Scarcely a few weeks have passed from seeing Syriana when I get to watch another movie on evil corporations. In Lord of War it’s the military and the arms industry, the so-called military-industrial complex. Nicholas Cage is Yuri Orlov, a big if not the biggest player in the arms trade industry. As usual, Cage is great though at times I forget that this is a rather serious movie. I think he has played one too many comedies :P
In the movie, Orlov narrates how he got started on the industry, starting with a few Israeli Uzi to truckloads of Russian AK-47s and even to tanks and helicopters. He tells how work has affected him: how he lost his wife, son, brother, his humanity… But this is not just about the story of a lost soul, it is also an expose on the industry. Throughout his story, the movie shows the ugly side of the industry (is there a pretty side?): people killing, people dying. And not just ordinary people but children. The movie also showed the drugs and the conflict diamonds which are frequently used as payments for arms are shown to complete the picture of how evil the trade is.
Unexpectedly a pretty interesting movie.
Rating: 4/5
Lefties of the world rejoice! 
Few people know that the bird on the seal of the University of the Philippines (UP) is a parrot. Yup, that little bird proudly spreading its wings on the university seal is a parrot. I myself didn’t find out until after several years in UP. Good thing I never encountered it in one of those trivia questions that professors love to give as bonuses in exams. So UP can also stand for University of the Parrot. Isn’t that nifty? :)