RIP Tony Scott, AWESOME Filmmaker

So it looks like Tony Scott, "Tony Scott, director of Top Gun" or "Days Of Thunder helmer Tony Scott" as all the major and even minor news sites (like news.internet) are going to be calling him, jumped from a bridge and killed himself. Same news sites are 'investigating it as a suicide' which is nonsense because that's what it was. They may as well investigate their own suspected use of words in the formation of sentences. I can't speak unselfishly about this because apart from having a really famous brother I'm not familiar with the Scott tribe and I'm not about to offer blog condolence to a bunch of people I'll never meet. Flip the coin, though, and you have what does sadden me, which is that this man will never make a film again, and as a fan of movies and in nearly all cases his movies, yeah, I'll take some sadness from that. That's what he devoted his life to doing, and that's what he'll never do again, and that sucks altogether. No longer is Ridley Scott 'the lesser Scott brother' - now he's the only one.

Scott with occasional collaborator, Fat Val Kilmer

I opened with that line about those Tom Cruise films because that IS what's going to happen, but those films never said a thing to me about what Tony Scott was capable of. Here's a man with a killer resume and all the great unwatched ever talk about is that one film he made in the 80s about the gay guys flying planes. Bullshit. Here's some of my faves. Watch these in celebration or remembrance or something that suits you and lament in some small way the passing of a pretty huge talent.

The Fan - Underseen Wesley Snipes vehicle with Rob De Niro in full on sociopath mode.

The Last Boy Scout - Failed attempt at breaking Damon 'the one from the sitcom' Wayans as an action star alongside genre workhorse Bruce Willis, that's otherwise totally excellent and far less discussed amongst casual action fans than it should be.

The Denzel Washington Saga

Crimson Tide - Geeeeeeeeeeeene Hackman on a sumbarine. Also James Gandolfini. Oh, fuck, and Denzel Washinton. That's important. This film is completely awesome and tense as one of those drums I tune too high because I don't know how to do that right.

Man On Fire - Denzel figuratively and literally on fire. Maybe he's only on fire in the deleted ending, but either way I ruined the movie for you! Also features a Nine Inch Nails soundtrack cobbled together from old albums.

Deja Vu -Adam 'that Jewish nerd' Goldberg sends Denzel back in time to save the life of a woman in a nice dress. Really good and completely absolutely batpoop crazy throughout.

(Sub-category - The Denzel Washington On A Train Mini-Saga)

The Taking Of Pelham 123 -John Travolta's second career renaissance continues... on a train.

Unstoppable - As a force on entertainment this is film is damn near unstoppable (!), and damn near perfect, too. No fluff, no frills, just the stuff of thrills. Crap writing 101, there, by me.