Good-looking and important.

Rating: 10/10 (27 June 2006)

The subject of gun-running is very political, very heavy and very unpleasant. Still, Niccol manages to turn this grave theme into a slick, sometimes funny, often emotional and very involving biopic.
The story of Yuri Orlov, the Ukrainian immigrant who builds his gun-running empire from nothing, is intertwined with gun-running 101, the wars and conflicts of the 20th century, and corruption in the worlds largest governments. At points it reached the level of political-ism that can be called preachy, but steers off at the right time.
Some scenes are very gripping. Some scenes make you shake your head since they are so absurd but still true. Example:(MILD SPOILER)"The AK47... It's so easy, even a child can use it; and they do." Some scenes are very darkly humorous. There's even a romantic relationship, and it's more realistic than many in movies.
The camera-work is super. It doesn't succumb to any modern fads, like shaky camera JJ Abrams-style, or other silly techniques that ruin movies these days. Instead, we get crisp, sharp and colourful scenes. Russia is cold, dark, gray-green, Liberia is dusty, colour-rich and warm. Watching Lord of War is a treat.
Nicolas Cage redeems himself after National Treasure. This is not his best performance, but a good one. Bridget Moynahan is boring as usual. That's just a personal annoyance though. Jared Leto works well as Yuri's crazed brother, and Hawke is good as the Interpol agent.
One of the best performances comes from Eamonn Walker, as the sadistic Charles Tailor/André Baptiste. He and his son are both cruel to the point of silliness, which is exactly what you can say about African dictators.
Lord of War is one of the better movies of 2005. It's important, it's well-crafted(the intro sequence is awesome), it's well-acted and well worth the money.