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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
67
$9.99
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24 City
66
Adoration
74
Afghan Star
48
Alien Trespass
56
American Violet
82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
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Away We Go
81
Beaches of Agnes, The
62
Big Man Japan
28
Big Shot-Caller, The
78
Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
55
Brothers Bloom, The
82
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
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Call of the Wild
63
Cheri
62
Cherry Blossoms
63
Dead Snow
65
Departures
18
Downloading Nancy
58
Easy Virtue
70
End of the Line, The
77
Every Little Step
64
Examined Life
80
Food, Inc.
38
Gigantic
56
Girl from Monaco, The
67
Girlfriend Experience, The
87
Gomorrah
89
Goodbye Solo
63
Great Buck Howard, The
79
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
xx
Home
82
Hunger
91
Hurt Locker, The
16
I Hate Valentine's Day
81
Il Divo
54
Is Anybody There?
71
Jerichow
58
Julia
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Lemon Tree
36
Life is Hot in Cracktown
40
Limits of Control, The
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Little Ashes
64
Lymelife
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Management
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Merry Gentleman, The
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Moon
35
New York
62
Not Forgotten
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Offshore
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O'Horten
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Outrage
40
Paris 36
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Pontypool
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Pressure Cooker
52
Quiet Chaos
83
Revanche
67
Rudo y Cursi
86
Seraphine
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Sex Positive
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Shall We Kiss?
77
Sin Nombre
59
Sleep Dealer
74
Song of Sparrows, The
54
Stoning of Soraya M., The
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Sugar
84
Summer Hours
61
Sunshine Cleaning
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Surveillance
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Tennessee
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Tetro
64
Throw Down Your Heart
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Tokyo Sonata
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Tokyo!
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Tony Manero
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Treeless Mountain
88
Tulpan
74
Two Lovers
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U2 3D
60
Under Our Skin
69
Unmistaken Child
69
Valentino: The Last Emperor
22
What Goes Up
45
Whatever Works
57
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
91
Hurt Locker, The
89
Goodbye Solo
88
Tulpan
87
Gomorrah
86
Seraphine
84
Summer Hours
83
U2 3D
83
Revanche
83
Tyson
82
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
82
Sugar
82
Hunger
82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
81
Il Divo
81
Beaches of Agnes, The
80
Food, Inc.
80
Tokyo Sonata
79
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
78
Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
78
O'Horten
77
Every Little Step
77
Sin Nombre
75
24 City
74
Treeless Mountain
74
Afghan Star
74
Two Lovers
74
Song of Sparrows, The
74
Lemon Tree
71
Pressure Cooker
71
Jerichow
70
Shall We Kiss?
70
Tony Manero
70
End of the Line, The
69
Valentino: The Last Emperor
69
Unmistaken Child
67
$9.99
67
Rudo y Cursi
67
Girlfriend Experience, The
66
Adoration
66
Moon
65
Sex Positive
65
Departures
64
Outrage
64
Examined Life
64
Throw Down Your Heart
64
Lymelife
63
Tokyo!
63
Cheri
63
Dead Snow
63
Tetro
63
Great Buck Howard, The
62
Cherry Blossoms
62
Big Man Japan
62
Not Forgotten
61
Sunshine Cleaning
60
Under Our Skin
59
Sleep Dealer
58
Julia
58
Easy Virtue
57
Away We Go
57
Merry Gentleman, The
57
Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
56
Girl from Monaco, The
56
American Violet
55
Brothers Bloom, The
54
Is Anybody There?
54
Pontypool
54
Stoning of Soraya M., The
52
Quiet Chaos
50
Management
48
Alien Trespass
45
Whatever Works
42
Little Ashes
42
Tennessee
40
Limits of Control, The
40
Paris 36
38
Gigantic
36
Life is Hot in Cracktown
35
New York
28
Big Shot-Caller, The
28
Surveillance
22
What Goes Up
18
Downloading Nancy
16
I Hate Valentine's Day
xx
Call of the Wild
xx
Home
xx
Offshore
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Body of Lies
Warner Bros. Pictures
 |
|
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for strong violence including some torture, and for language throughout
Starring
Leonardo DiCaprio,
Russell Crowe,
Mark Strong,
Golshifteh Farahani,
Oscar Isaac,
and
Simon McBurney
Roger Ferris is the best man U.S. Intelligence has on the ground, in places where human life is worth no more than the information it can get you. In operations that take him around the globe, Ferris' next breath often depends on the voice at the other end of a secure phone line--CIA veteran Ed Hoffman. Strategizing from a laptop in the suburbs, Hoffman is on the trail of an emerging terrorist leader who has orchestrated a campaign of bombings while eluding the most sophisticated intelligence network in the world. To lure the terrorist out into the open, Ferris will have to penetrate his murky world, but the closer Ferris gets to the target, the more he discovers that trust is both a dangerous commodity and the only one that will get him out alive. (Warner Bros.)
| GENRE(S): |
Action
|
Drama
|
Suspense/Thriller
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
David Ignatius (novel)
William Monahan
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Ridley Scott
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: February 17, 2009
Theatrical: October 10, 2008
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
128 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
| LANGUAGE(S): |
English | Arabic |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
88
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
Body of Lies neither panders nor condescends. It involves current events and has a political viewpoint, but it overplays neither.
88
TV Guide
Perry Seibert
The crisply photographed and edited Body of Lies reveals some ambition, for while it certainly works as pure entertainment, this tale of a good man trying to extract himself from an impossible situation offers some commentary on America's feelings about being in Iraq.
80
Village Voice
Scott Foundas
Its generic attributes (and title) notwithstanding, Scott's film may be the sharpest of all the post-9/11 thrillers--and also the most purely entertaining--in the way it maps the vectors and currents of the modern intelligence-gathering game without losing us in its dense narrative thicket.
