Every Ridley Scott Movie Ranked Worst To Best

17. A Good Year (2006)

Ridley Scott is a difficult character to predict in terms of his generic fancies: he's a historical epic maker, a sci-fi genius, a gentler character piece maker and a powerhouse drama story-teller all at once. But even his most enthusiastic fans couldn't have expected him to follow up Kingdom Of Heaven with A Good Year.

The small-scale romantic comedy feels a little like Scott is playing genre bingo, making a romance simply because he hadn't done it before, despite the fact that his style never really suited it. Sure, he's always at his best when he's most focused on characters, but the genre seems to have pulled out some unexpected sugary froth that isn't quite as successful as things like Chocolat and Love Actually that it seeks to emulate.

Again, it looks beautiful and the French setting allows Scott to indulge in some travel pornography, but the story isn't really substantial enough and the results simply don't last. It's nice, but it's not great by any means.