Review of Lord of War (2005) by Julian L — 26 Oct 2012

This was probably the last decent film nicolas cage was in before his descent into complete crapdom. I really liked it - it was visually engaging, and the dialogue was sharp. I think the film was great in terms of having a moral argument - it did a wonderful job debating the same issue from the viewpoint of different characters, and showing it's moral scope in action as opposed to preaching it.

that's hard to do. I also liked the film's ending, I think I had punch. nicolas cage was also very good - he's actually a great actor and it's sad to see what he's become. I think this film was a great example of a protagonist that is completely despicable yet still someone you root for - often times people think that a protagonist has to be likeable or a "good person" to garner the audience's attention, or on the flip side, they create protagonists that are so annoyingly inhuman that the audience can't help but feel distanced (tom cruise from rain man, anyone?) and the funny thing is, those characters aren't actually so morally corrupt, but are just portrayed in a negative, one dimensional way.

morally speaking, there are probably few worse, more corrupt people than this protagonist in the world, but by giving him dimensions, the film still allowed us to connect with him and ultimately care about what happens to him.

the only problem I had with this film is that it ran a bit long and maybe relied a bit too much on voice-over. there were also a few logical mishaps in the story that you don't notice right away, but that catch up with you later.