Body of Lies
We went to see this film last week. I went with no previous expectations…actually I had never even heard of it. That’s a fun way to approach movies sometimes, with no bias. The main stream media should try that once in a while…but I digress.
Here’s what I thought…as if it matters.
This movie is obviously about the War in Iraq…and Osama bin Laden…and the Isreali-Palestine conflict…and the ever present battle between dogs and cats. Or something. It starts in a room full of terrorists interrogating the hell out of some guy. Then it moves to lots of shooting and swearing in arabic. And then it ends. That’s about it. And in all of that there’s supposed to be a gripping, bone chilling message. But I must have blinked and missed it.
If it was trying to raise awareness (because awareness-raising is all the rage these days) about the evils of Al Queda and its bin Laden leader then it missed the mark. We all know terrorists are bad. I don’t think anyone’s arguing against that right now. So a movie warning people about the perils of joing an Islamic (that’s right Dan…I said Islamic) militant seems a little redundant.
Leo DiCaprio’s been in a bunch of meaty little movies lately. And in every one he gets more and more burly and un-shaven. In this experiment he was even more rogue-like and “Bourne”-esque than the last few. But what he lacked was any true direction for his character. It seemed like he was trying so very hard to push his character into doing something Ocar-worthy. But all he succeeded in doing was running around looking cool and speaking kinda sh*tty arabic.
So in a nutshell, I’d say this movie is not worth the time. But its does have some cool scenes and if you’re listening very close you might find a moral in it somewhere. Oh, and they did decide to add some anti Iraq War stuff…in the last twenty minutes of the movie…when the main characters have run out of other things to yell at each other.
October 27th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
thanks for the review. i was debating on if i should see it.
November 3rd, 2008 at 10:40 am
Awareness!! Do you read stuffwhitepeoplelike.com? It describes why white people like to “raise awareness”:
“What makes this even more appealing for white people is that you can raise “awareness” through expensive dinners, parties, marathons, selling t-shirts, fashion shows, concerts, eating at restaurants and bracelets. In other words, white people just have to keep doing stuff they like, EXCEPT now they can feel better about making a difference.”