7.4 | / 10 |
Users | 4.1 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.6 |
Chance leads Yuri Orlov to discover his one talent - illegal arms dealing. With his brother's help, he reaches the top of the trade, supplying anyone whose check clears. His skills and quick wits bring him everything he's ever wanted - and help him elude a persistent Interpol agent. But at the peak of his prowess, he discovers his customers might demand more than he can give...and those he's trying to protect could become deadly liabilities.
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Jared Leto, Bridget Moynahan, Ian Holm, Eamonn WalkerThriller | 100% |
Crime | 90% |
Action | 80% |
War | 38% |
Dark humor | 25% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-2
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-ES 6.1 (24-bit, 1509 kbps)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1 EX
English, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
I was an equal opportunity merchant of death. I supplied every army but the Salvation
Army.
Remember the cocaine factory scene in RoboCop where
everyone has the barrel of a gun in their face and Clarence Boddicker (played by
Kurtwood
Smith) says "guns guns guns!"? That quote is Lord of War in a nutshell. This is a movie
all
about guns. It's about illegal sales involving quantities of military-style firearms on the black
market, the peaks and valleys of
those who deal in them, and the power of guns,
including the deadly force they employ and the sense of empowerment they give to those who
wield
them. It's a story of survival, not from the barrel of a gun, necessarily, but of surviving one of
the deadliest games in the world, where your best customers are the most unscrupulous scum
bags on the planet with more blood on their hands than many a headline-making dictators while
the most ardent of crime fighters hunts you down day and night, and where cunning and, in
some
cases, the law are the only defenses you have.
Although working against the best interests of MI5, Nicolas Cage still appreciates a Martini that is shaken, not stirred.
Lord of War sells itself on Blu-ray with a nice looking 1080p, 2.40:1-framed transfer encoded in MPEG-2. While a very early Blu-ray release, this one still holds up well today, despite some whacky contrast. Parts of the image exhibit an unnatural red push, notably during the first act of the film, while other segments look more natural. There is a processed look to much of the image, too, with some overly sharp edges on some objects. To the contrary, some of the transfer has a soft edge to it. It's really a mixed bag, but on the whole it's acceptable. It sports solid black levels, too, and a minimal grain field that is more noticeable during some less-than-ideally lit interior shots of warehouses, factories, and storage facilities housing plenty of armaments. Detail is solid. Close-ups of various weapons allow us to read the manufacturer stamp on some of the rifles (a Colt M-16, for example) and see the wear and tear of an AK-47's magazine and receiver. Facial detail, clothing detail and textures, and the like hold up rather well. Lord of War is a nice looking catalogue title, all things considered.
Lord of War locks and loads and fires its soundtrack at viewers with two lossy options: a DTS-ES 6.1 track and a Dolby Digital 5.1 EX track. For the purpose of the review, I watched the film with the higher bit rate DTS track. The disc wastes no time creating an atmosphere with low-level gunfire and ambience in the way of chirping insects and the bustling of the inside of a munitions factory, all in the opening seconds of the movie. Likewise, we'll hear the sounds of war in the background in several places throughout the movie, and the nice, natural atmospherics remain, too, whether in an outdoor locale with a light breeze or in an upscale restaurant with light music playing across the front and customers chatting in the background. Surrounds come alive with vigor and vitality during a crucial and entertaining scene featuring a cargo plane full of weapons and an INTERPOL jet fighter. The various popular music tracks sound fine, and gunshots thump nicely, but both have a definite lack of ultimate oomph and clarity. They still offer listeners a nice, manageable presence, but the lack of a lossless or uncompressed track definitely restricts the track slightly. Sounds pan naturally across the soundstage. Your subwoofer will have an opportunity to demonstrate its power a few times over the track, an example being a car explosion in chapter six and another in chapter 12. Dialogue is incredibly strong and natural, coming off as clear as a whistle and at just the right volume. Lord of War could use a lossless track, but like the video, it holds up rather well considering its status as one of the earliest Blu-ray releases.
This Blu-ray release of Lord of War contains no extra materials save for a brief promo piece of other Lionsgate titles on Blu-ray.
Lord of War is a fascinating, original movie that is well-acted and directed. It's a poignant film to be sure, but is also a fine movie in the tradition of Scarface and other films depicting the rags-to-riches story of those who come to power and wealth through illegal activities. Eamonn Walker steals the show with his wonderful performance, with Cage and Leto's performances almost equally compelling. Lord of War is certainly not a film for the masses. It's unforgiving in its depiction of violence and features several bloody scenes, but it offers a powerful story that is far greater than that of more conventional Action or Drama films. Lionsgate's Blu-ray presentation of Lord of War is decent, but like so many of that studio's early releases, this title is ripe for a "double dip" down the road. Featuring a decent MPEG-2 high definition video presentation, a lossy soundtrack, and no supplemental materials (one of the DVD editions was a two-disc set), this disc is only for those who want the best A/V presentation of the film to date and don't mind the absence of supplements.
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