“Lord Of War” is all about arms dealing but its style sort-of reminded me of “Thank You For Smoking” as it handles some very unsettling truths but blends it with a touch of comedy. However, I can’t help but feel that “Thank You For Smoking” did it better; there just seems to be lack of focus here.

Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage “Face/Off”, “Raising Arizona”) is a Ukrainian-born arms dealer that will sell to anybody with the money. He’ll sell anything he can get his hands on, no matter your race, religion or political persuasion and would have even sold guns to Osama bin Laden if his cheques didn’t bounce. The film follows Yuri as he sells weapons in places ranging from the Balkans to the Middle East to West Africa while being pursued by Interpol’s Jack Valentine (Ethan Hawke “Training Day”).

Nicolas Cage does a good job as Yuri but the material doesn’t always seem that great. Ethan Hawke is pretty good as Valentine. I liked the performance from Bridget Moynahan (“John Wick”) as Yuri’s trophy wife, Ava. Jared Leto (“Suicide Squad”) is terrible as Yuri’s brother, Vitaly, and the character becomes a real distraction. Some of the other characters are interesting and I quite liked the Liberian despot.

“Lord Of War” features an opening scene where we see the ‘life’ of a bullet from being made in a factory in the Soviet Union to being shipped to Africa where it is later fired into the skull of a young man. It is a powerful opening and some of the insights into the world of arms dealing is certainly intriguing. My problem with the film is that there are too many scenes focused on Yuri’s personal life because they are boring and simply distract us from the more interesting aspects of the movie. “Lord Of War” could have been terrific but it gets muddled at times.