Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Body Of Lies
Director: Ridley Scott
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Russel Crowe, Mark Strong and Golshifteh Farahani
You'd expect a lot from a film by Ridley Scott, the man who directed such masterpieces as Blade Runner, Alien and The Gladiator. The addition of talents like Leo DiCaprio and Russel Crowe simply heightens your expectations.
Leo plays Roger Ferris, a CIA operative who's smack-dab in the thick of the terrorist heartland in the Middle East and Russel is his laidback, overweight, over bearing boss who sits on his fat ass in his white-picket-fence home in America, doling out orders and meddling in Roger's operations. In a bid to foil the next terrorist attack and capture a radical extremist group, Roger must devise a plan, execute it and figure out who's lying and who's telling the truth. Easier said than done with his mendacious boss around.
Bombs explode, bone fragments of his buddies get lodged in Leo's face, he gets bitten by rabid dogs and roughed up by a variety of different goons but he still finds time to visit a clinic and fall for a local nurse. Russell Crowe's character of Ed Hoffman is utterly expendable to the entire plot, Leo's plans are amateurish and the entire film just seems vapid and run of the mill. The adrenalin rush never quite picks up pace swerving from the plotline occasionally and the narrative is just plain boring.
Brit actor Mark Strong who plays Jordanian Intelligence Head Hani Salaam is the only original thing about this film. His good looks and wonderful performance as the anti-hero brings something fresh to this otherwise banal film that will get lost in the flood of terrorist films infiltrating our theaters.

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