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Lord of War
EMAILPRINTLions Gate Films Inc.
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 31 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 84 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Action | Crime | Drama | Suspense/Thriller
Written by: Andrew Niccol
Directed by: Andrew Niccol
Release Date:
Theatrical: September 16, 2005
DVD: January 17, 2006
Running Time: 122 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for strong violence, drug use, language and sexuality
Starring Nicolas Cage, Ethan Hawke, Ian Holm, Jared Leto, Bridget Moynahan, Eamonn Walker, and Sammi Rotibi
The film, based on fact, follows the globetrotting exploits of arms dealer Yuri Orlov (Cage). Through some of the deadliest war zones, Yuri struggles to stay one step ahead of a relentless Interpol agent (Hawke), his business rivals, even some of his customers who include many of the world’s most notorious dictators. Finally, Yuri must also face his own conscience. (Lions Gate)
Also On Metacritic
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
A bleak comedy, funny in a "Catch-22" sort of way, and at the same time an angry outcry against the gun traffic.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
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.
Read Full Review >Variety Robert Koehler
Brimming with cinematic confidence, cynicism, chutzpah plus dramatic bungles, Andrew Niccol's ambitious Lord of War views today's international arms trade through its anti-hero.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
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.
Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Lord of War skims along like a dance routine. Political morality doesn't usually get such fleet choreography in the movies.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar
An arresting and disturbing piece of work that gets its message across without coming off as overly preachy.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker David Denby
A raffishly ironic and insinuating movie--and probably the most sheerly enjoyable film of the year so far.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
A bravura, resonant performance by Nicolas Cage, combined with some hard questions raised about American responsibility for the worldwide glut of firearms, make the film close to a must-see, if not a must-love.
Read Full Review >New York Post Kyle Smith
Picture how insufferable "GoodFellas" would be if it climaxed with a federal agent making a speech about the victims claimed by organized crime.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
Lord of War is advocacy entertainment -- an act of mainstream provocation -- and, for the most part, it works unusually well.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
But the movie soars as docudrama. Niccol's model seems to have been Scorsese's "GoodFellas" and, like that film, the blitzkrieg of images and rapid-fire narration takes us on a breathtaking inside tour of a scary world. It's an extraordinary expose.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
Lord Of War charges bravely and relentlessly into volatile territory, and it's hard to leave unscarred by the experience.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky
It's this moralizing, this slamming down of a stop sign every time the movie wants to rev its engines, that keeps Lord of War from being great. But it's three-fourths of a great movie, if nothing else, it has more brains and balls than most studio releases, for which it's to be commended and recommended.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
A caustic satire masquerading as an action-adventure. Or maybe it's Hollywood escapism masquerading as satire.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
Taken as a whole -- and it kills me to write this -- it just doesn't add up to much.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Niccol is too good a screenwriter (The Truman Show, Gattaca) not to know that Hollywood cliches are hell on a film's political bite. They muzzle it.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
Both script and performance, however, waver between black comedy and more routine international-thriller concerns.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
A black comedy, a character study, and a thriller, Lord of War lacks the gritty, hell-bent hilarity of David O. Russell's contemporary war pic, "Three Kings."
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
Niccol doesn't always get the mix right, and the tone here is inconsistent. But the movie remains compelling, largely because of Cage's dry, deadpan delivery.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Jessica Winter
Niccol's fatal error is in making the protagonist at once amoral and insipid, an admixture thickened by Cage's loquacious yet stoned voice-over and Moynahan's moist-eyed tremblings as the trophy wife.
Read Full Review >Empire Kim Newman
It would like to be "Traffic" with guns, but comes out more like "Blow" with bullets.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
Of course, given the abundance of voice-over, Nic Cage is unburdened from any great need to act. But he narrates splendidly, delivering the stuff with an unrepentant glee laced with liberal doses of irony.
Read Full Review >Premiere Ryan Devlin
The film falters in the moments where it can't decide if it's an entertainment about a likable criminal, or a serious commentary on the exploitation of the Third World.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Tim Grierson
Incorporating surrealist humor and an ironic patina, Lord of War tries for irreverent satire, but the film (and especially Cage) is too muted and distant.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
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.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
The movie is a strange amalgam of compelling visuals and fascinating vocational details forged with deep moral ambivalence and often hollow didacticism.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Any time you're watching a film in which the statistics in the voice-over have more intrinsic drama than the protagonists' lives, you know you're in trouble.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Manohla Dargis
Like everything else in this film, Mr. Cage's performance is watchable if never credible because his director never resolves the disconnect between this star's function (to entertain) and that of his character (to repel).
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
The result is a dead pile of information in search of a movie.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.2 (out of 10) based on 84 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
jay k. gave it a10:
Gives you information, insight with entertainment.
Apocalypse B. gave it a4:
The subject matter was something I have a great interest in, pity it was badly let down by some one dimensional acting and third rate directing. Firstly the acting: Cage is a decent actor in the right role, Family Man, The Rock or Snake Eyes. But that is his limit, as the main character in the film needed an actor who could accurately display the inner ambition/turmoil which was Yuri. But Cage wasn't the only guilty one, all the actors bar Yuri brother and Ethan Hawke were so badly portrayed it rubbished the moral issues entirely, leaving me the viewer totally disconnected with any feeling towards them. Which leads to the directing: A good director should first engage the mind, then challenge it along with the heart. After half an hour my mind was fed up of cursing how scenes were recklessly stitched together, I switched off completely. You can not have such a good idea throw onto screen with no consideration towards the overall point, coupled with the silliest ending I ever seen the film fails on every front. My last point is a poster who remarked about anti-Semitic something, well that's rich considering the film portrayed every ethnic race in a dark light expect Jews! Paranoia and just pure blindness L.Mayr, maybe if you talked about the dis-proportionate black and black on screen violence I would of had a bit more respect and sympathy!
Guido S. gave it an8:
This is an excellent movie that deals with diverse aspects of an arms dealer life. Don't listen to the more commercial movie critics as they usually fail to relate an thus accept a main character that's amoral and is not your standard issue action hero or villain. Here Cage is just a human being with human ambitions and problems. You'll really enjoy this movie if you're open minded, but if you watch it expecting a Rambo or Die Hard type of movie you'll sure be disappointed.
Hobag S. gave it a9:
This movie was tight. It had tits in it and the action scenes were very well done with a compelling storyline filled with many interesting twists as well, but there were also nice titties.
John W. gave it a2:
The fact that this film is entertaining purely to watch the protagonist's wife marginally saves it from the decrepit and unsubtle dialogue, uninspiring plot and the infuriating arrogance of Nicholas Cage's disastrous performance. It is also worth your time to laugh at his ridiculous chat up lines and his attempt to portray an eighteen year old near the beginning which is bad beyond belief due to his middle aged looks.
Geckat gave it a10:
Yes, I'm giving it a 10, simply because I found it different from the other so-called 'black comedy' in the box office these days. It actually has a moral, a theme. It's not just trying to make you 'not wanna laugh' with pointless sex and violence. I can understand why some people wouldn't like the movie, seeing that it's more like a documentary-gone-movie, but I guess that's just my thing.
John P. gave it a4:
Like 'Blow' with guns instead of drugs, and less interesting content. I think Nicolas Cage is a great actor, but I don't think he quite fit this character. Ethan Hawke was wasted in his role.
