The lethal business of arms dealers provides an electrifying context for the black-as-coal humor of Andrew Niccol's Lord of War. Having proven his ingenuity as the writer of The Truman Show; and writer-director of Gattaca and the under-appreciated Simone; Niccol is clearly striving for Strangelovian relevance here as he chronicles the rise and inevitable fall of Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage); a Ukrainian immigrant to America who makes his fortune selling every kind of ordnance he can get his amoral hands on. With a trophy wife (Bridget Moynahan) who's initially clueless about his hidden career; and a younger brother (Jared Leto) whose drug-addled sense of decency makes him an ill-chosen accomplice; Yuri traffics in death the way other salesman might push vacuum cleaners (he likes to say that alcohol and tobacco are deadlier products than his); but even he can't deny the sheer ruthlessness of the Liberian dictator (a scene-stealing Eamonn Walker) who purchases Orlov's "products" to expand his oppressive regime. Niccol's themes are even bigger than Yuri's arms deals; and he drives them home with a blunt-force lack of subtlety; but Cage gives the film the kind of insanely dark humor it needs to have. To understand this monster named Yuri; we have to see at least a glimpse of his humanity; which Cage provides as only he can. Otherwise; this epic tale of gunrunnng would be as morally unbearable as the black market trade it illuminates. --Jeff Shannon