Review of Body of Lies (2008) by Wulfas — 19 Jan 2016

I'm gonna divide this review into 5 parts: Directing, Cinematography,Writing,Score and finally Acting.

Directing - I though that directing in this movie was quite alright. But the actors in my opinion didn't seem to be on the same page, so over acted while other didn't deliver. But having said that you could definitely feel Scott's vibe during the whole movie. In some episodes it even reminded me something out of "Black Hawk down", maybe there is something special about Ridley Scott and the desert scenery. I would rate it 12/20.

Cinematography - I was really impressed with the cinematography of the movie, even though the movie wasn't all this great. But the locations looked really authentic and nice through out the movie. The whole movie had a dawn or even evening feeling. I would rate it 15/20.

Writing - The script in my opinion was the worst part of the movie. Even with this great cast the movie wasn't able to be intriguing or unpredictable. Having said that, the whole movie felt either rushed or dragged at the times. The plot felt short, even watching it in 2015-2016 were thing portrayed in the movie are happening right now. I would rate it 8/20.

Score - The score seemed very generic for an action movie. However I was watching this movie without surround system at home, but my impression was that the sound effects and soundtrack as whole might felt good in a movie theater. I would rate it 13/20.

Acting - Two of the leads Russel and Leo had very different roles and characters, yet one in my opinion was quite miserable and the other was decent enough. Crow either had a really bad role or it was bad casting choice, because he didn't seemed to fit the role. This was because of his bad accent or either because he didn't have any memorable lines. Leo on the other hand did quite decent job for the movie, towards the end. I also could not say, that actors had a really good chemistry especially the female actresses didn't seem to fit with Leo's character and the idea for Roger Ferris to speak so much Arabic doesn't seem to go well with the movie. I would rate it 11/20.

Now the MVP of the movie was Mark Strong who in my opinion had a really nice character who seemed to fit in the movie really well. Strong's delivery was very strong and could feel his chemistry with Leo in the scenes.

In Total I would rate this movie - 59/100. This movie is decent for one time sitting.