Lord of War

The film's tone is set by a bravura opening sequence that follows a single bullet from a factory conveyer belt to its resting place in a child's skull, and by Cage's flawlessly sardonic voice-over.

Tells Yuri's story with the same bravado and stylishness as Scorsese at his finest, with bigger-than-life characters and situations splashing across the screen in breathtaking scale.

Picture how insufferable "GoodFellas" would be if it climaxed with a federal agent making a speech about the victims claimed by organized crime.

Taken as a whole -- and it kills me to write this -- it just doesn't add up to much.

Both script and performance, however, waver between black comedy and more routine international-thriller concerns.

The film is always at least mildly interesting, because international arms dealing is a fairly compelling issue, but it's never as informative as a good documentary nor as engrossing as a good narrative. It's a hybrid that's frustrating in two distinct ways.

The result is a dead pile of information in search of a movie.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Lord of War is a strong, potent film that (besides adding accurate commentary on gun trading), has many alternative themes about life. It reminds us that sometimes, having everything you want is a bad thing, and that being at war with yourself is far worse than any global conflict. It is well-acted, well-scripted, and never boring. It is a rare 21st century Nick Cage movie that is actually good.

Decent Goodfellas-like film though not nearly as well-written. Cage is okay.

It's some serious subject matter and the film has its memorably poignant scenes/lines, but "Lord of War" greatly suffers from a cliché script with the Nicolas Cage narration holding our hands and ears through a **** forest of predictability. Show, don't tell.

Lord Of War is a well produced and often entertaining film that carries a noble message and sports an array of interesting story beats. Despite these qualities it often fails by mistaking its own flamboyance for elegance. 5 cages out of a possible 10.