Review: Honestly, 'Body of Lies' is actually good

As a director, Ridley Scott hasn't wowed me in more than 10 years. For those of you doing the math, yes I didn't like "Gladiator." The last film of his  I enjoyed was "GI Jane," and that had more to do with Viggo Mortensen's performance than with Scott's direction.

So, it was with low expectations that I sat down in the theater this weekend to watch "Body of Lies," the latest Scott effort, starring Leonardo "please forget I'm in Titanic" DiCaprio, and Russel "I'm a fat guy again" Crowe.

I say that Russell Crowe is fat now, because it seems that he only plays 2 types of characters. The fat guy like he did on "The Insider," or the tough guy as in "Gladiator" or "3:10 to Yuma." I have almost always liked him as the fat guy, and here is no exception.

Crowe and DiCaprio are CIA operatives playing a delicate game of cat and mouse in the Middle East to prevent another terrorist attack. "Body of Lies" is yet another in a long line of post-Sept. 11 Middle East movies. But this one's different. This one is actually good.

DiCaprio is the guy on the ground in Jordan, trying to hunt and kill the leader of a terrorist cell responsible for a rash of bombings across Europe. Crowe is the team leader sitting on his throne watching the action in safety on a computer monitor in Langley, Va. It seems that for each step forward made by DiCaprio, Crowe seems to deliberately cause the whole team to take two steps backward.

The interactions between Crowe and DiCaprio are great, inserting comic relief when it is desperately needed. It is when the action ramps up and the guns start firing that this film is as good as it gets. When DiCaprio lets loose, I felt almost like I was watching a Rambo remake with a skinnier kid playing the titular character.

Crowe and DiCaprio are at the top of their game here, and Ridley Scott is firing on all cylinders, reminding us why he is one of the greatest directors of the past 30 years (1998-2007 excluded). Now we can add a "war movie" to Scott's eclectic list of cinematic greats such as "Alien," "Blade Runner," "Legend" and "Thelma and Louise."

Give this film a chance. Especially if you can catch it in Wehrenberg's new digital projection theater.