Every Ridley Scott Movie Ranked Worst To Best

23. The Counselor (2013)

Despite its flagrantly misspelled title, the Counselor should have been great. It united genius writer Cormac McCarthy and Ridley Scott and sprinkled on a phenomenally talented cast with the likes of Cameron Diaz, Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Javier Bardem and a sprawling host of others.

The problem is that McCarthy's script revels way too much in being nasty to its characters, who are pretty much all unceremoniously murdered or screwed by the plot, rather than on actually building suspense and thrills. The result is a hollow experience, which admittedly looks great and swaggers with misplaced confidence, but which is wholly unsatisfying.

The dialogue occasionally sizzles, as you'd expect, but it fails to paper over some more fundamental story-telling problems, and while some will cling on to the vain idea that it's an unappreciated, bold gem, the reality is that it's just not very enjoyable at all.