Once the direction of the story is cleared up, it may be too late for moviegoers to invest their hearts and minds into the plot and characters. The movie’s premise is a bit fuzzy in the first act, so it’s hard to identify with the main characters and their goals. More Detail:īODY OF LIES is a spy thriller from Ridley Scott starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe.
BODY OF LIES MOVIE REVIEWS PLUS
(B, PC, FR, LLL, VVV, N, A, D, M) Light but somewhat murky and unsatisfying moral worldview with some positive references to God but also some light political correctness, plus Muslim characters are involved in the story but the movie neither promotes nor rejects Islamic theology, though man argues about what the Koran actually says about violence against non-Muslims with another man in one scene at least 65 obscenities and 10 strong profanities some very strong violence includes two fingers smashed with a hammer to the point of being cut off, torture, a planned beheading that’s not completed, and a man is punished by being whipped on his naked rear end, plus plenty of action violence such as explosions, bombs, rocket propelled grenades, gunfights, chases through streets, threats of torture, fighting no sexual content brief upper and rear male nudity alcohol use smoking and, lying, deceit, kidnapping, terrorism rebuked, and movie flirts with anti-American content but never quite gets there. There is lots of strong foul language and some very strong violence.
The belated beginning and murky morality are not entirely satisfying or believable. Ultimately, the movie reveals itself to be more like the murky spy thrillers in the 1960s that tried to present a more realistic take on the espionage game. BODY OF LIES is still entertaining and never boring. Once the story’s direction is established, it may be too late for moviegoers to invest all their hearts and minds into the plot and the characters. This movie’s premise is a bit fuzzy at first, so it’s hard to identify with the main characters and their goals. This eventually puts Roger’s life in even more incredible danger. Roger’s older boss in the states, Ed Hoffman, orders him to work with Jordan’s suave, charismatic espionage leader. A dead informant leads CIA undercover man Roger Ferris to a possible safehouse in Amman, Jordan of a notorious terrorist leader. 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 – shades of Jean-Pierre Melville? Docked a star, unfortunately, for a hokey final reel which somewhat reduces the intelligence quotient, though the trenchant coda very nearly gets it back again.BODY OF LIES stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe in a spy thriller involving a CIA operative and his boss fighting Muslim terrorists. Anchored by a hard-working, persuasive DiCaprio, it’s dense, knotty stuff, convincing (as ever with Sir Ridley) in its milieu, and offering a deftly pointed study in contrasts between front-line personnel who really know the territory and powerful, insular decision-makers, far removed from the daily threat of assassination or abduction.
Meanwhile, as Manchester, England, buckles under the latest extremist outrage, the information war is too important to lose.Īdapted from a David Ignatius novel by ‘The Departed’ writer William Monahan, Scott’s latest almost manages to square the circle of providing a cogent analysis of Bush II’s foreign policy failings while delivering a steady stream of multiplex-friendly bumps, scrapes and explosions.
What he doesn’t need is his Washington handler (a porked-out yet somehow terrifyingly steely Russell Crowe) continuing to operate on a separate gung-ho agenda, blithely impacting on his agent’s carefully cultivated trust with the Jordanian intelligence service (headed by a suave, scene-stealing Mark Strong). Ever had the feeling your boss doesn’t have your best interests at heart? The stakes are certainly high for Leonardo DiCaprio’s CIA operator on the ground in the Middle East, who’s fluent in Arabic, culturally aware, and covertly tracking terror suspects.