Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Body Of Lies Movie Review




PLOT Summary
(no spoilers)
Imagine fighting a war against enemies that you cannot see. Enemies that you cannot hear. Enemies that you cannot predict. This is the type of battle that Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCaprio) is attempting to fight. Ferris, an undercover CIA operative is stationed in the Middle East, and heads up the covert ops missions in the war on terror. Limited by whom he can trust and what he can do, Ferris is forced to lie and deceive his associates and allies in order to discover the where abouts of Islamic extremist mastermind Al-Saleem (Alon Aboutboul). Low and behold it turns out that living deceptive lifestyle doesn't always turn out the safest lifestlye.

Critical Review
Body of Lies takes you into the mind of those that are fighting the war on terror. Constantly on your toes, you never know when an RPG will be shot out of the surrounding buildings or when an extremist suicide bomber will be told set up camp right next to your post. This film really opens your eyes to the way in which modern war is different from the wars of out countries past.

This movie was entertaining but it never reached out and grabbed my attention. The acting was very well rounded and very well done. DiCaprio and Russell Crowe had an interesting relationship which tended to rub the audience the wrong way. This relationship was brilliantly represented by the cocky, confident, yet driven character of Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe).

Now this is my personal preference but I see Leonardo DiCaprio beginning to get more and more one dimensional in his acting. I see him being very particular in the movies that he chooses to take on (most of them being incredibly successful) but I feel like I am seeing the same character in Body of Lies, The Departed, Blood Diamond, and even Catch Me If You Can. And minus the occasional accent or makeup job, we are getting the same attitude, persona, and general character. The weird this is, I thoroughly enjoy all of the movies I just listed, so maybe he is doing this because it works?

The Plot was very deep, almost too deep. There was a lot of skipping around from continent to continent and with the Unique group of allies making a triangle that wasn't completely connected it proved hard to follow. If you were to have dozed off or been distracted for as little as five minutes, it would be very easy for you to become lost.

Overall the movie was good. The special effects and screen writing was very deep and really made you think. With good acting and mediocre special effects (some of them looked really fakey) the movie warrants a rental from your local movie hub.

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