Check Out the Trailer

This film is a dark satire of the gun running industry that tells a tightly written script even if parts seem obvious and reminiscent of other films.

Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage, MATCHSTICK MEN) is an immigrant to New York City from the Ukraine, who believes that his family run restaurant is too small potatoes for him. This leads him into a career as an arms dealer. At first his younger brother Vitaly (Jared Leto, REQUIEM FOR A DREAM) joins him, but Vitaly seems to have more of an emotional connection to the deaths he knows he is indirectly involved with than his older brother does.

In an illegal business where the product is weapons, rivalries can be dangerous. Early in his career, Yuri develops a hatred for arms dealer Simeon Weisz (Ian Holm, THE SWEET HEREAFTER), who blows Yuri off as an amateur. This will come back to haunt him. As he gains more money, Yuri tries to obtain everything he ever wanted — even his childhood fantasy, model Ava Fontaine (Bridget Moynahan, I, ROBOT). Yuri becomes obsessed with his business and puts everything else in his life second.

Time and time again he escapes capture from INS agent Jack Valentine (Ethan Hawke, TRAINIG DAY). By following Yuri’s career over the years, we see how his business grows and he gains more and more power as his clients like Andre Baptiste (Eamonn Walker, TEARS OF THE SUN) move from murderous rebels to presidents of their countries.

Writer/director Andrew Niccol, who wrote and directed SIMONE and GATTACA, has definitely done his research when it comes to arms running. Yet, even though Yuri is an interesting character, he seems like an amalgam of characters we’ve seen in other films like THE GODFATHER, GOODFELLAS, SCARFACE and CARLITO’S WAY. The backdrop is new and interesting, but the character isn’t. What separates the aforementioned gangster films is that the central characters are all unique.

Niccol, who also wrote THE TERMINAL and THE TRUMAN SHOW, finds a fun voice for Yuri, but his struggles and desires seem all too familiar. Outside of Andre Baptiste, the supporting characters also feel like they are either from other films or just needed for the plot.

However, these complaints are more toward a film that fails to live up to a higher potential. Like SIMONE, Niccol has a great premise, but doesn’t find the original voice like he did with the TRUMAN SHOW and TERMINAL scripts. But trust me, this film is no SIMONE, which even failed to entertain.

Cage is very good in the film, keeping his tendency to go over-the-top to a minimum. More so than the trailer makes one believe. I’ve liked Moynahan before and she does a good job with a thankless role. Walker is given the best character and plays it at the right note for a film that is trying to be a dark comedy.

Niccol’s directing style is slick and well shot. I really liked the opening credits where we follow a bullet from its manufacture to its final use. For those who know nothing of the arms dealing business, this film might be an eye-opener. That’s why it’s definitely worth seeing. But in a year with films that take on international evils like the emotionally powerful MUNICH and the intellectually complex SYRIANA, LORD OF WAR fails to reach that kind of level, but still finds a smart, darkly funny and important tale to tell.