It is an action thriller, the tale of an arms dealer who specialised in illegal weapon sales.

Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage) is a Russian refugee who emigrated to the U.S. as a young boy together with his family, after falsely claiming to be Jewish. Initially Yuri's family settled down in the Little Odessa immigrant community in Brighton Beach, New York.

Yuri has been leading a life with no direction. But when he witnessed a Russian mob hit, all of a sudden his life changed. He decided to become an arms dealer, selling illegal arms to whoever wants it. His brother Vitaly (Jared Leto) joined him. Soon he has been supplying guns and ammunitions to some of the notorious dictators of the Third World countries.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989,Yuri got the chance of his life to peddle millions of used AK47 that were stockpiled in that country. With the help of his uncle Dimitri (Eugene Lazareu) who was a former Soviet Colonel, Yuri became a big time gun merchant. But he has rivals like Simeon Weisz  (Ian Holm) and enemies like the Interpol agent Jack Valentine (Ethan Hawke) who are trying to get even with him. In between all these high flying activities, Yuri maintained a facade of respectability by having a beautiful wife Ava (Bridget Moynahan) who is totally ignorant of her husband's activities. Even though Yuri is satisfied with life as it is, his conscience keeps bothering him. Find out more about this modern day arms dealer.

Director Andrew Niccol skillfully narrates a rags to riches tale of a modern day arms peddler. It may be an amoral subject for a film but he justifies the theme with several rationales including political stability, for rich countries to sell arms to the poor Third World countries.

Nicolas Cage as Yuri presents a decent performance. He portrays very well the greed and the ambition to become rich in an easy way. He is brilliant but out of touch with reality. Bridget Moynahan as Ava is an interesting character. Even though there is not much chemistry between them, it is good to see them as a pair.

The movie has intense violence, sex and bad language. The theme is amoral but as an entertainer at times it is funny. Fans of Nicolas Cage will definitely like it.

We rate this movie AVERAGE.