You're not a fan of Denzel, Crowe, Ridley Scott, or Steve Zallian? WTF? Do I need to make a list?

The Insider...Training Day...Blade Runner...Shindler's List...just to name a few, very few.

I certainly CAN love that lot but VERY intermittently.

I think Scott is one of the most uneven filmmakers in the biz. I love "Blade Runner." Really like "Thelma & Louise" and, to a lesser extent, "Gladiator." And dislike everything else he's made.
"Schindler's List" is the only Zaillian script I like and I feel it's really Spielberg who made the film.
My love for Denzel is confined to "Cry Freedom," "Malcolm X" and, to a lesser extent, "The Hurricane."
Crowe I do like a great deal but not to the degree some do.

Regardless, I think the film looks awesome.

(And recall this is Gerard, not Kris).

Fair enough. I agree with you about Zaillian for the most part. I think Crowe is one of best actors around.

The Insider, LA Confidential, Gladiator, Master&Commander, Beautiful Mind, and Cinderella Man to a lesser extent is a helluva run. His next movies sound promising as well.
To me, Scott is extremely versatile. From movies like Alien to Thelma&Louise and Blade Runner to Gladiator show a lot of range. His upcoming projects sound amazing( Blood Meridian, Body of Lies, Nottingham) And they're all very different films which shows that Scott doesn't stick to one kind of genre.
On paper, American Gangster looks awesome and an awards contender.
BTW, just read Lions for Lambs script and I don't see any awards coming its way.

I agree with you on Ridley Scott, Mr Gittes, but I have to strongly disagree regarding Lions for Lambs. I too have read the script and found it to be really good.

To be more descriptive, I felt the Lions for Lambs was well written, but nothing new and an example of what isn't good about "hyper-link" cinema. In other words, it was very Paul Haggis like. The best movies that are trying to say something important, show but not tell. They show you what the problem is and it's up to the audience to make their own conclusions. Soderberg's Traffic is the best example of this: Lean, mean, but not pushy. Crash is the complete opposite in my view. I don't know, we'll see. Regardless, I'm excited to see the "tense" exchanges between Cruise amd Streep.