Dirty Cops: War on Everyone

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.

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.

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?"

So we had two movies about an investigating couple in 2016. The other one was Shane Blacks "Nice guys". They weren't cops there, like they are here. But then again, these cops right here, you won't find too many of them around. It's obvious this is anything but politically correct. So if you don't like humor off the rails and off the norm, you probably should not watch this.

If you on the other hand like your comedies to be crazy and all over the place, you should give this a chance. It's actually pretty funny and the two buddies on the front are doing a great job with their characters. Completely crazy and without any morality center they take whatever they like and do not care. You could argue that this makes them despicable persons, but remember this is a movie and a comedy. Don't be offended by it, it takes away all the fun you could have

Philosopher Thomas Hobbes foretold a future "War of All Against All" in his book Leviathan, published in 1651. In his political/philosophical novel, he wrote his masterpiece during the English Civil War, which occurred from 1642-1651, arguing that a state of sovereignty is the only which way a body of politics can operate, without interference for third party or outside sources and individuals. His "War of All Against All" is an idea that was derived from the 'state of nature argument', where government can only be successful if it is strong, undivided and unified.

Now, I'm not sure if writer/director John Michael McDonagh intentionally wrote a script and titled a picture that could (not only be) so relevant in the United States with regards to government and policing today, but also, be such a comical and cynical interpretation of the very brutalities happening within America involving its citizens and civilians with such bravado, and most of all… balls. One has to wonder, is McDonagh warning everyone, or just laughing at them, especially since it's titled is source from such a serious and foreboding doctrine.

McDonagh, who was born in London, England, but is most notably known for being a very predominant Irish citizen, and the older brother of Martin McDonagh (considered one of the greatest living Irish playwrights today) delved deep, back into crime comedy genre with War On Everyone after The Guard became the most successful Irish Independent film of all time. Similar to The Guard, which starred his frequent collaborator and muse Brendan Gleeson, McDonagh decided to shoot his third film in the United States for the first time, keeping away from his native Irish land, and uses the landscapes of Albuquerque, New Mexico as a hellish field of nightmares. Surrounding his narrative on two very intractable corrupt cops who makes it their mission in life, and in their careers, to make every scumbag and criminal who crosses their path, as miserable and unfortunate as possible, War on Everyone is easily one of the most unsettling yet hard-hitting black comedies of 2016 that leaves all regard out the door.

While the premise and story of War is nothing to marvel at, the film itself, is easily one of the hardest films to look away from and not finish, thanks to the outlandish and quite unexpected direction McDonagh decided to take his story and characters on. Luckily for us, McDonagh decided to venture off with new actors to play the role of intimidating asshole cops on crack, to a new level.

With Peña, an actor who isn't unfamiliar with playing policemen or governing officials in the past, thanks to roles in Babel, Observe and Report, My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done, Gangster Squad, Vacation, the upcoming CHIPS and of course, one of my favourite of Peña's roles, Mike Zavala in David Ayer's masterpiece End of Watch, Peña could practically get a job as a cop with all his experience in the role. As Peña's partner, McDonagh choose someone who has never played a cop before. Luckily for us, actor Alexander Skarsgård literally stumbled upon the role from a video that went viral, showcasing the actor at a soccer match, drunkenly rooting for his team, leading a chant, and being completely and utterly intoxicated, making not only a huge fool of himself, but showing director McDonagh everything he needed to see for his beloved Terry character. Thanks for Skarsgård behaviour during his intense period of inebriation, the video secured the role for the towering actor, whose character Terry is an un-wreckable force of chaos and brutality with no brake or lever for control, a role Skarsgård completely punches and bruises into us without apology. Skarsgård is absolutely, unapolgetically, relentlessly perfect as Terry.

While every citizen in The United States are well aware of their rights, including the right to remain silent, War is a film that really doesn't say too much, other than offer an unlimited sources of one- liners and crass, crude jokes, heavy racial slander and bizarre perspective of criminals, but also allows the action seen on screen to speak for itself. Certain scenes in the film play off as set pieces in a play, where the intention and purpose of meaning is never really understood or comprehended, showing off personalities of certain characters and their interaction with one another, as well as bizarre interpretation of the coming to reality of a scorn and doomed society. One of these very characters is the introduction of Jackie Harris (Tessa Thompson), who plays Terry's love interest, and inevitable life-partner. The two share very awkward tonal scenes that resemble instances of a musical, a horror and a romantic comedy, yet, Jackie's relationship with Terry reveals absolutely nothing about him, other than his inconsistent ability to enforce ethics and morals to people, without ever compromising his own corrupt personality and desire and obsession with greed.

While Terry and Bob set fire to the world around them, including their own personal and family lives, the two indulge in the perks of having a badge, which include consuming countless narcotics that that they confiscate, including a large portion of cocaine from a mime-on-the-run (do mimes make a noise when you run over them?), large quantities of cash that they use for their own personal use, and beat up physically, verbally and mentally civilian that crosses their path. Luckily for the audience, everyone within the War world has as much as quick witted, vulgar tongue to argue back with are two unluckily antiheroes, that the dialogue is a measure of how far McDonagh's script actually pushing the boundaries. Luckily, no secondary characters are truly able to deliver comebacks that compare to the joint efforts of the corrupt duo. With no regard for women, race, culture or social status, the levels of offence and discrimination are pushed in each and every scene and word that comes out of Bob and Terry's mouths.