FilmSnobReviews

Title: War on Everyone
MPAA Rating: R
Director: John Michael McDonagh
Starring: Alexander Skarsgård, Michael Peña, Theo James
Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins

What It Is: Two corrupt cops that’ll do anything for profit set out to blackmail extort any rotten criminal they find. Bob (Peña) normally for profit and Terry (Skarsgård) because he finds it fun. When they run into a truly despicable criminal named Mangan (James) they aren’t looking for money or anything of substance and instead are doing this to actually protect and serve. So perhaps they aren’t all corruption and blackmail, on second thought, probably not.

What We Think: Peña and Skarsgård have an obvious chemistry which is interesting when you consider that Alexander Skarsgård was a replacement just days before shooting began. It is that chemistry that really sets this apart from some other cop films like The Infiltrator where the focus is only on one character and the other people in the film kinda get lost. Here no one falls victim to that. What happens instead are we have a group of characters who aren’t particularly likable. Sure we like them as a duo but from a personality standpoint, they are really quite despicable.

Our Grade: C+, This is a decent film that probably deserves even a little of your attention. See the film as it is currently available on VOD. Not only is McDonagh a great director whose previous two films The Guard and Calvary are brilliant. While this does not feature Brendan Gleason, which I think a lot of films should, you still get a decent buddy cop film with a bit more edge than the normal buddy cop film. More End of Watch, which ironically also features Peña, and less so like CHiPs yet another Peña film. We haven’t seen that one and from the looks of it, we will certainly pass on it.