As a movie seeking to tell a story, Body of Lies is a confused jumble.
Comment
10/10/08
Body of Lies (2008)
51
%
Tomatometer
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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 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... [More]
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Mark Strong, Golshifteh Farahani
Director: Ridley Scott
Reviews for Body of Lies
121 - 140 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
This is a little too slick and commanding for its own good; despite Crowe and DiCaprio's best efforts, their characters keep getting flattened by the steamroller narrative.
10/10/08
[Ridley Scott] has few peers at keeping a complex script clear and tightly focused...
10/10/08
The movie is an urgent current-events thriller that falls somewhere between Syriana and the Bourne movies.
10/10/08
DiCaprio helps turn what could have been a dry-as-sand Middle Eastern thriller into a compelling suspense film that questions the ethics of espionage and counterterrorism without turning sanctimonious or screedlike.
10/10/08
DiCaprio and Crowe, who both deliver excellent performances, may nevertheless be overshadowed by the outstanding turn by British actor Strong.
10/10/08
Both complicated and compelling, Body of Lies offers an audacious glimpse at the hypocrisy and religious furor fueling a struggle most Americans recognize only as a political catch phrase -- a 'war on terror.'
10/10/08
Crowe's a delight as a crafty Deputy Dawg from Arkansas; Mark Strong's Hani has an IQ to match his GQ. Surprisingly, the only undernourished part belongs to DiCaprio.
10/10/08
Body of Lies is smart, sophisticated and hopelessly uninvolving.
10/10/08
Yet in spite of the movie's high-tech veneer and its top-billed stars, Body of Lies is depressingly inert.
10/10/08
...no matter how energetically the characters tear around the desert or barrel through the teeming souks, we remain underwhelmed.
10/10/08
Director Ridley Scott delivers a passable spy movie that has nothing to say about this region; he may as well have been directing from a monitor in his hotel suite.
10/10/08
Top Critic[C]lever and subtle and demands that you pay attention, and rewards you for doing so...
10/10/08
...should seem ripped from today's headlines. Instead it plays like a typical cat and mouse spy movie with top notch production values and a tacked on romantic angle.
10/10/08
I'm not much of a mathematician, but you can say this one is Crowe Scott DiCaprio = Disappointment
10/10/08
It's a film directed by one of the best directors in Hollywood, written by one of the best writers and has two of the best actors around. How could you go wrong?
10/10/08
Like the intelligence officers it portrays, Body of Lies uses double-crosses and slight of hand to conceal a fairly formulaic story and a climax as offensively conventional as it gets.
10/10/08
Mr. Scott's professionalism is, as ever, present in every frame and scene, but this time it seems singularly untethered from anything like zeal, conviction or even curiosity.
10/10/08
Top CriticAnyone who actually sees Body of Lies will have a hard time taking it as seriously as audiences took Scott's Black Hawk Down.
10/10/08
What begins as a movie suggesting the moral complexity of counterterrorism ends up feeling very much like a thriller as generic as its title.
10/10/08
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. 
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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.
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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