War on Everyone (Cert PG, 100 mins,★★) takes the writer/director John Michael McDonagh’s dark, antic spirit – in Ireland for his last two films – and transports it to Albuquerque, where a pair of corrupt, foul-mouthed cops are receiving a final warning from their exasperated police chief.
Bob Bolaño (Michael Peña) and Terry Monroe (Alexander Skarsgård) are loyal chiefly to each other and easy money. The film opens with them driving at speed towards a fleeing thief dressed as a mime. “I always wondered if you hit a mime, does he make a sound?” ponders Terry, as the target’s scarlet mouth opens in a silent scream before he rolls up over the bonnet. That tactic follows on repeat: a plot contrivance delivering a flip one-liner.
