Lord of War

Great story

This movie wastes all the potential of a great story. Horribly mis-cast, Nicolas Cage just doesnt have the gravitas to play a gun dealer. Hes often up-staged by lesser character actors who do a great job. The story begins in NYC with Cages character realizing he can make money selling guns. From there its off to the races as he makes ever bigger deals, including some with his uncle who happens to be a general in the Ukraine, when the Soviet Union collapses and theres tons of guns, tanks, and helicopters to be had for the price of a bribe. Cage drags along his addict of a little brother as hes pursued by a determined interpol agent who shows up from time to time. Cage frequently escapes in the most absurd ways. Theres the typical love interest, again, wasted potential and story time. Most amazing is that this movie comes from the same director as Gattaca and The Truman Show. Clearly the man knows what hes doing. One has to wonder, what was he thinking, making this piece with a good actor but in the wrong role? Save your money and petition for a re-make with heavy duty people who can carry the heavy load of a gun runner risking it all. The only saving grace is the first few minutes as you see bullets being made. One of the best opening title sequences ever. After that…. yawn and giggle.

Eye-opening and realistic depiction of the real-life international gun runner. Yuri Olov sold weapons to anyone and everyone in the world for a price. He even sold weapons to both sides of a conflict. Those of us in the US who want to ban guns need to see this. No matter how illegal a gun trade is you simply cannot prevent a gun being sold to someone who believes in a cause. Even if that cause is simply freedom. Because there will always be someone willing to sell them.

It was a decent movie.

The motivations of the characters towards the end makes no sense. One more deal despite too much risk and no need… bringing addict little bro for no reason (i need someone incompetent to stand around with shades on while I make the deal). Little bro SUDDENLY gets ethical AND suicidal and kills himself mid deal for no reason. Its like filler/bad writing just so something happens.

The case came broken.

The Lord of War/DVD arrived in excellent condition. Thanks Martini

I like Nicholas Cage movies, although the Weatherman is not what I would classify as a movie, more like a huge train wreck, were bodies and all were caught on film and then labeled as the Weatherman. More or less, most his Nick Cages movies are pretty good. He is a good overall actor and is one of the few men that can handle the lead role in a movie and be basically the sole good character in an entire production such as I felt was the case in 8mm. I wanted to see Lord of War when it came out in the theaters, but since I never got that chance I had to wait until it came out on DVD and lets just say that Im glad that I waited and didnt pay 8 bucks, and instead rented it for $3.99 at Blockbuster. Not to say that Lord of War is a bad movie, because it isnt, but what I think really hinders most of Cages movies is that they are one-dimensional. The development of the storyline of LOW is good and pretty basic. And action scenes are decent, but what really gets me about this film is that it jumps around from one story line to the next. At one point in the movie Cages character is selling his first machine gun in the bedroom of a hotel, the gentlemen buying the gun from Cage takes the gun out of the case and holds it to Cages head, as if we to display that is a very dangerous business to be in. I think that is a given, considering that it is illegal arms dealing and every body that are going to encounter in this business is breaking the law of every country throughout the world that has a legit government. The next thing you know Cage is at a worldwide conference of arms, and arm smuggling. What struck me is how he went from small time, one gun at a time dealer to rubbing arms with the big wheels of the business just like that. I would have liked a little bit more detail of how you become the Lord of War. Of course, just like in any business contacts are the most important aspect and that is defiantly true it the arm running business as this movie plainly shows. But I believe that there is not enough detail in the movie of how the relationships are started, maintained and carried out in a business, which could land you years behind bars throughout most of the world. Cage is simply too cool throughout the movie in a business that probably gets a lot of people killed each year. And to me that coolness factor played well in a movie like Matchstick Men, when the stakes were relatively low(a few million dollars) versus this movie where he played the middleman by selling weapons that killed thousands of people in many countries throughout the world. To me, this movie needed a leading man more like out of the Harrison Ford type, rigid, rough, strong and could be a totally nice guy that would blow your brains out if he needed to. The type of guy that you could trust if you were going to make a deal with him, but that you would not mind taking out because he was a totally jerk and you didnt care for him in the first place. LOW is a three and half star movie that could have had better story development, character development and perhaps could have been rolled into two movies considering that the subject of the movie is a large one. But then again, how many other movies are about American men of Russian decent selling gun on a worldwide level? Not many, and that is why I think a better job could have been done making this one.

Had to add this to my collection.

The real victor bout.