Now Playing
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search

Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

sort by name

sort by score

53 Australia
34 Bedtime Stories
41 Beverly Hills Chihuahua
57 Body of Lies
68 Bolt
xx Bride Wars
63 Burn After Reading
65 Cadillac Records
58 City of Ember
69 Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The
82 Dark Knight, The
39 Day the Earth Stood Still, The
27 Delgo
43 Eagle Eye
36 Fly Me to the Moon
41 Four Christmases
28 Haunting of Molly Hartley. The
57 High School Musical 3: Senior Year
35 How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
57 Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D
61 Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
53 Marley & Me
84 Milk
35 Mirrors
39 Nights in Rodanthe
50 Nothing Like the Holidays
45 Pride and Glory
30 Punisher: War Zone
58 Quantum of Solace
71 Revolutionary Road
36 Righteous Kill
60 Role Models
19 Saw V
57 Secret Life of Bees, The
36 Seven Pounds
49 Sex Drive
49 Soul Men
30 Spirit, The
53 Tale of Despereaux, The
51 Transporter 3
56 Twilight
xx Unborn, The
56 Valkyrie
70 Vicky Cristina Barcelona
56 W.
93 WALL-E
46 Yes Man
56 Zack and Miri Make a Porno

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

sort by name

sort by score

58 Adam Resurrected
64 Appaloosa
69 Ashes of Time Redux
68 August Evening
54 Battle in Seattle
76 Betrayal - Nerakhoon, The
70 Black Balloon, The
55 Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The
51 Breakfast with Scot
xx Cargo 200
63 Changeling
66 Che
84 Christmas Tale, A
93 Class, The
38 Dark Streets
57 Defiance
xx Dostana
70 Doubt
62 Duchess, The
46 Dukes, The
63 Eden
xx Extreme Movie
69 Fear(s) of the Dark
26 Filth and Wisdom
28 Fireproof
80 Frost/Nixon
43 Gardens of the Night
73 Girl Cut in Two, A
36 Good
54 Good Dick
73 Gran Torino
30 Guitar, The
84 Happy-Go-Lucky
31 Hounddog
26 House of the Sleeping Beauties
49 How About You
70 Hunger
72 I Served the King of England
70 I.O.U.S. A
40 Igor
79 I've Loved You So Long
64 JCVD
xx Just Another Love Story
29 Lake City
59 Last Chance Harvey
82 Let the Right One In
31 Let Them Chirp Awhile
xx Local Color
89 Man on Wire
74 Moscow, Belgium
36 My Name Is Bruce
28 Nobel Son
xx Not Easily Broken
64 Nothing But the Truth
40 Other End of the Line, The
34 Otto; or Up with Dead People
75 Pool, The
78 Pray the Devil Back to Hell
xx Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
82 Rachel Getting Married
58 Reader, The
56 Religulous
32 Repo! The Genetic Opera
53 RocknRolla
64 Scott Walker: 30 Century Man
77 Secret of the Grain, The
84 Silent Light
86 Slumdog Millionaire
57 Special
80 Stranded: I Have Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains
67 Synecdoche, New York
82 Tell No One
68 Theater of War
65 Timecrimes
83 Trouble the Water
43 Tru Loved
83 U2 3D
88 Waltz with Bashir
59 We Are Wizards
80 Wendy and Lucy
71 What Doesn't Kill You
55 What Just Happened?
61 Where God Left His Shoes
40 While She Was Out
81 Wrestler, The
xx Yonkers Joe

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Body of Lies
Warner Bros. Pictures


8.3

based on 37 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 41 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

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:	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...

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Body of Lies neither panders nor condescends. It involves current events and has a political viewpoint, but it overplays neither.

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.

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.

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.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

The result is commendably non-West-centric, but no less sentimentally conceived.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Fascinating and flawed spy thriller.

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.

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.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Leonardo DiCaprio brings straight-razor reflexes and rooted emotion to the role of a deceptively rugged CIA man.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

It's a generic, clunky title. The movie isn't quite as disposable, but it's not exactly memorable, either.

Premiere Eric Kohn

Scott doesn't bring much to the table as an action director, and his keen storytelling abilities go invisible here.

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.

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.

Variety Todd McCarthy

A mostly formulaic approach that becomes more disappointing as the yarn unwinds.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Lacks, a story that makes it feel personal.

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.

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.

Empire Ian Nathan

For all the enthralling visuals and action, the film feels garbled.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

Depressingly inert.

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.

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

It's like torture, though Body of Lies has nothing to spill.

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 8.3 (out of 10) based on 41 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jason M. gave it a7:
Something tells me that my rating would have been much lower had it not been for the fact that I got a good night's sleep before seeing this movie. In other words: This is a VERY complex film, with many subtleties and subplots, and one must be prepared to give it their undivided attention. That said, Body of Lies is certainly worth the attention span required. It is indeed cleverly executed and well acted; specifically, my favorite performance was that of Mark Strong, as the Jordanian head of Intelligence. Overall, Body of Lies intelligently combines the art of mind-games war drama with a cautious amount of exploding-in-your-face action. Why not a higher score? While the film was well put together, I feel that it is ultimately a bit forgettable. Movies like this have been done before, and this one doesn't exactly stand out from the bunch. Worth seeing if you see a lot of movies, but if you're an occasional moviegoer, you may wish to skip it.

Jess D. gave it a9:
I liked this film a lot. Leo and Russell were excellent but the actor who stole the film is Mark Strong. He was exceptional. Worth a look and surely the performances should be considered and cited for awards at year end. Take a chance. You might be surprised at how good it is.

tj gave it a9:
Very entertaining, well-acted and well put together by Ridley Scott. I'm amazed at how harsh the critics were on this one!

Matthew T. gave it a10:
The best work to date on this war on a an abstract verb thing. Period. An accurate & authentic portrayal of Arabs & Arabic values & culture that should be recognized as groundbreaking, this seems to go over most professional reviewer's heads... I too, speak Arabic & have lived long in the Middle East.. although it's not without flaws. The support cast is outstandingly good. Do I need to say the same about the famous leads? 5 stars ..10 out of 10 for me!

John M. gave it a10:
Loved every minute. DeCaprio and Crowe are magnificent as are other actors of lesser renown.

tj gave it an8:
DiCaprio is excellent. Scott's filmmaking is top-notch. Could the characters be fleshed out a bit more--yes, but this is a gripping and exciting film. Better than 95% of the movies out there.

Brian Y gave it an8:
This movie is as every bit entertaining as the Bourne series, but has a more current overlay with the war on terror. It has just as much or more suspense as Jaime Fox's The Kingdom, and performances from all the main characters are excellent. I highly recommend this movie, and urge all to forgo all the negative criticism, and be your own judge. I promise you won't be disappointed.

Body of Lies Warner Bros. Pictures

Body of Lies
Warner Bros. Pictures