Preview: TODAY'S LOCK-DOWN MOVIE SUGGESTION:WAR ON EVERYONE

Terry Monroe (Alexander Skarsg?rd): Like I always say, Bob, if it ain't broke... break it

After the critical success of director John Michael McDonagh's previous two pictures - The Guard (2011) and Calvary (2014), there were high expectations for 2016's black comedy War On Everyone.

Reviews were mixed, but I've come to appreciate the picture's unique charms on repeated viewing.

Negative reviews included:

Crass, senseless, and relentlessly talky, War on Everyone mostly seems like a movie at war with itself.

Entertainment Weekly

Mr. McDonagh's palette and spleen remain mostly intact, but here he's neglected to include a story or point.

NYT

With Alexander Skarsgard and Michael Pena playing the inevitably maverick, rule-breaking pair of cops, McDonagh seems oblivious to how many times this sort of ultra-black, ultra-violent comedy has been done before. And done better.

Mail on Sunday

So hackneyed, tired, labored and overstuffed with contempt not only for all of its targets but also its own self that one gets the feeling that the talented Mr. McDonagh has gone mad with rage.

RogerEbert.com

Getting back to the movie; Alexander Skarsg?rd and Michael Pe?a star as corrupt Albuquerque detectives Monroe and Bola?o, who breeze through life ripping off criminals and boozing - until they face nemesis in the shape of the boring guy from the Divergent movies (Theo James) as a crooked English aristocrat and his repellent sidekick Caleb Landry Jones, whose face in the movie is just begging for a punch. Much like his annoying fizzog in 2017's Get Out.

Theo James and creepy Caleb Landry Jones

Without spoiling the plot, it turns out Skarsg?rd and Pe?a aren't quite as irredeemable as we first think.

A strong cast is rounded out by the ever-watchable Paul Reiser and then rising star Tessa Thompson.

The soundtrack provides some delights including Monroe's love of classic-era Glen Campbell and the inclusion of the very wonderful Non E' Niente by Catherine Spaak:

Although some critics mistakenly likened WoE as a riff on 80s/90s buddy cop movies such as Lethal Weapon and Bad Boys, I see much more of a 70s vibe, comparable to the likes of Hickey & Boggs (1972), Freebie & The Bean and Busting (both 1974).

Some may see hints of re-heated Tarantino - or even (God forbid) Guy Ritchie but the comparison is pretty much inevitable in any (semi) literate crime comedy comedy since Reservoir Dogs (1992).

There must be a dark streak within the McDonagh family as his younger brother Martin is also a playwright/director and of course responsible for the great movie trifecta of In Bruges (2008), Seven Pyschopaths (2012) and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017).

So, check out War on Everyone, it's a (ahem) grower.

I would like to say 'or your money/time back' but nah, I won't.

 Lt. Gerry Stanton (Paul Reiser): Welcome back boys. How did we enjoy our sabbatical?

Bob Bola?o (Michael Pe?a) : It was very pleasant. It was very relaxing. I masturbated a lot.

Lt. Gerry Stanton: Enforced sabbatical, I should have said.

Terry Monroe: What's a sabbatical?

Lt. Gerry Stanton: Okay. So, Laurel and Hardy here, huh? Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

Bob Bola?o: Siegfried and Roy. Sacco and Vanzetti. Abelard and Heloise.

Terry Monroe: Is this a quiz?

Lt. Gerry Stanton: No, it's not a quiz. This is your last chance, okay?