When scenes, performances and even individual shots in Lord of War are considered alone, they're brilliant.
Lord of War (2005)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:138
Fresh:85
Rotten:53
Average Rating:6.2/10
Consensus: While Lord of War is an intelligent examination of the gun trade, it is too scattershot in its plotting to connect.
Rated: 15 [See Full Rating] for strong violence, drug use, language and sexuality
Runtime: 2 hrs 2 mins
Genre: Thriller, Theatrical Release
Theatrical Release:14-10-2005
Synopsis: 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... 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 André Baptiste, Sr. (Eamonn Walker). Jared Leto costars 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 realize 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. [More]
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Ethan Hawke, Jared Leto, Bridget Moynahan
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Ethan Hawke, Jared Leto, Bridget Moynahan, Ian Holm, Sammy Rotibi, Eamonn Walker
Director: Andrew Niccol
Director: Andrew Niccol
Screenwriter: Andrew Niccol
Producer: Philippe Rousselet, Norm Golightly
Composer: Antonio Pinto
Producer: Nicolas Cage
Studio: Lions Gate Films
Reviews for Lord of War
Instructive, but rarely interesting, and plot-free, but not in a way that favors good characterization.
Lord of War mixes gallows humor with moral outrage over the way people like Yuri are allowed to make a living.
Movies usually show bullets as if they're generic, anonymous masses of metal coming off a conveyor belt, while Lord of War wants us to see that each bullet is inscribed with somebody's name.
The story is a strange mix of action/adventure, character development and comedy. Here is the sort of wonderful writing that will have you laughing out loud at gunplay and rooting for an utterly amoral broker of death.
Cage keeps us entertained on the path to Armageddon, which is more consideration than any of the real masters of war have shown.
It's just a well-intended essay, a movie when necessary but not necessarily a movie.
As a drama, it isn't much. As education, its heart is certainly in the right place. As an entertainment experience, it's more than a bit of a repetitive.
The real pity is that the film could have made its points without being so insufferably preachy and ponderous.
There should be a phrase for the errors Lord of War makes: Call them substance abuse.
It gives moviegoers something to think about. If that recommendation sounds too dutiful, let it be known that it's exciting as well as thought-provoking.
This is a political, thinking person's film, not the action-comedy previews might suggest.
For a movie dealing with so much explosive firepower, Lord of War is a damp squib.
Lord of War is advocacy entertainment -- an act of mainstream provocation -- and, for the most part, it works unusually well.
When all is said and done, Lord of War presents us with a hopeless world. War is hell, but what are you going to do about it?
Glib as its protagonist, it wants to talk its way into the pantheon alongside 'Dr. Strangelove'; still, it's a worthy addition to a movie culture that fetishizes firearms...
Charming and amoral, intense and indifferent, Cage continues to deliver the kind of dominating performance that elevated quirky efforts such as Adaptation.
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