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Movies / On DVD / Body of Lies
Body of Lies

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Body of Lies (2008)

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Reviews Counted:188

Fresh:96

Rotten:92

Average Rating:5.7/10

Consensus: Body of Lies relies on the performances of Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio to elevate it beyond the conventional espionage thriller.

Australian Rating: MA15+ [See Full Rating] Strong violence

Runtime: 2 hrs 9 mins

Genre: Dramas

Australian Theatrical Release:
Oct 9, 2008 Wide

US Box Office: $39,380,442

Synopsis: Leonardo DiCaprio fights terrorists for the CIA in this rapid-fire thriller from director Ridley Scott (GLADIATOR, BLACK HAWK DOWN). While Roger Ferris (DiCaprio) gets his hands dirty on the... Leonardo DiCaprio fights terrorists for the CIA in this rapid-fire thriller from director Ridley Scott (GLADIATOR, BLACK HAWK DOWN). While Roger Ferris (DiCaprio) gets his hands dirty on the teeming Arab streets, his handler Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe) watches from Washington via spy satellite, cheerfully giving bull-in-a-china-shop style orders while picking up his kids from school. Innocent lives are lost, buildings blow up, and the threat of winding up beheaded on the internet is always one move away. LIES is decked out from front to back with fascinating bits of Arabic and espionage minutiae as it races along its wild mission to track down an elusive terrorist sect leader. Crowe has fun in his portly Southern-accented INSIDER mode, while DiCaprio does his usual anguished moral suffering over the fate of individuals (To Crowe's Hoffman, it's all just part of war and nobody's innocent). As the suave head of Jordanian intelligence, Mark Strong gives a scene-stealing, cobra-like performance that clashes beautifully with Crowe's "ugly American" bullying. The beautiful Golshifteh Farahani plays the obligatory love interest, the nurse who treats Ferris's regularly occurring battle and torture wounds. When most action heroes are completely healed within minutes of every fight, it's refreshing--in a grisly sort of way--to see how Ferris's wounds bruises pile up. The solid, punchy script is by William Monahan (THE DEPARTED) from the David Ignatius novel. [More]

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Mark Strong, Golshifteh Farahani

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Mark Strong, Golshifteh Farahani, Oscar Isaac, Simon McBurney

Director: Ridley Scott

Director: Ridley Scott
Screenwriter: William Monahan
Producer: Donald DeLine, Ridley Scott
Composer: Marc Streitenfeld
Studio: Warner Bros.

[See More Credits]

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Reviews for Body of Lies

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181 - 190 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
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The confusing new movie, adapted way too faithfully from David Ignatius’s tricky 2007 novel, has more plot than necessary.

Full Review Source: Time Out New York | comment Comment
10/08/08
Joshua Rothkopf
Joshua Rothkopf
Time Out New York

Body of Lies is yet another in a long, tiresome line of loud, violent, nauseating and incoherent riffs on how mercenary and inhuman the spooks in the C.I.A. are, even to each other.

Full Review Source: New York Observer | comment 2 Comments
10/08/08
Rex Reed
Rex Reed
New York Observer

Reaching perhaps for the artistic merit of 'Syriana,' director Ridley Scott instead unfolds a convoluted story with little wit and flat humor.

Full Review Source: Compuserve | comment 1 Comment
10/08/08
Harvey S. Karten
Harvey S. Karten
Compuserve

High marks also to Strong, the almost overly polite leader of the Jordanian security forces. His soft spoken demeanor attempts to mask the furiousness of his convictions

Full Review Source: Nolan's Pop Culture Review | comment Comment
10/07/08
Michael A. Smith
Michael A. Smith
Nolan's Pop Culture Review

DiCaprio works hard while Crowe does chores at home and eats.

Full Review Source: FilmsInReview.com | comment 16 Comments
10/07/08
Victoria Alexander
Victoria Alexander
FilmsInReview.com

"Body of Lies" is a cynical cinematic Kamikaze sortie where the goal is for the audience to disapprove of every smug American character and every super tricky Middle Easterner.

Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com | comment Comment
10/06/08
Cole Smithey
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com

Smart and tightly drawn; it has a throat-gripping urgency and some serious insights, and Scott has a greater command of space and a more explicit way with violence than most thriller directors.

Full Review Source: New Yorker | comment 4 Comments
10/06/08
David Denby
David Denby
New Yorker
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

DiCaprio (not Crowe) is in top form in Scott's fast-moving, visually vivid but dramatically uninvolving noirish geopolitical thriller that despite problems conveys the point that in the new war on terrorism information, not weaponry, is the key variable.

Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment 3 Comments
10/03/08
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

DiCaprio gives the role plenty of brio, while Crowe -- who reportedly gained 50 pounds to play the morally and physically sloven office spook -- is agreeably obnoxious.

Full Review Source: Hollywood Reporter | comment Comment
10/03/08
Kirk Honeycutt
Kirk Honeycutt
Hollywood Reporter

Neither the location-based verisimilitude of Ridley Scott's shooting style nor the estimable Middle East expertise of source-material author David Ignatius can disguise Body of Lies as anything other than the contrived phony-baloney it is.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment 3 Comments
10/03/08
Todd McCarthy
Todd McCarthy
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
181 - 190 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
all

Latest News for Body of Lies

February 16, 2009: RT on DVD: High School Musical 3 or Midnight Meat Train?
It's a good week for mediocre films (Body of Lies, Changeling, Quarantine and Flash of Genius, which all walk a fine line between Fresh and Rotten) and an even better one if... More...

February 15, 2009: The macho swagger of these US espionage interlopers around the planet has all the finesse of a wrestling ring, while imperialism is made to come off as really sexy. Body Of Lies: An Amman Gangster. Opens in new window
More...

February 08, 2009: The macho swagger of these US espionage interlopers around the planet has all the finesse of a wrestling ring, while imperialism is made to come off as really sexy. Body Of Lies: An Amman Gangster. Opens in new window
More...

November 21, 2008: UK Critics Consensus: Does Ridley Scott’s Body Of Lies Ring True? Is Blindness Blinding Or Bland?
It's a varied pick of films in the UK cinemas this week; we have Sir Ridley Scott's latest collaboration with Russell Crowe, the CIA thriller, Body Of Lies. Julianne Moore and... More...

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