Lord of War

"Lord of War" is an intriguing story which Nicolas Cage completely carries. While there's really nothing overly climactic or exciting about the movie, I still found myself drawn into it.

Cage plays Yuri Orlov, a Ukranian immigrant who is determined to make a better life for himself by becoming an international arms dealer in a post-Cold War world. For Cage, this is one of his films where he's sarcastically funny even when looking down the barrel of one of his own AK-47s. Helping him out initially is his brother Vitaly (Jared Leto), who quickly becomes addicted to cocaine. Is there any better actor at playing a drug addict than Leto? As Yuri becomes more and more successful, he also becomes more committed to marrying the only woman he's ever truly adored (Bridget Moynahan). They have an interesting relationship as she doesn't mind her husband's career as long as she doesn't know what it is he does.

With success comes danger, especially once Yuri begins selling abandoned Russian weapons to the president of Liberia. Africa simply is not a safe place, and more guns don't help the situation. Yet somehow, Yuri manages to justify it in his mind that what he's doing isn't wrong, even when it begins to cost him his family.

Cage is outstanding throughout, and improves the story-telling even more with insightful and informative narrative. While Leto is equally solid, the side characters are left with little character development and only serve as a distraction from the story of Yuri's gun running. Again, the movie runs at a consistent pace with an equal balance of dry humor and bloody violence. Fans of Cage and Leto won't be disappointed. I give it an A-.

"Lord of War" is rated R with a running time of 2 hours.