Body of Lies (2008)
“Your friends dress like your enemies and enemies dressed like friends…living the double life. Trust no one…Deceive everyone.” This is the year of memorable movie quotes and this one is no different from the past and even future films.
As if we have not heard enough about terrorism, C.I.A., and the F.B.I we get another movie that comes along and brings all three into the spotlight. Based on the novel by former Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, Body of Lies gives audience members a “heart-pounding” story of danger, deception, and deceit boasts. After viewing the trailer, I could not help but want to watch the film, something about a good terrorist film brings chills to one’s soul. Body of Lies demonstrates a modern-day tale of threats and suspense. In comparison to other films such as Lions for Lambs and The Kingdom, this film sheds a better spotlight on terrorism and its worldwide effects.
Recent divorce and U.S. Intelligence operative Roger Ferris (Leonardo Dicaprio) travels around the world, but has been recently sent to Jordan to track down a high-ranking terrorist. Ferris travels the globe following orders from of C.I.A veteran Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe) while at the same time still tries to live a somewhat normal life. So that he can expose the terrorist, Ferris must join him in his illusory and violent world. Through out the movie we see Hoffman keeping tabs on Ferris via an unmanned aerial vehicle as to make sure he knows his every move. All orders seemed to be delivered with slight haughtiness and southern drawl. Hoffman plays out the situations as if he is playing a video game, dishing out orders whenever and wherever he pleases, even at his own daughter’s soccer game. It seems with every move that Ferris gets closer something always gets in the way, or Hoffman tells him otherwise. It becomes a battle to earn the trust of Hani Salaam (Mark Strong), head of the Jordanian General Intelligence Department who informs from the jump “to never lie to him”; and at the same time track the terrorist. Their uneasy alliance leads to cultural and moral clash between the men. Ferris later uncovers information on Islamist mastermind Al-Saleem (Alon Aboutboul) he devises several plans and sends them back to Hoffman but somehow each plan is never thoroughly played out as planned. This would happen on several occasions throughout the movie. As one can imagine Ferris is constantly infuriated, which leads to Ferris quickly feeling as though nobody is on his side.
Ridley Scott seems to do it again by establishing himself as one of Hollywood’s best and most resilient directors. By having two of Hollywood’s biggest actors Russell Crowe and Leonardo Dicaprio this adds to the credibility of the film. With Body of Lies having such a complex plot with many layers and sub-layers, Scott never loses sight of the picture. He does not disappoint, hopefully it will breakthrough the mold that every other movie in its genre could not.
“It’s about Islam, where we are and where we’re not, and its interesting, proactive, internalized view of that whole subject.” –Ridley Scott
“Your friends dress like your enemies and enemies dressed like friends…living the double life. Trust no one…Deceive everyone.” This is the year of memorable movie quotes and this one is no different from the past and even future films.
As if we have not heard enough about terrorism, C.I.A., and the F.B.I we get another movie that comes along and brings all three into the spotlight. Based on the novel by former Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, Body of Lies gives audience members a “heart-pounding” story of danger, deception, and deceit boasts. After viewing the trailer, I could not help but want to watch the film, something about a good terrorist film brings chills to one’s soul. Body of Lies demonstrates a modern-day tale of threats and suspense. In comparison to other films such as Lions for Lambs and The Kingdom, this film sheds a better spotlight on terrorism and its worldwide effects.
Recent divorce and U.S. Intelligence operative Roger Ferris (Leonardo Dicaprio) travels around the world, but has been recently sent to Jordan to track down a high-ranking terrorist. Ferris travels the globe following orders from of C.I.A veteran Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe) while at the same time still tries to live a somewhat normal life. So that he can expose the terrorist, Ferris must join him in his illusory and violent world. Through out the movie we see Hoffman keeping tabs on Ferris via an unmanned aerial vehicle as to make sure he knows his every move. All orders seemed to be delivered with slight haughtiness and southern drawl. Hoffman plays out the situations as if he is playing a video game, dishing out orders whenever and wherever he pleases, even at his own daughter’s soccer game. It seems with every move that Ferris gets closer something always gets in the way, or Hoffman tells him otherwise. It becomes a battle to earn the trust of Hani Salaam (Mark Strong), head of the Jordanian General Intelligence Department who informs from the jump “to never lie to him”; and at the same time track the terrorist. Their uneasy alliance leads to cultural and moral clash between the men. Ferris later uncovers information on Islamist mastermind Al-Saleem (Alon Aboutboul) he devises several plans and sends them back to Hoffman but somehow each plan is never thoroughly played out as planned. This would happen on several occasions throughout the movie. As one can imagine Ferris is constantly infuriated, which leads to Ferris quickly feeling as though nobody is on his side.
Ridley Scott seems to do it again by establishing himself as one of Hollywood’s best and most resilient directors. By having two of Hollywood’s biggest actors Russell Crowe and Leonardo Dicaprio this adds to the credibility of the film. With Body of Lies having such a complex plot with many layers and sub-layers, Scott never loses sight of the picture. He does not disappoint, hopefully it will breakthrough the mold that every other movie in its genre could not.
“It’s about Islam, where we are and where we’re not, and its interesting, proactive, internalized view of that whole subject.” –Ridley Scott
Grade: B-
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Max Payne (2008)
Its 7:30 PM and I am at the Atlanta premiere screening of Max Payne at the Rialto Theater on the Georgia State University campus. I will admit I was a bit anxious because the film reminded me of Sin City (2005), which was a film that I did enjoy. Now an added bonus to the screening was that fact that one of the stars of the film Chris “Ludacris” Bridges was there to introduce the film and give a little background. His appearance was probably one of the highlights of that evening.
