In the war on terror, there are no winners, only victims. Power to bring the conflict to a resolution rests not in the trembling hands of soldiers - the brave men and women who risk their lives in the name of freedom - but in the upper echelons of power in Washington DC and Langley, Virginia.

In these silent corridors, nameless men in suits pore over covert intelligence, making bold decisions, which could result in the loss of hundreds of innocent lives: collateral damage deemed necessary to track down the masterminds behind the atrocities.

Opening with a devastating explosion on these shores, Body Of Lies channels timely fears about the fight against terrorism into a routine spy caper, enlivened sporadically by the directorial brio of Ridley Scott.

The British filmmaker grafts some robust, adrenaline-pumping action sequences onto the disappointingly linear plot, including the bombing of a Dutch market place, which leaves us feeling queasy as the horrifying moment of impact replays via CCTV.

Viewers of a nervous disposition should look away.

CIA supervisor Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe) is a key player in overseas operations. From the comfort of his suburban life as a doting father, Ed co-ordinates the day-to-day activities of agent Roger Ferris Leonardo DiCaprio), who is authorised to use extreme force to ensure the safety of America and its people.

Together, Ed and Roger pursue the elusive Al-Saleem (Alon Aboutboul), head of a terrorist cell, which is responsible for numerous bombings across Europe.

However, the closer the two men edge to their target, the greater the chance of innocent civilians and US operatives being caught in the crossfire.

To achieve his goal, Roger aligns himself with Hani Salaam (Mark Strong), head of the Jordanian General Intelligence Department (GID). "I have one rule if you are to co-operate, my dear," Hani warns the US agent. "never lie to me."

Roger is frugal with the truth and sparks a tentative romance with Jordanian-Iranian nurse Aisha (Golshifteh Farahani), who tends to his wounds at a clinic.

The relationship exposes Roger, and Al-Saleem seizes the opportunity to strike back against the infidels, with deadly force.

There is nothing subtle about Body Of Lies, which reunites director Ridley Scott with leading man Crowe for their third consecutive film since the Oscar-winning epic Gladiator.

The romantic subplot is merely a crude device to facilitate a pivotal torture scene, during which Al-Saleem takes a hammer to DiCaprio's right hand and smashes those Oscar nominated pinkies to a pulp in gruesome close-up.

Marc Streitenfeld's orch-estral score keeps time with the erratic pacing, delivering bombast to accompany the pyrotechnics.

DiCaprio is lacklustre in a predominately reactive role but Crowe impresses as an overweight family man, juggling energetic children with decisions of national importance via a mobile phone and omnipresent earpiece, which never appears to lose signal range.
Now that's impressive.

The remakers claim another victim
Quarantine (18)
ASIA remains fertile ground for ghost stories and here, writer-director John Erick Dowdle rehashes the chilling Spanish horror film (REC].

Quarantine adheres closely to the template of Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza's gory, suburban nightmare, employing the same faux-documentary style a la Blair Witch Project.

Indeed, sections of Dowdle's film unfold almost shot-for-shot, word-for-word, scream-for-scream and splat-for-splat.

Television reporter Angela Vidal (Jennifer Carpenter) is despatched to a Los Angeles fire station with her regular cameraman Scott (Steve Harris) to make a behind-the-scenes segment on life for these brave men.
The TV duo shadows Jake (Jay Hernandez) and George (Johnathon Schaech) through the night shift, including an apparently routine 911 call to rescue an old woman, who is barricaded inside her apartment.

No sooner are they inside the building than agents from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention seal the exits, preventing anyone from leaving.

The trapped residents learn they are in the midst of an outbreak of a rabies-like contagion, which incites deadly aggression in victims.
As the virus spreads, Angela and Scott continue to film their hellish experience.

Quarantine will only interest audiences, who didn't see (REC] earlier this year.

Dowdle and his screenwriter brother Drew invest more time in light-hearted scenes before all hell breaks loose. Violence is more graphic.

Palahniuk has a laugh with screen version of Choke
Choke (18) ***
THE first step to conquering addiction is admitting the problem. Only then can you begin to address the underlying causes of your dependency - drugs, booze, gambling - and understand the desires which threaten to consume you.

