”Body of Lies” has action, espionage, and intrigue… but overall, doesn’t get over the hump pf being mediocre.

Leonardo DiCaprio is pretty good as the CIA operative and Russell Crowe is decent as the annoying CIA boss, but the story has several stretches of belief that are too much for even an espionage movie, there’s also a contrived romance story – I guess the filmmakers thought the movie needd it to keep women in the audience interested, but it just slowed the movie down on a detour.

THE BOTTOM LINE: This is not on par with recent middle east espionage/war on terror movies like “Traitor” or “The Kingdom”… I give it 6.0 out of 10.

(2008)
(rated: R for strong violence including some torture, and for language throughout.)
(2 hr, 8 min)

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Mark Strong, Golshifteh Farahani, Oscar Isaac, Ali Suliman, Alon Abutbul, Vince Colosimo, Simon McBurney, Mehdi Nebbou, Michael Gaston, Kais Nashif, Jamil Khoury

Director: Ridley Scott

Genre: Action/Drama/Thriller/Espionage/Middle East

The Plot: Roger Ferris uncovers a lead on a major terrorist leader suspected to be operating out of Jordan.

So what did you think?  Please post a comment!

 
“Body of Lies” poster courtesy Warner Bros

 ** CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT MY OTHER MOVIE REVIEWS **

 Follow my updates on twitter: http://twitter.com/aaronlafferty

Add to your RSS feed: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/woodtv8-blogs-laff-at-the-movies?format=html

YouTube Highlights:
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=WOODTV8&view=videos&query=laff+at+the+movies

New movies last Friday: “High School Musical 3: Senior Year”, “Saw V”, ”Pride and Glory”

This was a REALLY GOOD WEEKEND for theaters and studios, the total grosses were up 40% from last weekend…. the top 12 grossed more than $100 million ($119.84 million) for the first time since the weekend of August 15-17 (opening weekend for “Tropic Thunder”/5th week for “Dark Knight”)… its also about 40% higher than this time last year !!!

TOP 10 WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (actual results):

1. “High School Musical 3” - $42.03 million (1st week)

2. “Saw V” - $30.05 million (1st week)

3. “Max Payne” - $7.60 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 57% of its audience from last week)

4. “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” - $6.88 million
(4th week, was #2 last week, lost 40% of its audience from last week)

5. “Pride and Glory” - $6.26 million (1st week)

6. “The Secret Life of Bees” - $6.05 million
(2nd week, was #3 last week, lost 43% of its audience from last week)

7. “W.” - $5.09 million
(2nd week, was #4 last week, lost 52% of its audience from last week)

8. “Eagle Eye” - $5.05 million
(4th week, was #5 last week, lost 28% of its audience from last week)

9. “Body of Lies” - $4.06 million
(3rd week, was #6 last week, lost 40% of its audience from last week)

10. “Quarantine” - $2.58 million
(3rd week, was #7 last week, lost 58% of its audience from last week)

My Box Office Predicitions were 7 out of 10, mostly because I thought ”Pride and Glory” would do better than 5th place… I was also close on the $$ amounts for all but ”Pride and Glory”.

NOT “KING OF THE WORLD”… YET:

20. “The Dark Knight” – $0.30 million (total gross: $527.82 million)
(15th week, was #20 last week, lost 28% of its audience from last week)

“The Dark Knight” isn’t going to catch “Titanic” ($600.78 million) for the highest grossing movie ever in the U.S. right now, but it might after the planned re-release in January (for Academy Award push and of course.. more $$$$ !!!

.

Box Office numbers courtesy Box Office Mojo

“High School Musical 3″ poster courtesy Disney

“The Dark Knight” poster courtesy Warner Bros.

Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/aaronlafferty

New movies last Friday: “Max Payne”, “W.”, “The Secret Life of Bees”, “Sex Drive”

The total box office of $84.76 million is down 2% from last weekend… marking two weeks of decline, but it is $6 million more than this time last year ($78.48 million) !!!

TOP 10 WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (actual results):

1. “Max Payne” - $17.64 million (1st week)

2. “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” - $11.42 million
(3rd week, was #1 last week, lost 35% of its audience from last week)

3. “The Secret Life of Bees” - $10.53 million (1st week)

4. “W.” - $10.51 million (1st week)

5. “Eagle Eye” - $7.03 million
(3rd week, was #4 last week, lost 36% of its audience from last week)

6. “Body of Lies” - $6.82 million
(2nd week, was #3 last week, lost 47% of its audience from last week)

7. “Quarantine” - $6.08 million
(2nd week, was #2 last week, lost 57% of its audience from last week)

8. “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” - $3.69 million
(3rd week, was #5 last week, lost 43% of its audience from last week)

9. “Sex Drive” - $3.61 million (1st week)

10. “Nights in Rodanthe” - $2.66 million
(4th week, was #7 last week, lost 42% of its audience from last week)

CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S BOX OFFICE REPORT (10/14/08) 

20. “The Dark Knight” – $0.41 million (total gross: $527.36 million)
(14th week, was #19 last week, lost 22% of its audience from last week)

CHASING HISTORY:

“The Dark Knight” still has a long way to go to close the gap between itself ($527.36 million) and “Titanic” ($600.78 million) for the highest grossing movie ever in the U.S. !!

