Uber-restrained Cage

Rating: 7/10 (12 February 2019)

Nicolas Cage has had an up and down career over the ages - well, mainly 'down' these day, but, back when he could still headline a movie that wasn't released straight-to-DVD, he did 'Lord of War.' It's mainly a drama, but there are certainly elements of satire and almost black comedy sprinkled liberally here and there. Cage plays your average lovable international arms dealer who's happily selling weapons of mass destruction around the world while enjoying the fruits of his efforts (much to the disapproval of a long-suffering Interpol agent, played by Ethan Hawke, who's constantly hot on his trail).
There's a reason Nicolas Cage won an Oscar and could prop up even the weakest of scripts with his acting ability and here it shines through. It's definitely one of his last (best) films where the whole show lies upon his shoulders. Granted, he's got a bit of a reputation of - how best to put this - going a little 'over the top' with his acting performances, however, here he's actually pretty restrained compared to some of he previous output.
Even though it's Nic's show through and through, there is a pretty decent cast around him. Besides the already-mentioned Ethan Hawke (who's not in it as much as he probably should be), there's also Jared Leto and Ian Holm, both who put in good performances considered the amount of screen-time they're afforded. Cage's on-screen wife is played by Bridget Moynahan who has little to do but look hard done by due to her husband's dodgy lifestyle choices.
It's full of social satire and statements about the way we (as Western nations, I guess) live and run our countries, plus the impact the arms trade (whether it be legal, or Nicolas Cage's way of doing it) has on the countries such weapons end up in the hands of. It's also pretty dark in places and doesn't pull any punches. Just because the majority of the violence caused by such weapons is cleverly edited out, we can get the full horror of the regimes who desire to buy illegal weapons such as machine guns and grenades.
It's hardly an uplifting film, but Cage does what he does best and makes it worth a re-watch or two with his charming portrayal of someone who deliberately blinds himself to the horrors of what he's doing, simply to further his own lavish lifestyle - hardly a heroic protagonist, but then I guess that's what the film's trying to say.