Keeping in mind that this noir film is based on the legendary video game which came out in July 2001, one can only imagine the type of action and excitement (or lack of) that will result from this film. Max Payne (played by Mark Wahlberg) plays a maverick cop who is on a mission to solve a case which is near and dear to his personal life, his wife’s murder as well as his former partner. This obsession for revenge grows more and more intense as he somehow draws closer and closer to finding the killer. With this intense fixation, Payne also finds himself taking a nightmare journey into a mysterious underworld. As he goes further into this mysterious journey, Payne must battle enemies from beyond the natural world and yield to an unimaginable betrayal.
The film does do some justice to the video game by opening the film as it does in the game by Payne (as an undercover cop) scoping out some high strung druggie teenagers and going straight into the action. Even though it still does have somewhat of a slow start, it does pick up speed towards the midldle. This is probably attributed to the movie setting up the background story. This may serve as a negative because it does take up a good portion of the movie (considering its only 100 mins). However, as the movie progresses I am somewhat confused and left hanging as to what story I should follow. Beau Bridges (BB Hensley) as well as Chris O’Donnell (Jason Colvin) play excellent roles as protagonists quite well surprisingly. I must say Ludacris does a compelling performance of Internal Affairs detective Jim Bravaur which is actually a 60-year old plump white man, adds a bit of twist don’t ya think. One thing I should fail not to mention is a highlight that I did learn from the film which was brought from the video game was “bullet-time”, which is a computer enhanced simulation of variable speed (slow enough to show normally imperceptible and un-filmable events, such as flying bullets). This all-star cast does not disappoint when it comes to bringing the video game to the real life screen, the storyline was somewhat accurate with some minor changes.
Overall the Max Payne was pretty decent adding many unpredictable plot twists and brilliant special effects. As Kurt Loder from MTV puts it, another video game brought to a grim starling life for the screen. Good thing I caught it early, I got chance to go to a red carpet premiere and beat the rush, sounds like a deal to me. As a little side note, when planning for this movie Director John Moore did listen carefully to his fan requests and integrate as much of their feedback as possible. This will probably bring a huge audience on the first weekend due to the popularity of the video game, but will it be able to sustain its fizz, or just fizzle out.
Its 7:30 PM and I am at the Atlanta premiere screening of Max Payne at the Rialto Theater on the Georgia State University campus. I will admit I was a bit anxious because the film reminded me of Sin City (2005), which was a film that I did enjoy. Now an added bonus to the screening was that fact that one of the stars of the film Chris “Ludacris” Bridges was there to introduce the film and give a little background. His appearance was probably one of the highlights of that evening.
Keeping in mind that this noir film is based on the legendary video game which came out in July 2001, one can only imagine the type of action and excitement (or lack of) that will result from this film. Max Payne (played by Mark Wahlberg) plays a maverick cop who is on a mission to solve a case which is near and dear to his personal life, his wife’s murder as well as his former partner. This obsession for revenge grows more and more intense as he somehow draws closer and closer to finding the killer. With this intense fixation, Payne also finds himself taking a nightmare journey into a mysterious underworld. As he goes further into this mysterious journey, Payne must battle enemies from beyond the natural world and yield to an unimaginable betrayal.
The film does do some justice to the video game by opening the film as it does in the game by Payne (as an undercover cop) scoping out some high strung druggie teenagers and going straight into the action. Even though it still does have somewhat of a slow start, it does pick up speed towards the midldle. This is probably attributed to the movie setting up the background story. This may serve as a negative because it does take up a good portion of the movie (considering its only 100 mins). However, as the movie progresses I am somewhat confused and left hanging as to what story I should follow. Beau Bridges (BB Hensley) as well as Chris O’Donnell (Jason Colvin) play excellent roles as protagonists quite well surprisingly. I must say Ludacris does a compelling performance of Internal Affairs detective Jim Bravaur which is actually a 60-year old plump white man, adds a bit of twist don’t ya think. One thing I should fail not to mention is a highlight that I did learn from the film which was brought from the video game was “bullet-time”, which is a computer enhanced simulation of variable speed (slow enough to show normally imperceptible and un-filmable events, such as flying bullets). This all-star cast does not disappoint when it comes to bringing the video game to the real life screen, the storyline was somewhat accurate with some minor changes.
Overall the Max Payne was pretty decent adding many unpredictable plot twists and brilliant special effects. As Kurt Loder from MTV puts it, another video game brought to a grim starling life for the screen. Good thing I caught it early, I got chance to go to a red carpet premiere and beat the rush, sounds like a deal to me. As a little side note, when planning for this movie Director John Moore did listen carefully to his fan requests and integrate as much of their feedback as possible. This will probably bring a huge audience on the first weekend due to the popularity of the video game, but will it be able to sustain its fizz, or just fizzle out.
Grade: C
1 comment:
I disagree with the qualities of Body of Lies in that I don't think there were many. I found it to be disorganized and very "run-around" if you will. However, I was impressed by the performances by Dicaprio and Crowe and I think that is what held it all together. Very nice review though.
I haven't seen Max Payne, I'll have to check that out.
Post a Comment