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Body of Lies

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Body of Lies (2008)

October. 10,2008
|
7
|
R
| Drama Action Thriller
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The CIA’s hunt is on for the mastermind of a wave of terrorist attacks. Roger Ferris is the agency’s man on the ground, moving from place to place, scrambling to stay ahead of ever-shifting events. An eye in the sky – a satellite link – watches Ferris. At the other end of that real-time link is the CIA’s Ed Hoffman, strategizing events from thousands of miles away. And as Ferris nears the target, he discovers trust can be just as dangerous as it is necessary for survival.

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Exoticalot
2008/10/10

People are voting emotionally.

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Spidersecu
2008/10/11

Don't Believe the Hype

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ThedevilChoose
2008/10/12

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

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Dana
2008/10/13

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

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hatlad
2008/10/14

This plot has enough twists and turns to throw a Formula 1 racing champion off course. And the acting, indescribably great.

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AudioFileZ
2008/10/15

Body of Lies is an intense Middle East intelligence thriller. It separates itself because it's fiction that doesn't use Hollywood typical sensationalism in favor of that gritty black ops that certainly is just as sensational yet is harder to take since it dares to glimpse into the much more horrible goings on. It's a playing field where no one knows everything and distrust is the only common denominator. It's nothing like the story of a covert operation in a place where there is a definite line separating the sides. In fact there's multiple sides within those seeking similar agendas. It's a morass of trying to achieve moments of victory on what seems to be no agreement among the deadly sides. This is the hell hole CIA operative Roger Farris (Leonardo Dicaprio) initially thrives in. Early on he's playing his role with aplomb to which he seems to get a charge. Perhaps he's a bit of an idealist though as things get more involved he constantly feels a gulf widening between his boss (Russelll Crowe) and his own style of getting the job done. This is the underlying tension as Farris is on the ground in the hot zone and his boss is thousands of miles away in real and figurative terms. Add in some ill-advised romantic interest and soon Farris is much more vulnerable at his own hands. He plays both sides too as he partners with the head of Jordanian black forces as he needs their power and intel to defeat a common terrorist. The thing is that there is no wiggle-room for playing the Jordanians and the man who leads that group. Farris becomes a target by his own mission to get to the terrorist through a construction project in which he's fronting yet not being honest with the Jordanians. This causes a problem for both and Farris is suddenly in the wind having to make a choice to attempt to save his local romantic interest. If Farris was a totally hardened company man he would cut and run when things go upside down, but he's already left so much behind in any kind of normal existence. This is why he throws his safety away with only a sliver of hope. He has a inner moral compass that won't let him. Something bad is almost a certainty with only his belief left he has to sacrifice himself to attempt to do what he feels he must.This is a pretty action laced spy story. It has many of the elements of any decent one. What is seeks to bring, and mostly due to Dicaprio's excellent performance is the gritty human factor. No big chase or fight scenes in which our main character performs with super-human skills to survive. Only the space between humanity and the consequences of attempting to root out and destroy a warped theology of terror. It's to the credit of the excellent cast that this dark gritty story stays uncomfortably real and entertaining at the same time. One will never know how much of this was inspired by real events but it, nonetheless, keeps a degree of credibility to give the story some legs. In that it is a fictitious spy thriller that works. You know Farris likely wouldn't survive the many sides he's at times carelessly playing. But you know it's human to err and it is also human to keep trying to achieve the goal you've made a decision to reach. Body of LIes touches that unique place in a mostly painfully realistic spy story. Dicaprio in many ways is why this movie works at all and he's really delivered an outstanding performance here. I can only imagine if it was anyone else it simply wouldn't have come alive the same way. This is a movie that I give a 7.5 to of which the entire rating is based on Dicaprio's performance.

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caseynicholson
2008/10/16

I watched "Body of Lies" the other night for the first time since having seen it in the theater. This is a well made film that just barely misses the mark of being outstanding.Russell Crowe is good in this movie, and it's arguably one of the few Crowe movies in which he transforms into his character rather than simply playing himself. DiCaprio is good enough, though he definitely suffers from his ongoing inability to play a character rather than being stuck in his same old mannerisms.The plot of this movie is quite intriguing. It's a film that revolves around post-9/11 terrorism in the mid-east, with most of the movie taking place in the very places that make the news the most some eight years later: Iraq, Syria, and Jordan. Sadly, the movie predicts the spread of terrorism to Europe (it was filmed after the 7/7 bus bombings in London, and references them, but shows an attack in Amsterdam that brings to mind recent attacks in Paris and Brussels). Its fictional drama mixed with real world terrorism makes for a compelling story. Unfortunately there's just something about the movie that makes it obvious that it misses the mark just a tad. It might be argued that the studio was trying a bit too hard to make an Oscar worthy picture, but didn't quite pull things together enough. The romantic element of the film feels a bit forced, and despite its strengths it comes across as being a bit more like a made-for-TV drama series than an award worthy feature film.All in all I'm going with 6/10 stars. It's certainly worth the time to see, but ultimately a good popcorn flick rather than a more substantive film.

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Finfrosk86
2008/10/17

I thought this was going to be a water tight, entertaining thriller. But I was not that entertained. It is well made, the camera work, acting, action, that's all good. The problem is that it didn't engage me very much, and it was.. kind of boring. I wouldn't normally score a movie as low as I have here, but when a thriller isn't thrilling, well that is pretty much a fail. It is too long. Parts of it are pretty exciting, but when you start thinking that you hope it's over soon, that's just not good.I did expect it to be somewhat different than it turned out to be, but had it been really good, it wouldn't have mattered. Here it did. It's got good actors, it looks good, has some truly entertaining parts, but all in all, you'll forget it pretty fast. And unless you're a total nut about the subject matter, you might find yourself planning your next meal during it.

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