.: Roberts' Reviews - Movie Reviews :.

If I were asked to put together a list of the best directors of the past thirty years, Ridley Scott would be right there with Spielberg, Fincher, Scorsese and Altman. His film history contains Blade Runner, Alien, Black Hawk Down, Gladiator, Thelma & Louise, Matchstick Men. Of his 18 feature films behind the camera, only a few have failed to click with audiences or critics (Legend, A Good Year). Still, he has no Hook or Jurassic Park 2 on his resume and that puts him in the ranks of greatness.

Still receiving accolades for 2007's American Gangster, Sir Ridley teamed up with is favorite actor, Russell Crowe for Body of Lies, a film that wants to be something great and settles for being merely moderate.

Body of Lies is based on the novel by David Ignatius and surrounds a CIA field agent named Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCaprio) with the assistance of his boss Edward Hoffman who orchestrates his plans primarily from the safety of Washington. The essence of the story is pretty standard in that Ferris is looking for terrorists as they continue to outsmart their technologically advanced counterparts. You can go to any Blockbuster and find plenty of DVD boxes that relay a similar plot.

And maybe Scott was aware of the many terrorist predecessor films that have been released and primarily ignored over the past few years. Instead of keeping everything on the ground with things being blown up while Langley watches through their satellites, Scott tries to take it to the ground and focus more on Ferris' struggle in finding the terrorist cell leader while cutting through all the political bullshit that is being thrown at him by Hoffman - who is clearly working on a separate agenda.

For all the star power at the top of the film poster, Body of Lies uses DiCaprio and Crowe much like Michael Mann used DeNiro and Pacino in Heat. The two stars don't much on screen time together and communicate mostly by use of cell phone.

But I didn't pay to see these two trade jarbs face to face. I secured my ticket in hopes of another Scott gem and Body of Lies failed to rise about simple mediocrity. A lot of the blame can be attributed to the screenplay which was penned by William Monahan (The Departed). The story just never takes flight and although there are plenty of action sequences, the moments which should have you on the end of your seat, have you sipping on your jumbo sized cola anticipating correctly what the outcome will be.

If this was any other director other than Scott, I might be giving it an extra star, but expectations are high for the seasoned veteran behind the camera and he just didn't rise to the challenge. I'll take Peter Berg's The Kingdom over Body of Lies and if you had told me that going in, I probably would have laughed you off.