Great pacing, great stylistic choices, great story

Rating: 10/10 (20 March 2011)

This is probably my favourite movie of all time, which is odd as I absolutely hate Nicolas Cage and the first time I saw the movie was only after five years of its release. I'm not a professional at this, but here's the down to earth reasons I can give.
To start of, I like the setting. The scenery is always great, were it a hilly view from Africa or a grey and misty military base from Ukraine. It's interesting how they've decided to emphasize different settings. New York is so grey and cold when Africa, where a lot of the movie is situated, is so warm and colorful, yet that is the place where the evil bidding is happening. It does support the moral conclusion of the movie, which tries to imply that Africa isn't the start and end of arms trafficking.
It's very fitting for the movie to be told from the first person and Cage has a pretty good voice for that. It gives the movie some character and allows you to step into the world of Yuri. The pacing is also really well done, it's exiting enough to not let you out of it's grip. I rarely get glued to the screen, but this movie did it to me.
I think Cage's tired smoky voice was perfect. He is very American and doesn't act or sound international nor Russian. I think it was the only part of his performance where he could've done better - maybe someone else would've been a better choice overall.
I don't like giving bonuses for doing something relating to moral questions, but I also like the plot and what the movie is about. I guess it's the little anarchist in me that likes to see how a Westener (like myself) think better of our leaders than we should - a lot is kept in the dark from us. The ending is as really good and it succeeds to be surprising. It conveys that evil "won", but the viewer can feel that in reality it wasn't a victory at all, more of a punishment. It's surprising and it reveals the basic of human nature, where greed often rises above anything else.
He married the perfect woman just to divorce her, got a son just to never see him again, drove his brother to drug addiction and finally to his death. His parents abandoned him. Whatever he gets from doing what he does, he is paying a hefty price and there's no end in sight.