'War Dogs': Jonah Hill and Miles Teller play gonzo gun-runners, but who cares?

"This isn't about being pro-war. . . . This is about being pro-money," says Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill), a hustling arms-dealer who is offering his childhood friend, massage therapist David Packouz (Miles Teller), a chance to get in on the action.

And in War Dogs, a heavily embroidered take on a true story, the action is huge. It costs $17,500 to outfit one American soldier, helmet to boot, the movie says. It costs millions just to run the air-conditioning at an Army camp in the desert of Iraq.

Somebody has to supply the troops. Why not a couple of clowns from Miami?

Directed by Todd Phillips, the man behind The Hangover trilogy, War Dogs comes by way of a Rolling Stone article and a book, Arms and the Dudes (both by Guy Lawson). The picture has a gonzo energy and a cast of characters that are morally adrift. Well, Efraim, played by Hill with a paunch-first swagger and a smug, shifty mien, isn't adrift - his ethics, his compassion, have been jettisoned from the window of the high-rise where he runs his company. On his office wall: a giant photo of Al Pacino's Tony Montana, wielding his M-16, from Scarface.

David, whom we first meet as he's being pummeled in some empty lot in Albania, a gun pointed at his face, still has some semblance of conscience, ethics. Flash-backing from that violent introduction to Miami 2005, David comes across as a likably aimless twenty-something, kneading guys' quads for $75 an hour and trying to think up a scheme that will make him real money. His girlfriend, Iz (Ana de Armas), looks on lovingly, full of trust and understanding.

Enter Efraim, with his lines of coke and his Defense Department procurement lists. To democratize the process of supplying the American military, the DOD has a website where vendors can make bids. Somehow, Efraim has no problem coming up with a truckload of Berettas. Well, there are problems, but he and David figure a way around them.

They're off and running - and running a potential $300 million deal involving Chinese-made bullets.

But things get complicated. There are trade embargoes. There are middlemen. There is Bradley Cooper as a mystery arms dealer on a terrorist watch list. And David has been lying to Iz all along, hiding the fact that he's trading in weaponry, not high-end linens. When she discovers a cache of cash in the Miami condo they've moved into, she threatens to leave - taking their baby girl with her.

With its voice-overs and its chapter headings, War Dogs has a tidy narrative structure. But moving within its wild and wacky and improbably true scenarios (some of them, anyway) are people you don't really want to know. Stop the presses: War makes people rich. Stop the movie: These people, who cares?

srea@phillynews.com

215-854-5629 @Steven_Rea

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War Dogs

**1/2 (Out of four stars)

yDirected by Todd Phillips. With Jonah Hill, Miles Teller, Ana de Armas, and Bradley Cooper. Distributed by

Warner Bros.

yRunning time: 1 hour, 54 mins.

yParent's guide: R (profanity, violence, drugs, adult themes).

yPlaying at: Area theaters.EndText