WAR On Everyone film follows Albuquerque police duo Terry Monroe (Alexander Skarsgård) and Bob Bolaño (Michael Peña) as they booze and brawl their way through their beat, solving some crimes along the way.
The hapless pair seem to possess ethical compasses that are skewed at best, a point illustrated early on as they plant cocaine on Reggie (an acquaintance who becomes an informant), and then proceed to snort it with him.
The bad cop/ bad cop dynamic established, then, Terry and Bob set their sights on tracking down Lord James Mangan, a textbook eccentric British villain played with relish by Theo James. As Reggie reveals, a heist is happening – and the cops want a cut.
It's a film replete with all the trappings of classic police flicks; the duo don three-piece suits (Terry sports aviators to boot), cruise around in a bulky muscle car, and even, comically, chow down nonchalantly on hamburgers at a murder scene.
There are plenty of knowing nods to the genre, from a reference to Starsky and Hutch to cuts between shots that wouldn’t be out of place in the 70s TV show. These are coupled with a Tarantino-esque cartoon violence (you can’t help but think of Kill Bill, for example, when Mangan wields an antique sword).
On one level the film operates as a kind of irreverent send-up of such visuals, but unfortunately it does little to revise the racist and sexist messages of the movies from which it takes inspiration. To some extent, the clue is in the title – McDonagh seems hell-bent on causing offense to as many people and groups as possible.
Yet there's an odd disjunction in the script; it engages in racial stereotyping and plays this for laughs, but tries, at the same time, to make a more serious comment on the ongoing epidemic of racially charged police brutality in America.
When asked why he became a cop, Terry answers: “I always wanted to pervert the course of justice. Plus, you can shoot people for no reason.” In a subtle touch by McDonagh, Jackie is seen reading The Algiers Motel Incident, a 1968 true crime novel which details the murder of three black men by state forces including the Detroit Police.
These moments, however, sit uneasily within a film that largely swaps the biting wit of The Guard or Calvary for cheap and easy gags. The female characters exist only as love interests for the men; the whole thing smacks of a machismo that’s never questioned.
While the leads put in solid performances (Peña, in particular, excels as a misanthrope who’s nonetheless willing to do anything for his best bud), rarely do characters feel like anything but stock types. Towards the end of the film, we’re provided with a small bit of information about Terry’s back story that may explain his behaviour, but it feels tacked on, and doesn’t do much to provoke empathy for a character who has spent the last hour driving drunkenly and beating people up.
The problem, then, as War on Everyone careers towards its final showdown, is that neither the 'goodies' nor the 'baddies' are fleshed out enough, relatable enough, for viewers to root for.
In an early scene, Terry, sipping a bottle of beer, drives his car at a crawl down a residential street, veering from side to side, crashing into the vehicles parked along the pavement. Like its shambolic protagonist, War on Everyone lacks direction – a pity, as it had the potential to be a thrilling ride.
WAR ON EVERYONE (15, 98 mins) Comedy/Drama/Romance/Action. Michael Pena, Alexander Skarsgard, Theo James, Caleb Landry Jones, Stephanie Sigman, Tessa Thompson, Paul Reiser, Malcolm Barrett, Zion Leyba. Director: John Michael McDonagh
RATING: 4/10
