deliver with such a great cast. 6/10 from me.

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