War on Everyone (2016)

User Review

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  TheMovieDiorama

  4 / 10

  War On Everyone is unfortunately misguided. It's attempting to be a black comedy but there really isn't anything comedic presented. The film starts straight away in the middle of a case, we have no back story no narration no nothing. So already I feel disconnected with the story and I'm constantly trying to play catch up. Acting though, was solid. I thought Michael Pena and Alexander Skarsgard had good chemistry and the banter between them felt natural. Caleb Landry Jones was my favourite performance but who would've though Theo James could pull off a villainous role? I thought the direction was good (minus the beginning) and there are some creative shots, although I really dislike the scene transitions. The script was abit hit and miss for me, some parts of it worked however the forced comedy didn't land all the time. However, this is John Michael McDonagh's weakest film. I understand that the police officers are bad at their jobs, but for it to be the whole point of the film and the main gag for the script...it just grew tedious. Firstly, they would've got fired ages ago and secondly, Pena's character is just horrible for the sake of it...including to his family. It didn't work for me. The story itself was basic and yet somehow the narrative made it more confusing for me to actually follow. Some scenes felt disconnected, like we were missing some segments from the theatrical cut. This was clearly a missed opportunity, and one scene sums up the film. A couple of guys are watching a porn film and they say something like: "if the script is bad, the whole movie is bad". Ironically, this is War On Everyone's issue. A well made film, just misguided.

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