Dvd Review: Lord of War

***Note***

L337 Spoilerz!

***EndNote***

Nic Cage is back in another movie that was poorly advertised and under appreciated at the box office. The title describes exactly the content of the movie: Nic Cage is a gun runner who finds himself providing arms to opposing forces in many of the conflicts around the world.

The director, Andrew Niccol, who directed Gattaca and S1m0ne, does a great job moving the story along and getting the right reactions out of the cast. The cinematography is excellent with many different locations around the world: Ukraine, Chechnya, West Africa, China and Korea. Some of the still shots of these locals were very impressive, though they may have been improvised behind the studio. The story isn’t as simple as it would seem, it has a few twists throughout to keep things interesting.

Cage is great as the as the wily arms dealer that evades capture at every turn whilst on his many illegal trips abroad, Yuri Orlov. He imparts much of his own squirreliness to the character and his unique style of restrained anger/explosive temper really gives the character a touch of reality. Jared Leto plays Cage’s indecisive, rambunctious younger brother. He doesn’t fit into the world of gun running because of his frantic demeanor and his unwillingness to remove himself from feeling for the people that the guns he is selling are going to kill. He is quickly left behind as he becomes a hindrance to Cage and ultimately his nature is his downfall. Ethan Hawke is an officious federal agent, who is tracking down Cage, in the hopes of cementing his job. Catching this arms trader is a career maker. He is unwilling to bend the rules to catch Cage. He will wait patiently until Cage makes a mistake to haul him in under a plethora of charges.

The flaws in this movie do get on your nerves. Bridget Moynahan, who plays Cage’s movie wife, did not give a good performance in this movie. She looked great but when the director tried to put great importance on family and the relationships between people she didn’t really fit into this movie. There wasn’t on-screen chemistry between Cage and her. The importance of family is brought up several times during the movie and seems to be a big part of Yuri’s life but in the end he makes a decision that doesn’t really fit his character.

Lord of War gets a 7 out of 10 or a 3/5 stars because the Yuri’s wife and kid aren’t likeable and the family ties that should mean a lot don’t. I liked the movie quite a bit. Especially, the shot with all the tanks and the warehouses full of guns. Apparently, the film makers had to warn NATO that they were doing this shot because otherwise it might have looked like they were actually conducting military exercises.