Description
Based on actual events, this black comedy-drama stars Nicholas Cage
as international arms smuggler Uri Orlov. The story follows Uri
from his humble beginnings as a Soviet immigrant in 1970s Brooklyn
and peaks with his involvement in selling off the stockpiled
arsenal of post-Cold War Ukraine to among other top clients the
sadistic African dictator Andre Baptiste, Sr. (Eamonn Walker).
Jared Leto co-stars as Uri's little brother Vitaly, whose
conscience and a burgeoning cocaine problem get in the way of
business. Ethan Hawke is good as a sanctimonious Interpol agent
with a vendetta against Uri, but the film's biggest dose of
onscreen gravitas comes from Walker, whose Baptiste seethes with a
heavy, serpent-like malevolence. Written and directed by Andrew
Niccol, the film makes fine use of the brisk
stream-of-consciousness narration style that Martin Scorcese
brought to the true crime genre with 'Goodfellas' (1992), and a
near constant flow of action and classic rock songs that ensure a
speedy, riveting ride through three decades of global carnage.
Cage, who coproduced, lets his patented oddball magnetism slowly
change polarity, until viewers realise they've been led into a
moral quagmire by falling for his self-delusory spiels about supply
and demand, making this one of the bravest and most jet-black
comedies of its decade.
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