The Top Five Ridley Scott Movies

5 - Gladiator

4 - Thelma and Louise

3 - Black Hawk Down

2 - Blade Runner

1 - Alien

Thanks to everyone who participated in our most recent Top Five list and let me start by asking a question: Who knew Ridley Scott made so many bad movies? Last week, I announced this list by adding, "Man, what a career" or some such nonsense. Turns out he's been wrong more than he's been right.

Seriously, he's made about 20 movies and well over half of them are not films you would've wanted to direct yourself. We have 1492: Conquest of Paradise, which I may have walked out of, G.I. Jane, Hannibal, A Good Year, I'll throw Legend on that heap (I know I walked out of that, and I was 13). But when he's on, there's no doubt about it. The top three films on our list were nominated almost unanimously, and I suspect that's because nearly all film fans can agree on two of them.

We didn't get as many Gladiator votes as I would've thought, and more Matchstick Men, though it's tough to knock a Best Picture winner that much (even though Gladiator is a bad Best Picture choice). But Gladiator is an important film for Scott personally, which is why I have it listed here. His career was failing miserably for about a decade when he made the epic action movie, and if not for that film, we probably wouldn't have had Black Hawk Down, Matchstick Men, American Gangster, or the new Body of Lies. So it's a milestone.

Thelma & Louise probably seems like a trifle, but somehow Scott managed to make it more than the unofficial introduction of Brad Pitt and a double-X chromosome version of Butch & Sundance. The chemistry between Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon is marvelous, and once again, it came along at a good time for Ridley, who was in danger of becoming the Nic Cage of directors in 1991.

Black Hawk Down isn't the best war movie ever and it doesn't have the most action, but it's gripping, features some great performances, and there hasn't been a movie about a recent American war that can really compare to it. It also lets Scott toy with effects and explosions, which he's always been good at.

If you were to make a list of the most underrated movies ever made, Blade Runner would probably be in the top 20. The theatrical version is good but messy; unfortunately, that's the version a lot of people know. Scott's director's cut, released many years later, is flawless. It's a completely new twist on classic film noir, the universe it creates is totally original, and holds up. You can't say that about too many science fiction films from the early 1980s. They teach this one in classrooms for a reason.

So why is Alien at the top of the list? If you think I need to answer that question, you haven't seen Alien. And if that's true, don't you have better things to do? Like watch Alien, perhaps?