Slow off the block, but kickin' hot by the finish.

Rating: 9/10 (16 September 2005)

Unfortunately, starts out like a voice over PBS documentary, which you are convinced is where it's headed. Beginnings of a yawn. Wrong! It blastsinto the outer space of African wars and the illicit arms sales, takingyou way deeper into this scene than you ever hoped to go. You do notlike the main character, nor the "Lords of War", but you are not supposed to. He is the ultimate anti-hero, yet the bad guy is the federal arms investigator, always the coyote to Yuri's (Cage's) road runner. Yuri is consistently true to his self-justifying rationale: "I sell guns so people can protect themselves;" and " I don't do it for the money. It's because I am good at it." Here is a gritty movie that turns on a dime of old international truth: Illicit arms dealers are protected because they can do what governments would be disgraced to do. And yet it is a sad and very moving story. All the more because of the ring of truth. Some wars never change.