Andrew Niccol directs Nicolas Cage, Jared Leto and Ethan Hawke in this drama detailing an international arms dealers rise and fall.

Starts with a bravura credit sequence where a bullet goes from sheet metal to child soldier’s skull. And then it is just a heart on it sleeve Goodfellas. Slick yet never fun. Cage is subdued. It is never wholly believable even though it clearly wants to be a geopolitical wake up call expose. I’ll use the Goodfellas comparison again… this world repulses the viewer from the off so you never get that initial rush of seduction. Nobody has ever always wanted to be an arms dealer. So the downfall has less compulsion. Like watching Goodfellas from Jimmy Conway’s cold, reptilian perspective.

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Perfect Double Bill: War Dogs (2016)

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