Lord of War
Lions Gate Films | Release Date: September 16, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
62
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
9
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger 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
88
TV Guide MagazineMaitland 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
80
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
Cage is brilliant. Read full review
80
VarietyRobert 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
80
Washington PostAnn 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.
80
SalonStephanie 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
80
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
An arresting and disturbing piece of work that gets its message across without coming off as overly preachy. Read full review
80
The New YorkerDavid Denby
A raffishly ironic and insinuating movie--and probably the most sheerly enjoyable film of the year so far. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam 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
75
New York PostKyle 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
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Lord of War is advocacy entertainment -- an act of mainstream provocation -- and, for the most part, it works unusually well. Read full review
75
Baltimore SunChris 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
70
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Lord Of War charges bravely and relentlessly into volatile territory, and it's hard to leave unscarred by the experience. Read full review
70
Dallas ObserverRobert 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
70
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
A caustic satire masquerading as an action-adventure. Or maybe it's Hollywood escapism masquerading as satire. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
Taken as a whole -- and it kills me to write this -- it just doesn't add up to much. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Both script and performance, however, waver between black comedy and more routine international-thriller concerns. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven 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
63
USA TodayMike Clark
Intelligent but not particularly involving. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJami 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
63
Rolling StonePeter 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
60
Village VoiceJessica 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
60
EmpireKim Newman
It would like to be "Traffic" with guns, but comes out more like "Blow" with bullets. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyTim 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
50
Los Angeles TimesKenneth 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
50
The New York TimesManohla 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
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie 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
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick 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
50
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
50
PremiereRyan 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
16
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
The result is a dead pile of information in search of a movie. Read full review
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