An interesting satire on the arms trade

Rating: 8/10 (31 May 2009)

I wasn't too sure what to expect from this film, going into it I just knew it was about an arms dealer so could have been an action flick or a pious movie about how evil the trade is. I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't either; yes there was action and there was a message to the film although that wasn't overplayed.
Nicolas Cage plays Yuri Orlov, a Ukrainian who has left the Soviet Union and is living in New York. He decides that he can make a decent living selling guns with his brother. The business quickly grows but after an arms shipment is paid for in cocaine his brother becomes addicted and has to be dropped from the business. Yuri has his own addiction; to a model who he manages to seduce and later marry although he never tells her where his money is coming from. Business gets much better for Yuri when the Soviet Union collapses and he uses family connection in the Ukraine to steal a vast arsenal of weaponry which he sells to dubious regimes in West Africa. His best costumer is the president of Liberia played by the excellent Eamonn Walker. While Yuri is climbing up the ladder of leading arms dealers he is pursued by dogged Interpol agent Jack Valentine played by Ethan Hawke.
For a film about the arms trade there are a surprising number of laugh out loud moments, especially in the earlier parts of the film. Later things get more serious and there are some disturbing scenes, although these aren't too gruesome.