Body of Lies (2008)

Visually the film is so undistinguished it may be time for the maker of Blade Runner to be subjected to that film’s Voigt-Kampff test, to determine whether the current owner of the name “Ridley Scott” is real or a replicant.

But it's something of a penance to sit through, a token handwringing over American dirty tricks that's just another opportunity for Scott and co to blow stuff up.

Body of Lies can’t quite make up its mind whether to be an all-out thriller or a savvy political drama with something relevant to say about Muslim fundamentalism and the American response to it.

While this film's themes seem to address issues of terrorism and CIA meddling, and the powerful cast suggests we're in Important Movie territory, the result is essentially just a routine spy thriller: entertaining but forgettable.

Over-directed, frequently dull and ultimately disappointing thriller that wastes the talents of its two leads and strands them with a tedious script that somehow manages to be both confusing and overly simplistic.

Ridley Scott does not reflect on causes, only on operations. Body Of Lies may engage the warrior techno-geeks, but its amorality is uninvolving.

More gripping to watch in the moment than enjoyable to recall at its end.

A certain rawness and despairing urgency is never quite achieved for the message the film wants to deliver, and so it remains a well-intentioned, well-produced, yet generally unmemorable entertainment.

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For those of us who want movies to be about something and not just empty action with minimal shallow 'moral of the story' tacked on, Body of Lies is a disappointment.