Although, there are plans to re-release it in January (for Academy Award push and of course.. more $$$$ !!!

.

Box Office numbers courtesy Box Office Mojo

“Max Payne” poster courtesy 20th Century Fox

“The Dark Knight” poster courtesy Warner Bros.

Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/aaronlafferty

New movies last Friday: “Body of Lies”, “City of Ember”, “Quarantine”, “The Duchess” (wider release)

“Quarantine” was 2nd – more than making up its entire $12 million budget in one weekend… which is good because it was disappointing to a lot of viewers, so its numbers ARE GOING TO DROP NEXT WEEKEND… 
“Body of Lies” (15 to see this Fall/Holiday Season) should have opened stronger given the cast of Crowe and DiCaprio, but the subject matter may have kept some away…
“The Express” was 6th – perhaps because the general public didn’t realize it was about more than just college football… 
“City of Ember” made about what I thought it would when I first saw the trailer, but I thought last week’s success of another family movie (”Chihuahua”) would have helped it to higher than 11th place…. 
“The Duchess” move into wide release moved it up from #20 to #9.

TOP 10 WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (actual results):

1. “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” - $17.50 million
(2nd week, 2nd week at #1, lost 40% of its audience from last week)

2. “Quarantine” - $14.21 million (1st week)

3. “Body of Lies” - $12.88 million (1st week)

4. “Eagle Eye” - $10.91 million
(2nd week, was #2 last week, lost 38% of its audience from last week)

5. “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” - $6.42 million
(2nd week, was #3 last week, lost 43% of its audience from last week)

6. “The Express” - $4.56 million (1st week)

7. “Nights in Rodanthe” - $4.54 million
(3rd week, was #4 last week, lost 38% of its audience from last week)

5. “Appaloosa” - $3.32 million
(4th week, was #5 last week, lost 34% of its audience from last week)

9. “The Duchess” - $3.30 million (1st week in wide release)

10. “Fireproof” - $3.14 million
(3rd week, was #8 last week, lost 21% of its audience from last week)

– — –

11. “City of Ember” - $3.13 million (1st week)

CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S BOX OFFICE REPORT – 10/6/08

19. “The Dark Knight” – $0.53 million (total gross: $526.69 million)
(13th week, was #21 last week, lost 36% of its audience from last week)

CHASING HISTORY:

“The Dark Knight” has a long way to go to close the gap between itself ($526.69 million) and “Titanic” ($600.78 million) for the highest grossing movie ever in the U.S. !!

Although, there are plans to re-release it in January (for Academy Award push and of course.. more $$$$ !!!

.

Box Office numbers courtesy Box Office Mojo

“Beverly Hills Chihuahua” poster courtesy Walt Disney

“The Dark Knight” poster courtesy Warner Bros.

Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/aaronlafferty

In Theaters (Friday): “Body of Lies”, “City of Ember”, “Quarantine”, “The Duchess” (wider release)

MY TAKE: Look for “Body of Lies” to take over the #1 spot at the box office and “City of Ember” to grab the family $$$… “The Duchess” will now been seen by more audiences as it opens in more theaters nationwide… and “Quarantine” might not do well, it probably would have played better closer to Halloween.

—-

On DVD (Tuesday): “The Happening”, “Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead”, “Paranoid Park”, “Sleeping Beauty” (Platinum Edition DVD/Blue Ray Platinum), “The Visitor”, “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan”

MY TAKE: I know I’m one of a few people who liked “The Happening” but if you stayed away from it because of the reviews or the bad box office… now’s your chance to agree with me (I think its M. Night Shyamalan’s 4th best movie)… or tell me I’m wrong.

“The Visitor” got good reviews for its acting…. and although its now a rental, I’m still waiting a bit to see Adam Sandler’s “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan”… or you could go with an underated Disney Classic “Sleeping Beauty” out in new re-released formats.

—- —-

Next Week at Theaters: “W.”, “Sex Drive”, ”Max Payne”, “The Secret Life of Bees”

Next Week on DVD: “4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days”, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”, “Mongol”, ”War, Inc.”