5. Oliver Stone
Oliver Stone is one of the most well known names in film, perhaps for his outspoken nature more than anything else lately. It's perhaps no coincidence that Stone's documentary making has improved as his features have decreased in quality as he no longer appears to have the same anger and ferocity he had earlier in his career, as both a writer and director. Stone's early films were like being hit over the head with a baseball bat as he hammered the message home with brute force and often it worked perfectly as films such as Scarface (he wrote, but didn't direct), Platoon, Wall Street, Born on the Fourth of July and Natural Born Killers proves. Stone has always been interested in politics from his anti-Vietnam films, to his anti-Capitalist films to his biopics of two former US Presidents, and he should now focus his efforts on his political documentaries which are very interesting. Stone's controversial career took a turn for the worse at around the turn of the century. After a five year break he returned with the highly anticipated Alexander only it turned out to be one of the most disappointing films ever made and a complete disaster, and for the first time in his career, Stone could be accused of being boring. Stone's movies have been increasingly lackluster of late, though W had some nice touches. His latest, Savages, looked to be a return to lurid and visceral form, but again we were left with a soulless film featuring people we didn't care about and Stone's shtick is getting really quite tiring now. He would be much better off retiring from feature film making and focusing entirely on documentaries and television as his history program is fascinating.