4. Ridley Scott
Ridley Scott is one of the few directors on this list who rarely contributes to the writing process inherent to his pictures; as a result, his entire body of work feels scattershot and impersonal, and yet the man has earned a reputation as one of the best directors of all-time on account of his few great pictures: Blade Runner, Alien, and (at a push) Gladiator are all wonderful films, sure, but what else has Scott done to earn such high praise and accolade? Surely a truly great director should know how to bring out the best in pretty much any script he chooses to bring to the big screen? Uh-uh. It's true that his pictures almost always look beautiful (indeed, he's often praised for his handling of the visual aspects), but so many of them fail to show any real substance and he frequently directs on autopilot. Take a quick scroll through his filmography and look at all the duds; they far outweigh the movies that are actually worth your time. So very frequently it really does kind of feel as though Scott has been pegged as something of a legend without any real evidence to back it up. There are just too many failures. Gone are the days, then, where the words "A Ridley Scott Film" should conjure up the levels of hype that are so frequently conjured up whenever he announces a project. Did you see The Counselor?