Body of Lies (Ridley Scott, 2008)

Body of Lies is Scott's sixth film since 2000's Gladiator, and while a slight improvement on the others, could still have been turned out by his hack brother Tony. It basically presents itself as a thriller for the geopolitical world of the 21st century as Leonardo DiCaprio runs around the Middle East getting into all sorts of intrigues while being double-dealt by Russell Crowe as his Washington boss. Hence, there are a lot of terse phone conversations and abductions, and Leo even utters a few words of Arabic for authenticity. But there's no depth to the set-up, and with all the old racial stereotypes in attendance, it's no more credible than a Bond film. It does manage to be less entertaining, though.

4/10