Everything War on Everyone writer-director John Michael McDonagh knows about United States law enforcement he must have learned watching 70s cop shows, while the rest of his outlook on the American way of life may as well have been cribbed from vintage photographs and Glen Campbell records. Not a bad mix of influences for the wicked-dark Irish satirist to recombine for his virgin foray abroad, a talky, sexy, irreverent and ultimately somewhat surreal buddy-cop movie in which two detectives one suspension shy of early retirement stick their noses into the middle of a million-dollar heist, hoping to bust the criminals and keep the loot for themselves. While his American competition practices the right to remain silent, McDonagh writes his clever, coal-black heart out, delivering another firecracker script, this time with considerably more commercial potential than his previous two indies, Calvary and The Guard.
On the good-cop/bad-cop continuum, Albuquerque police detectives Bob Bolano (Michael Pena) and Terry Monroe (Alexander Skarsgard) are something of a paradox: What makes them effective is the fact that they dont care. Bob has a gorgeous wife and two overweight kids, but doesnt think twice of risking his home life to shake down local scumbags like the cocaine-dealing mime they run down in the opening car chase (hardly a fair match, considering the face-painted perp is on foot and the cops are behind the wheel of a classic blue Monte Carlo coupe). Making a lone exception for his Mexican partner, Terry otherwise hates everybody: Hes racist, misogynist and quite possibly nihilist to boot, explaining that he joined the force because you can shoot people for no reason.
While recent American headlines reveal that quip to be too often true, neither Bob nor Terry has ever killed a man. War on Everyone will change all that, despite the stern talking-to the two partners receive on the subject of excessive force from their patience-strained police chief (Paul Reiser, in what turns out to be a decent, if unexpected, bit of casting for the former Mad About You star). Plainly disrespectful in the face of authority, Bob and Terry have reason to believe a handful of shady characters are gathering in town to organize a caper, and rather than inform their chief, they set out to crack the scheme, let the crime happen and then steal the dough though theyre dim enough to stake out a downtown mosque when the actual heist happens, leaving three dead (by unprovoked police fire) and the money at large.
...
What it doesnt contain much of is simple, sensitive humanity, instead treating mortality like a joke and serious substance abuse like just another quirky costume flourish (despite his studly Swedish physique, Skarsgard slouches through most of the movie half-soused). If theres one thing that connects the protagonists in McDonaghs three features to date, beyond their brazenly non-PC sensibilities, its a certain Zen-like ambivalence about whether they live or die...
Compared with some of the fancy action that has come before heightened by stalwart editing partner (and former Danny Boyle collaborator) Chris Gill the climactic shootout actually feels rather tame (probably not the word any of the victims would choose, especially the one Terry nails with one of his famous crotch shots). As with the racetrack heist itself, McDonagh opts not to dwell on the spectacle of bloodletting, but is clear to illustrate its aftermath. As such, War on Everyone makes a peculiar sort of statement, riffing on such violent genres as Westerns and cop movies, even as it questions why the country puts guns (and badges) into the hands of angry misfits. As Reiser quips at one point, This is the police department. Were surrounded by big fat racist pigs. If Tarantino had said it, the police unions would have had even more reason to boycott his movie. Coming from across the Pond, the indictment feels doubly damning.
http://variety.com/2016/film/reviews/war-on-everyone-film-review-1201704227/
Berlin Review: Could 'War on Everyone' Be the Best Bad Cop Comedy Ever?
Michael Peña and Alexander Skarsgård are the Laurel and Hardy of New Mexico law enforcement.
Im not sure if any bad cops in the whole genre of bad cop comedy have paid so little lip service to actual policing as the pair in John Michael McDonaghs "War on Everyone." And Im not sure that the genre has produced such an irresistibly funny film.
When we first see New Mexico police officers Bob Balaño (Michael Peña) and Terry Monroe (Alexander Skarsgård), they are speeding after a Marcel Marceau look-alike whos on foot. Ive always wondered if you hit a mime, does he make a sound? asks Bob of his colleague at the wheel, a drunk whos unable, or more likely unwilling, to drive in a straight line. They soon find the answer.
The corruption on display isnt new; what feels refreshing is the gay abandon with which these two do it, and the very peculiar nature of their chalk and cheese characters. Peñas verbal dexterity has often been put to the service of fools ("Ant-Man") or secondary comic support ("The Martian"), but here hes center stage and the brains of the partnership; when Bob is at home hes debating Simone de Beauvoir and Andre Breton with his wife (Stephanie Sigman) or giving his kids a rum moral education. In contrast Terry is a battering ram, constantly inebriated, running mostly on instinct, living alone in an empty apartment and inspired only by his love of Glen Campbell...
Anyone rushing to charge the film with political incorrectness just needs to settle down, because the cracks rarely involve ill will, and as often as not its Terry whos looking like an idiot. If anything, McDonaghs writing is fallible when you can feel it working too hard; hes not as good as his brother at concealing the cogs.
