Lord Of War... may not be what you expect
 

Don’t go see this movie if you’re expecting an action movie or comedy; it’s neither. The previews are totally misleading. Even calling it a dark comedy is a stretch. It’s more of a character study with a strong political statement. Not that it’s a bad movie. The story is interesting and Cage’s performance is excellent. But it’s just not a fun movie to watch. It can be best summed up by the opening credit sequence; the camera zooms in on a production facility and we watch as a bullet is manufactured. It’s actually done in a first-person/bullet perspective. We, the bullet, travel from the factory to some third world country, get loaded into a gun, and fired into the head of a child. That about sets the tone of the entire movie.

Sounds like an interesting film.

Certainly more than I would have expected.

the onion av club has a pretty good review up... until i read that, i expected a pretty standard blow shit up summer movie.

I'm going to watch it tomorrow and I'll state here what I thought of it. Back tomorrow then :)

Actually, I didn't think it was all that great for a dark political statement movie. The message was delivered in a rather ham-fisted way. The only reason it meant anything to me is that I was simultaneously (last week) reading a book about Chomsky's thoughts on power that reinforced several points. If it wasn't for Chomsky, Lord of War would have been a total loss for me.

I always suspected the trailers were a little misleading; especially given the subject matter. They are trying to sell it as some sort of sexy John Woo actioner, when it's obviously something harder to define.

Minor Threadjack: I think this movie confirms the trend of African Warlords as the default villians in Hollywood for the time being. At one time or another, the honour has belonged to: Arabs, Nazi's, Russians, Indians, LA gang members, Ninjas, Bikers and guys with British accents.

Certainly not what I expected. I expected some kind of action film with Nicolas Cage. What I got was terrible

After the excellent and disgusting beginning, seeing a bullet being made, transported across the world and put into the gun of a soldier who kills a child it's downhill all the way very quickly. This is a worthy subject told in an annoying and silly way. Nicolas's Cage's voiceover doesn't work at all. He sounds disinterested and so laid back. The story itself is silly with moments of danger that don't seem real. A documentary would have been far more effective. I know these arms dealers are immoral people, just like a drug dealer. This didn't shock or surprise me at all. The voiceover was just too much, all the time. Since when does a film need such a sustained voice over?

if you live in the UK and watch a Channel 4 documentay called 'Dispatches' you know they can make a 1 hour program about this that would shock, hate and worry you. They would interview those responsible and show you what happened with a good understanding of why. I'm sure most countries have such programs; watch one of these on the arms trade, they are so many times more effective.

I think the best way to sum this movie up is Blow, with gun smuggling instead of Cocaine. Not at all what I expected, much better in fact, but I have not seen much press for the film in the first place. There is no way Hollywood would cut a trailer that would depict the real movie here as it is not the blockbuster action film that the summer movie crowd is looking for. It does have comedic points but all in all it is an examination of the underground gun smuggling starting in the 80’s and how it changed through the end of the cold war the fall of the Soviet Union. Nicholas Cage is excellent, as is Ethan Hawke I think we will see a few oscar nod here.