Movies directed by Ridley Scott

Gladiator is the kind of movie upon which Hollywood once built its reputation but rarely produces anymore: the spectacle. Filled with larger-than-life characters, gorgeous scenery, impressive set design, and epic storytelling, Gladiator is design...

Spoiler Alert: This review freely discusses elements from throughout the movie's plot. Those who have not seen the movie and don't want to know about things in advance are encouraged to return after having seen the film. In the nearly 25 years ...

When Alien was first released during the summer movie season of 1979, science fiction films were all the rage. The trend had been started two years earlier with the unexpected box office success of Star Wars, and, by 1979, anything even remotely co...

In recent years, the term "director's cut" has undergone a devaluation. It has become a marketing term, appended to DVDs to enhance their salability. Often, a "director's cut" will be essentially the same as the theatrical cut, except with a fe...

Body of Lies is an adult thriller with such a high narrative density that even a brief trip to the restroom may result in key plot points being lost. The film is the antithesis of a slick, superficial feature like Eagle Eye. It both demands and re...

Movies about confidence tricksters represent an old, although not necessarily respected, sub-genre of the thriller. Many of these films are cheap and cheesy, with silly plots and "twists" that are shaky and predictable. There are a few notable ex...

1998's Saving Private Ryan introduced a new era of war movies. Gone are the bloodless tales of gallantry which portrayed the battlefield as a place where the fruits of bravery are victory. Replacing them are stories steeped in the gritty reality ...

The Martian is the latest in a series of realistic science fiction films - movies that eschew the space opera elements of the genre and concentrate instead on believable aspects. Following in the wake of Christopher Nolan's Interstellar (and feat...

The desire for familiarity in movies can lead to sequels and re-makes, but that doesn't always have to be the case. It can also mean the use of storyline everyone sitting in the theater knows. A Good Year is a respectable retelling of the "back to ...

American Gangster is compelling in the same way that many mob-related motion pictures are compelling, but it fails to achieve the greatness that the best of them attain. The problem with American Gangster may be that it tries to hard to provide bal...