Despite moments of physical violence, this is much lighter than his previous films "The Guard" (also involving a corrupt cop, of course) and "Calvary." That said, Skarsgård so good as the handsome dolt just shades the acting honors for the way he slowly introduces the dark secrets that inform Terry's personality and inadvertently lead him towards a shot at redemption, which in turn ensures that this guilty pleasure remains original to the end.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompson...yone-be-the-best-bad-cop-comedy-ever-20160212
On the good-cop/bad-cop continuum, Albuquerque police detectives Bob Bolano (Michael Pena) and Terry Monroe (Alexander Skarsgard) are something of a paradox: What makes them effective is the fact that they dont care. Bob has a gorgeous wife and two overweight kids, but doesnt think twice of risking his home life to shake down local scumbags like the cocaine-dealing mime they run down in the opening car chase (hardly a fair match, considering the face-painted perp is on foot and the cops are behind the wheel of a classic blue Monte Carlo coupe). Making a lone exception for his Mexican partner, Terry otherwise hates everybody: Hes racist, misogynist and quite possibly nihilist to boot, explaining that he joined the force because you can shoot people for no reason.
While recent American headlines reveal that quip to be too often true, neither Bob nor Terry has ever killed a man. War on Everyone will change all that, despite the stern talking-to the two partners receive on the subject of excessive force from their patience-strained police chief (Paul Reiser, in what turns out to be a decent, if unexpected, bit of casting for the former Mad About You star). Plainly disrespectful in the face of authority, Bob and Terry have reason to believe a handful of shady characters are gathering in town to organize a caper, and rather than inform their chief, they set out to crack the scheme, let the crime happen and then steal the dough though theyre dim enough to stake out a downtown mosque when the actual heist happens, leaving three dead (by unprovoked police fire) and the money at large.
...
What it doesnt contain much of is simple, sensitive humanity, instead treating mortality like a joke and serious substance abuse like just another quirky costume flourish (despite his studly Swedish physique, Skarsgard slouches through most of the movie half-soused). If theres one thing that connects the protagonists in McDonaghs three features to date, beyond their brazenly non-PC sensibilities, its a certain Zen-like ambivalence about whether they live or die...
Compared with some of the fancy action that has come before heightened by stalwart editing partner (and former Danny Boyle collaborator) Chris Gill the climactic shootout actually feels rather tame (probably not the word any of the victims would choose, especially the one Terry nails with one of his famous crotch shots). As with the racetrack heist itself, McDonagh opts not to dwell on the spectacle of bloodletting, but is clear to illustrate its aftermath. As such, War on Everyone makes a peculiar sort of statement, riffing on such violent genres as Westerns and cop movies, even as it questions why the country puts guns (and badges) into the hands of angry misfits. As Reiser quips at one point, This is the police department. Were surrounded by big fat racist pigs. If Tarantino had said it, the police unions would have had even more reason to boycott his movie. Coming from across the Pond, the indictment feels doubly damning.
http://variety.com/2016/film/reviews/war-on-everyone-film-review-1201704227/
Berlin Review: Could 'War on Everyone' Be the Best Bad Cop Comedy Ever?
Michael Peña and Alexander Skarsgård are the Laurel and Hardy of New Mexico law enforcement.
Im not sure if any bad cops in the whole genre of bad cop comedy have paid so little lip service to actual policing as the pair in John Michael McDonaghs "War on Everyone." And Im not sure that the genre has produced such an irresistibly funny film.
When we first see New Mexico police officers Bob Balaño (Michael Peña) and Terry Monroe (Alexander Skarsgård), they are speeding after a Marcel Marceau look-alike whos on foot. Ive always wondered if you hit a mime, does he make a sound? asks Bob of his colleague at the wheel, a drunk whos unable, or more likely unwilling, to drive in a straight line. They soon find the answer.
The corruption on display isnt new; what feels refreshing is the gay abandon with which these two do it, and the very peculiar nature of their chalk and cheese characters. Peñas verbal dexterity has often been put to the service of fools ("Ant-Man") or secondary comic support ("The Martian"), but here hes center stage and the brains of the partnership; when Bob is at home hes debating Simone de Beauvoir and Andre Breton with his wife (Stephanie Sigman) or giving his kids a rum moral education. In contrast Terry is a battering ram, constantly inebriated, running mostly on instinct, living alone in an empty apartment and inspired only by his love of Glen Campbell...
Anyone rushing to charge the film with political incorrectness just needs to settle down, because the cracks rarely involve ill will, and as often as not its Terry whos looking like an idiot. If anything, McDonaghs writing is fallible when you can feel it working too hard; hes not as good as his brother at concealing the cogs.
Despite moments of physical violence, this is much lighter than his previous films "The Guard" (also involving a corrupt cop, of course) and "Calvary." That said, Skarsgård so good as the handsome dolt just shades the acting honors for the way he slowly introduces the dark secrets that inform Terry's personality and inadvertently lead him towards a shot at redemption, which in turn ensures that this guilty pleasure remains original to the end.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompson...yone-be-the-best-bad-cop-comedy-ever-20160212
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