I liked his work on True Romance, the Last Boyscout, Crimson Tide, and even Man on Fire, to an extent. Specifically, I liked the way he didn't completely fuck up Quentin Tarantino's script, Shane Black's script, Danzel Washington and Gene Hackman's racially-charged underwater dynamic, and Paul Cameron's hyperrealistic Mexico City, respectively. For a counter-example, see what Mr. and Mrs. Geena Davis did with Black's script for (and Sam Jackson's completely wasted performance in) The Long Kiss Goodnight. That movie could've been SO DECENT directed by Scott and starring, I don't know, Uma Thurman or somebody.

Even later in life, after he started losing the plot (as evidenced by his squandering of what was probably at one point a pretty awesomely batshit Richard Kelly script for Domino - I mean, just the IDEA of a Sam Kinison Monument in Needles justified that entire production), he still had a knack for eliciting really strong performances that I'd like to think went beyond simply hiring the most expensive actors and giving them all the time and takes they needed. Look at how he captured Travolta's simmering, homoerotic, my baby boy is dead and I'm tired of living a lie for scientology breakdown in the obviously completely unnecessary and fundamentally ill-conceived Pelham remake. You know, the one that ended with John committing suicide on a bridge for no discernible reason, other than that's the most noble thing a man can do (see also: Denzel at the end of the confused and interminable Deja Vu [spoiler warning]).

Tony was never a Cameronian mass market visionary like his brother, but among your big budget hired guns - your Roland Emmerichs, your Dominic Sennas, your Rob Cohens, your... ugh... Brett Ratners - I'd say he was easily in the top tier. (By the same token, I think Inside Man proved Spike Lee could've had Tony's career any day he wanted, which is why Spike is in another league altogether.)