75
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Body of Lies is a James Bond plot inserted into today's headlines. The film wants to be persuasive in its expertise about modern spycraft, terrorism, the CIA and Middle East politics. But its hero is a lone ranger who operates in three countries, single-handedly creates a fictitious terrorist organization, and survives explosions, gunfights, and brutal torture.
75
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
The result is commendably non-West-centric, but no less sentimentally conceived.
75
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
Fascinating and flawed spy thriller.
75
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Keith Phipps
It's not like the screens are so flooded with decent movies that we couldn't use another, particularly a timely, clear-eyed thriller about the Middle East and the role of the U.S. therein.
75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
As good as it is in pieces, its protagonists are distancing, its story is tangled, its film-noir cynicism is oppressive and unglamorous, and it just doesn't leave us with the satisfying unity of the kind of great movie it wants to be.
75
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
Leonardo DiCaprio brings straight-razor reflexes and rooted emotion to the role of a deceptively rugged CIA man.
75
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
It's a genre film - the action is fierce and nonstop - with a brooding undercurrent of unease that aims for the complexities of John le Carre.
70
Washington Post
Ann Hornaday
With its urgent post-9/11 context and often brutal violence, it seems off-key to describe Body of Lies as a nifty political thriller, but that's what it is.
70
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
Always crisp and watchable. But as the film's episodic story gradually reveals itself, it ends up too unconvincing and conventional to consistently hold our attention.
70
The Hollywood Reporter
Kirk Honeycutt
It may not be as much fun as old spy movies starring Cary Grant or more recent entertainments such as "Spy Game," directed by Ridley's brother Tony, but it feels all too accurate.
70
The New Yorker
David Denby
The movie is smart and tightly drawn; it has a throat-gripping urgency and some serious insights, and Scott has a greater command of space and a more explicit way with violence than most thriller directors.
67
Austin Chronicle
Marjorie Baumgarten
Ftrangely emotionless. There's little offered in the form of rooting interests or compassionate characterizations, making the film ultimately as ephemeral as its title.
67
Portland Oregonian
Marc Mohan
Doesn't have much new to offer in either style or substance. It's got the same glossy-gritty urban warfare sheen as "Black Hawk Down" and every other Third-World geopolitical action thriller of the last few years.
63
USA Today
Claudia Puig
A tautly paced, well-acted espionage thriller with the requisite explosions and action sequences. Still, it ends up leaving the viewer rather cold.
63
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
The romance seems tacked on as a way to humanize this character; there's no reason the nurse would take up with a brash, secretive American.
63
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
It's a generic, clunky title. The movie isn't quite as disposable, but it's not exactly memorable, either.
63
Premiere
Eric Kohn
Scott doesn't bring much to the table as an action director, and his keen storytelling abilities go invisible here.
63
Chicago Tribune
Michael Phillips
The most interesting thing about this slick but frustrating picture is the way it puts Crowe’s Hoffman at the center of our mixed feelings.
60
New York Magazine
David Edelstein
The film has one indelible asset: Mark Strong, who plays the Jordanian spymaster Hani. He's sleek and lounge-lizard sharp like a young Andy Garcia, and he could be bigger than Garcia. The Jordanian holds all the cards, and opposite two superstars, Strong is the only actor who holds the camera.
50
Variety
Todd McCarthy
A mostly formulaic approach that becomes more disappointing as the yarn unwinds.
50
The New York Times
A.O. Scott
As it is, the movie is a hodgepodge of borrowings and half-cooked ideas, flung together into a feverishly edited jet-setting exercise in purposeless intensity.
50
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
For all of Ferris's desperate struggles, and for all the director's efforts to emulate the remarkable verisimilitude he achieved in "Black Hawk Down," his new film remains abstract and unaffecting. It's a study in semisimilitude, more Google-Earthly than grounded in feelings.
50
Time
Richard Corliss
In all, Body of Lies is a mixed bag of treats and trials, but it should be seen by audiences, and emulated and improved upon by other top directors.
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Liam Lacey
The sickly feeling that Body of Lies leaves at its conclusion isn't just about the brutality of its subject; it's the realization that real-life barbarism translates so easily into adrenaline kicks for the multiplex.
50
Slate
Dana Stevens
DiCaprio and Crowe, two supposedly high-wattage movie stars, are remarkably dull to watch together--perhaps because so many of their scenes together take place over the phone.
50
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
Aside from a nifty new way to avoid surveillance in the middle of the desert, there's nothing here we haven't seen in many other movies - including "Spy Game," directed by Scott's brother Tony before 9/11.
50
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
Lacks, a story that makes it feel personal.
50
Chicago Reader
J.R. Jones
Like Scott's last picture, "American Gangster," this is a little too slick and commanding for its own good; despite Crowe and DiCaprio's best efforts, their characters keep getting flattened by the steamroller narrative.
42
Christian Science Monitor
Peter Rainer
It's a lot easier to follow than "Syriana." But intelligibility is about the only thing this international thriller has going for it.
40
Empire
Ian Nathan
For all the enthralling visuals and action, the film feels garbled.
40
Film Threat
Pete Vonder Haar
Depressingly inert.
40
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
Excessively intricate and extremely dull, the latest example of a filmmaker giving us a disjointed, overlong movie that’s unnecessarily confusing to follow.
40
New York Daily News
Joe Neumaier
It's like torture, though Body of Lies has nothing to spill.
33
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
Most of this just seems, you know, so three years ago, so "Bourne" again.
 The average user rating for this movie is 7.7 (out of 10) based on 54 User Votes
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