Every Ridley Scott Movie Ranked Worst To Best

15. Body Of Lies (2008)

Even though it has a stunningly gifted cast - including Oscar Isaac and Mark Strong before they were really big news - Body Of Lies suffers from the fact that it should probably have been a TV show. There would have been more opportunity to build suspense and flesh out the characters a little more (Homeland style), and a smaller scale project would have forced the director to spend more time on story.

The style is there, as usual, but the substance really doesn't match it, even with heavyweight actors in the leads to the tune of Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe.

Scott's admirable attempts to elevate not just the material but also the genre are no more than distracting, and you almost wish someone else with less grand aspirations had handled the story. In that context, the cliches and the trite story-telling might have felt less alien and far more welcome, and the performances might have been easier to praise.