Ridley Scott is my favourite director of all time. I know I'm making a really bold statement here, but in my opinion he's Hollywood's answer to AKira Kurosawa (my other favourite director of all time). If you haven't seen Matchstick Men your in for a treat, its a terrific and quirky character film thats personal and intimate, a real departure from Scott in some ways and I wish he would make another film like this. Thelma and Louis awful? Well, its the only Best Director Oscar he's ever won, so that must be worth something; I think its a fantastic film, a sort of larger-scale predecessor to Matchstick Men in some ways.

IMO the only really bad movie he made was White Squall; tired and uninteresting and it uses every cliche in the book, and the whole "boys on a boat" thing is just really outdated. Hannibal, 1492, Black Rain and Someone to Watch Over Me at least have incredible design and cinematography. While speaking of 1492 its a shame that this still has never been on DVD for some confounding reason but its criticism is largely true: its all over the place and doesn't ever come together, but you can see that theres this really interesting film in there somewhere; its like an unfinished first draft screenplay or something. But at least the visuals are astounding. I know he's probably done more "director's cut"'s than Oliver Stone but this is one instance where I'd really like to see Scott try to tackle the film again, because I think it could be drastically improved by another edit.

Its hard to put a best-of list together because I honestly like every single movie he's done but I guess the top are

-Alien
-Kingdom of Heaven Director's Cut
-Blade Runner
-Gladiator
-The Duellists

I include that last one in there because its really is an absolutely first-rate film, even though I don't rank it on the same level as those first four--but it certainly remains among his best films, IMO. I wish more people had seen it.

Personally, I thought the Director's Cut of Kingdom of Heaven was the best epic since Lawrence of Arabia. Its one of the biggest shame's to cinema that this was never released to theaters, and I guarantee Scott would have another pair of Best Director and Best Picture Oscars for his mantle. Such an extraordinary film.

I'm looking forward to the upcoming three-disk American Gangster DVD (missed it in theaters unfortunately--apparently there is some extended cut on the three-disk set

though I doubt its anything more than a studio insistance like the second cuts of Black Hawk Down and Gladiator).