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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: 184

Fresh: 93

Rotten:91

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.

Rated: R [See Full Rating] for strong violence including some torture, and for language throughout.

Runtime: 2 hrs 9 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:Oct 10, 2008 Wide

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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Release:

Feb 17, 2009

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Reviews for Body of Lies

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A certain rawness and despairing urgency is never quite achieved for the message the film wants to deliver, and so it remains a well-intentioned, well-produced, yet generally unmemorable entertainment.

Full Review Source: Window to the Movies | comment Comment
03/31/09
Jeffrey Chen
Window to the Movies
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: JoBlo's Movie Emporium | comment Comment
02/27/09
Chris Bumbray
JoBlo's Movie Emporium

For those of us who want movies to be about something and not just empty action with minimal shallow 'moral of the story' tacked on, Body of Lies is a disappointment.

Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | comment Comment
02/15/09
Brian Webster
Apollo Guide

...better than a lot of the post 9/11 espionage films that Hollywood has made.

Full Review Source: DVDTown.com | comment Comment
02/12/09
John J. Puccio
DVDTown.com

If you're going to have a mall-ready entertainment about the war on terror, you might as well have this one. [Blu-ray]

Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews | comment Comment
02/11/09
Peter Canavese
Groucho Reviews

When Russell Crowe gives a lackluster performance, you know how meager a year it's been at the movies. In Body of Lies, Crowe is bogged down in a thankless role in a thankless movie.

Full Review Source: Fayetteville Free Weekly | comment Comment
02/01/09
Tony Macklin
Fayetteville Free Weekly

Básicamente un buen film de entretenimiento sobre un tema "serio" como el combate al terrorismo, armado de manera eficaz aunque superficial.

Full Review Source: Uruguay Total | comment Comment
12/15/08
Enrique Buchichio
Uruguay Total

Como diversăo, Rede de Mentiras merece aplausos. Isto năo impedirá, claro, que ele seja relegado ao esquecimento completo dentro de poucos anos.

Full Review Source: Cinema em Cena | comment Comment
11/28/08
Pablo Villaca
Cinema em Cena

Better than the vast majority of the post-9/11 terrorist yarns, Body of Lies is both more ambiguous and ambitious than such heavy-handed duds as Rendition and Redacted.

Full Review Source: Creative Loafing | comment Comment
11/26/08
Matt Brunson
Creative Loafing

Perhaps Scott’s ever-restless shooting style doesn’t quite differentiate between the peaks and troughs of the narrative, yet it’s still an engrossing account of the intersection between process and ethics.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
11/21/08
Trevor Johnston
Time Out

Like Syriana without either the balls or the brains, Body Of Lies is perfectly presentable. You just expect better from the likes of Leo, Russ and Ridley.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
11/21/08
Richard Luck
Channel 4 Film

But despite the immaculate production values, the satire is so unspeakably crude that it ceases to matter. A shame. Scott has been an instrumental director in the Hollywood evolution of war films. But Body of Lies is a one-note rant.

Full Review Source: Times [UK] | comment Comment
11/21/08
James Christopher
Times [UK]

Body of Lies is big and bombastic, confused and irritable - a 20th-century blockbuster struggling to adapt (too little, too late) to a 21st-century terrain.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment 2 Comments
11/21/08
Xan Brooks
Guardian [UK]

Scott, at heart, is a pyrotechnician rather than a political philosopher. Sometimes, during the scenes when he shows graphic acts of torture, he seems like a two-penny shock merchant, too.

Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph | comment Comment
11/21/08
Sukhdev Sandhu
Daily Telegraph

With high-class acts to match the hi-tech savvy of Scott and his trusty crew (cinematographer Alexander Witt, editor Pietro Scalia, composer Mark Streitenfeld), this is as taut and engrossing a couple of hours as you’ll experience all year.

Full Review Source: Sky Movies | comment Comment
11/21/08
Elliott Noble
Sky Movies

Syriana, this ain’t. Ridley Scott’s latest misses the scope, texture or depth to dig into the moral mess of the war on terror. But this entertaining techno-thriller feeds greedily off star performances from Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Strong.

Full Review Source: Total Film | comment Comment
11/21/08
Total Film

Body Of Lies lacks the epic sweep of Gladiator and the emotional pull of Thelma And Louise. But it's enormously competent, with a couple of fine supporting performances from Crowe and Strong.

Full Review Source: Daily Mail [UK] | comment Comment
11/21/08
Christopher Tookey
Daily Mail [UK]

If the starry but soulless crime flick American Gangster wasn’t enough to convince you Ridley Scott was a man past his prime, check out Body Of Lies – a starry but soulless terrorism movie.

Full Review Source: Daily Mirror [UK] | comment Comment
11/21/08
Daily Mirror [UK]

For all the enthralling visuals and action, the film feels garbled.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
11/21/08
Ian Nathan
Empire Magazine

Visually the film is so undistinguished it may be time for the maker of Blade Runner to be subjected to that film’s Voigt-Kampff test, to determine whether the current owner of the name “Ridley Scott” is real or a replicant.

Full Review Source: Financial Times | comment Comment
11/21/08
Nigel Andrews
Financial Times
 
 
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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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