1. Steven Spielberg
No you have not double clicked the next button and somehow landed on a new article for best ever directors, sorry to say, you are still on the ones who should stop where they are. This man, like 70% of others on this list, has raised the bar so high with his early work that everything else is pale in comparison. I know this is a bitter pill for many people, but the fact remains that Spielberg hasn't made a mind-blowingly good film since Minority Report, and that was way back in 2002. Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal, War of the Worlds, Munich (close, but not close enough), Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Tintin, War Horse and Lincoln all amount to nothing when you think of what came before. This is a man who brought grown men to tears with ET, made the most despicable human beings of the world look human with Schindler's list, created the summer blockbuster with Jaws. Seriously, this guy even brought dinosaurs back to life. Okay, okay, maybe saying he should stop making films completely is a tad extreme, but it would be nice to see him least pick and choose his projects a bit more wisely. Lincoln, for all its production values and incredible acting, can't get away from the fact it is adapted from a text book and as a result is dull, War Horse is so heavily coated in schmultz that you can smell the cheese coming out of the end of it and Tintin only made you remember how great Indiana Jones once was. Maybe this is simply a blip for Spielberg, like Scorsese in the 80s, (whose omission from this list is totally intentional - there is a man who has recovered perfectly from a few duff moves) it may just be a small decline in a body of fantastic work. But when all is said and done, he cannot carry on making progressively weaker films one after the other. Don't revoke his license - but he certainly needs to retake his test. The world expects better from the greatest movie director alive today.
Best Film: Jaws (1975)
Most Recent Travesty: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
Agree? Disagree? Think Shaun's gone totally nuts? Let us know in the comments section below.