Body of Lies (2008)

All Critics (208) | Top Critics (47) | Fresh (110) | Rotten (93) | DVD (19)

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.

November 21, 2008 Full Review

Trevor Johnston

Time Out

Top Critic

Good solid far-fetched multiplex action-adventure fare in the Bondian mode, with awe-inspiring technology and just enough moral philosophizing laced through it to give the mind a little something to chew on.

November 10, 2008 Full Review | Comment (1)

Jonathan F. Richards

Film.com

Top Critic

Just because it's really dense and layered doesn't mean it's good.

November 10, 2008 Full Review

Ben Lyons

At the Movies

Top Critic

A complicated movie about the war on terror with two terrific performances and a terrific director.

November 10, 2008 Full Review

Ben Mankiewicz

At the Movies

Top Critic

DiCaprio's solid, though I wonder if a real CIA agent could get away with looking so earnest every second. Crowe has the right idea, in addition to all the fun: Just throw it away, throw it away and pretty soon you build yourself a clever characterization

October 18, 2008 Full Review

Michael Phillips

Chicago Tribune

Top Critic

Body of Lies has nothing to say about geopolitics, the action scenes are formulaic, and DiCaprio is rarely on the screen with Crowe, who coasts through the most puzzling performance of his career.

October 18, 2008 Full Review

Joe Williams

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Top Critic

A compelling, nail-biting spy thriller.

January 16, 2013 Full Review

Jeffrey Lyles

Lyles' Movie Files

It has none of the sweep of, say, Syriana, as if that mattered to the audience it's gunning for.

August 15, 2011 Full Review

Kelly Vance

East Bay Express

Russell Crowe has finally realised he's just an ordinary fat guy now, and taken a role he can accurately portray.

March 24, 2011 Full Review | Comments (3)

Mike Edwards

What Culture

Body of Lies is an extremely well paced, tightly wound, and intensely violent thriller. There is no damnation or congratulations here. As Russell Crowe muses as the end: "No one is innocent"

July 7, 2010 Full Review

Matthew Pejkovic

Matt's Movie Reviews

...[Ridley] Scott's most entertaining and involving effort since 2001's Black Hawk Down.

February 21, 2010 Full Review

David Nusair

Reel Film Reviews

It doesn't help that those action scenes all blend together, relying overmuch on speeding convoys of big black SUVs and surveillance planes that can see you picking your nose from miles up.

December 24, 2009 Full Review

Matt Soergel

Florida Times-Union

Visually, the film is quite striking. Few modern filmmakers handle desert landscapes as well as Mr. Scott.

August 30, 2009 Full Review

Sonny Bunch

Washington Times

Short on thrills and shorter on political insights

August 26, 2009 Full Review

Fernando F. Croce

CinePassion

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.

March 31, 2009 Full Review

Jeffrey Chen

Window to the Movies

Passable entertainment -- but definitely not on par with the usual DiCaprio, Crowe, or Ridley Scott output.

February 27, 2009 Full Review

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.

February 15, 2009 Full Review

Brian Webster

Apollo Guide

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

February 12, 2009 Full Review

John J. Puccio

Movie Metropolis

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

February 11, 2009 Full Review

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.

February 1, 2009 Full Review | Comment (1)

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.

December 15, 2008 Full Review

Enrique Buchichio

Uruguay Total

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

November 28, 2008 Full Review

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.

November 26, 2008 Full Review

Matt Brunson

Creative Loafing

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.

November 21, 2008 Full Review

Richard Luck

Film4

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.

November 21, 2008 Full Review

James Christopher

Times [UK]

• 1. Hani: Insa.
  – Submitted by Melvin L (10 months ago)
• 1. Ed Hoffman: So he wants to come to America in one piece instead of going to paraidse in a thousand... he should've thought of that before.
  – Submitted by Melvin L (10 months ago)
• 1. Hoffman's Wife: Ed, it's 6:00 in the morning.
  2. Ed Hoffman: Saving civilization, honey.
  – Submitted by Melvin L (10 months ago)
• 1. Roger Ferris: If something happens you'll shoot me, right?
  2. Bassam: Yep.
  3. Roger Ferris: Good.
  – Submitted by Melvin L (10 months ago)
• 1. Bassam: Big boss, man, what's happening?
  2. Roger Ferris: Rules of the day: If the car gets immobolized, start shooting; nobody gets traded, everybody dies.
  3. Bassam: So, same as everyday?
  4. Roger Ferris: You got it.
  – Submitted by Melvin L (10 months ago)
• 1. Roger Ferris: You are a rare and delicate flower.
  – Submitted by Melvin L (10 months ago)

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