Movie review: Body of Lies

[Blu-ray | DVD]

So I read/listened to a ton of reviews and expected a big heaping pile of shit. But it certainly wasn’t as bad as everyone said. Though it certainly was a wasted opportunity. So much talent attached to this movie and it just didn’t pan out.

The movie chugged along well enough until a fairly ridiculous ending. I couldn’t 100% explain it, as the movie which had held me interested for the most part, had pretty much lost me by this point. All I know it was a lot of ridiculousness following some other ridiculousness.

I thought this was a middling effort from Ridley Scott, poor effort from Russell Crowe, and a decent effort from DiCaprio.

Two bits really stuck out to me in this movie though. One was when Leo was captured by the terrorists and they told him no one was coming for him, etc. And made it very pointed saying something like “Welcome to Guantanamo” or something like that. The second bit was at the very end when Crowe’s CIA lead guy says to his agent DiCaprio something like “You know what it means to turn your back on me… You’re turning your back on America.” To which DiCaprio responds “Watch yourself calling yourself America” or something like that. The first was I think everyone’s nightmare scenario of America’s policies of the past coming back to bite. The second stood out because so much has been cloaked in the shroud of “AMERICA” that anyone with the logic to question the underlying thing is accused of betraying the country. Given the global climate that created the force to have those two ideas articulated in a movie, I guess it’s no wonder (among other real, rational, worthy reasons) that Obama won the election.

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