English - (18SG) - 4 December 2008Distributor: Warner Bros
Running Time: approx. 128 minutes
Director: Ridley Scott
Producer: Ridley Scott, Donald De Line
Writer: David Ignatius (novel), William Monahan
Casts: Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Golshifteh Farahani, Vince Colosimo, Mark Strong
Plot: Based on Washington Post columnist David Ignatius' 2007 novel about a CIA operative, Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCaprio), who uncovers a lead on a major terrorist leader suspected to be operating out of Jordan. When Ferris devises a plan to infiltrate his network, he must first win the backing of cunning CIA veteran Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe) and the collegial, but perhaps suspect, head of Jordanian intelligence. Although ostensibly his allies, Ferris questions how far he can really trust these men without putting his entire operation - and his life - on the line.
My Verdict:
Green Tea says:
Why does it so difficult to enjoy this kind of espionage action thriller? The surprise was that it was made and produced by our own master-mind Ridley Scott. Earlier this year, he made magic with his American Gangster with highly convinving performance by both Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. This time the formula is right but there is still something missing.
In this movie, Russell Crowe played a bossy neo-conservative CIA Counter-terrorism chief that will sent Mr DiCaprio the CIA agent that can speak Arabic to Jordan to track a terrorist. Okay, the catch is here, so many words mentioning terrorism in the early part of the movie, it was all evaporated once the plot gradually revealed itself towards a reality the world is facing. Crowe and DiCaprio were excellent in bringing up these two roles but the film relied on them too much that the others including a Jordanian nurse and some key characters looked dwindled.
The originiality of the story was highly appraised for no other terrorism themed movie wouldn't dare to question much about the Counter-terrorist side. Are we having an enemy in our blanket things are good, resembling those you have watched in the TV series 24. However, this is no 24, it is just a 128 minutes of ride that hurting much of our thought and expectations.
In terms of such pattern, the movies on espionage thriller were not doing that well lately, in the lights of movies such as Rendition, In The Valley of Elah and Lions for Lambs. The best note is that Body of Lies is one step ahead of them.
Roger Ebert says "Body of Lies contains enough you can believe, or almost believe, that you wish so much of it weren't sensationally implausible"
The Ratings...........
CAST - 3.5 stars
CAST - 3.5 stars
STORYLINE - 3.0 stars
CINEMATOGRAPHY - 3.0 stars
EFFECTS - what effects
an overall >> 3.0 stars