Adapted from the nihilistic novel by Chuck Palahniuk, Choke is a black comedy about a 30-something sex addict who happily acknow-ledges his yearnings and willingly attends rehab-ilitation meetings because it allows him to prey upon and sleep with fellow sufferers.

Victor Mancini (Sam Rockwell) is a costumed guide at a colonial village tourist attraction, where he dons the period dress of an Irish servant alongside best friend Denny (Brad William Henke) to recreate scenes of 18th century life.

When he's not infuriating his boss Lord High Charlie (actor/director Clark Gregg) or propositioning other addicts, Victor makes regular visits to hospital to see his demented mother Isa (Anjelica Huston), who has almost completely relin-quished her grasp on reality.

In the process, Victor encounters attending physician Dr Paige Marshall (Kelly Macdonald) and develops a crush on the sexy medic. Yet when mutual admiration turns to lust in the hospital chapel, for the first time in his life, Victor cannot rise to the occasion.

At first Victor puts down his uncharacteristically poor performance to the location, joking to Denny that anyone would wilt in the direct eye-line of Jesus on the cross.

But the self-crazed misfit gradually accepts that Paige has touched him like no other woman and to move forward, he must reconcile with his shady past.

Choke is a quixotic slice of life, which retains the anarchic spirit of Palahniuk's book through some hysterical comic interludes.

One of the most amusing strands is Denny's burgeoning romance with a ditzy stripper called Cherry Daquiri (Gillian Jacobs), who dyes her hair brunette, "Because of what you said about blondes getting skin cancer."

Rockwell's anti-hero struggles to lasso our sympathy, by virtue of his treatment of almost every woman in the film and his potentially life-threatening hustle, which gives Clark Gregg's directorial debut its title.

Huston tugs the heart-strings from her hospital bed, restored to her raven-haired former glory in flashbacks, which reveal the strange bond between mother and son.

A sly narrative twist is well concealed by Gregg as the characters stumble from one disaster to the next, clinging desperately to any scrap of hope that comes their way.

There aren't many.

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My Best Friend's Girl (15)
Dustin (Jason Biggs) falls head over heels in love with Alexis (Kate Hudson), the woman of his dreams who possesses beauty, brains and a will to succeed.

Unfortunately, Dustin comes on too strong and Alexis is forced to end the relationship after just five weeks, sending her paramour into the pits of despair.

Determined to win her back, Dustin turns to his best friend Tank (Dane Cook), a serial womaniser with a crafty streak, who specialises in dating recently separated women and giving them the worst evening of their lives so they run back to their exes at top speed. Tank takes Alexis out for a night she will never forget, with the intention of rebounding her back to Dustin. However, Alexis fails to fall for his scare tactics. Moreover, Tank finds himself attracted to this fiercely independent young woman and faces a moral dilemma: to follow his heart or remain loyal to his heartbroken pal.

Blindness (18)
Fernando Meirelles (City Of God, The Constant Gardener) directs this adaptation of Jose Saramago's 1995 book, which imagines the breakdown of society when the population is robbed of its sight.

The American government segregates the initial cases in a mental asylum, including a doctor (Mark Ruffalo) and his wife (Julianne Moore), who feigns blindness to remain by her husband's side.
As food dwindles, a bartender (Gael Garcia Bernal) exploits the situation to his advantage, forcing patients to trade their personal belongings for sustenance.

Waltz with Bashir (18)
Writer/director Ari Folman recalls harrowing experiences as an Israeli soldier during the first Lebanon war, many of which are buried deep within his fractured memory, is this animated memoir. Driven by the recollections of friends and fellow soldiers, Waltz With Bashir helps Folman to overcome his post traumatic stress disorder in a series of animated vignettes, building to a moving confessional about events leading up to the infamous September 1982 massacre in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.

Yuvvraaj (Cert TBC)
Subhash Ghai writes and directs this love story about three siblings battling to inherit their father's wealth and win the heart of the most beautiful woman in the land.

Conversations with my Gardener (12A)
Based on the novel by Henry Cueco, Conver-sations charts a remarkable friendship between two men (Daniel Auteuil and (Jacques Villeret), childhood acquaintances, who are reunited by chance many years later in provincial France.