Welcome to part 84 of our never-ending coverage of Oliver Stone's W. This week we're going to take a magical acid-filled journey through Oliver Stone's resume. And boy does his resume have it all. The maddening highs! The sour and depressing lows! The muddled walks of mediocrity! It's all here in Film.com's "Best and Worst of Oliver W. (no, really) Stone!" And here's one more exclamation point for good measure!

Top Three:

1. JFK
I've said everything I think I really needed to say about this bad boy right here. For a long time, Oliver Stone was up there with Steven Spielberg as my favorite director working and this movie is a big reason why.

2. Nixon
This is Stone's unsung masterwork. The guy is a big fan of Shakespeare. JFK was his Julius Caesar: The Aftermath told from an outsider's perspective. Nixon is a more direct homage to Shakes, a man haunted by the death of a rival and whose greatest tragedy is his inability to get out of his own way. If Nixon is the equally paranoid Richard III, then Kennedy is almost certainly Edward the IV. Citizen Kane references abound as well, from the opening shots of one Xanadu of a White House. Seek out the director's cut, which features a juicy scene between Anthony Hopkins' Nixon and Sam Waterston's Richard Helms.

3. Platoon
I don't dig the final voice-over narration by Charlie "Ma"-Sheen at the end of the film but I pretty much love everything else in Stone's Vietnam war epic. It's popular to refer Stanley Kubrick's cold, fascinating Full Metal Jacket as the more significant artistic achievement in the genre, but I've always had The Deer Hunter standing tall above them anyway. Though, this movie is about the battle of a young soldier's soul. There is nothing subtle about the treatment of Willem Dafoe's Elias, (and as audiences would soon learn, Stone has a taste for theatrics); it's an affective contrast to Tom Berenger's Barnes. Stone wasn't just interested in why we were there, but how we were when we were there.

Bottom Three:

1. Any Given Sunday
One of the most disappointing movies I've ever seen. I thought this was going to be The Godfather of football movies. Instead, it's just a really big and only occasionally interesting football epic. I was willing to sit through the silliness that was U-Turn (a bad and strange, but at times, fun detour). But with this movie, Stone had to answer for Santino.

Now contrary to what I've heard from many people, I actually love the way the football scenes are shot. And a part of me wishes this movie all took place during one game. Kind of like what Sam Raimi's For the Love of the Game tried to do, only not terrible. My biggest problem with this movie is that I hate pretty much everybody in it. No one is likable and no one is interesting, except -- who saw this coming back then? -- Jamie Foxx's character. Now I really disliked him at the start, but he grew on me. Why didn't anybody else? I don't know. But I sure love that Pacino locker-room speech at the end. See, it's not all bad news bears here.

2. Alexander
There's quite a bit I like in Alexander. Angelina Jolie is having wicked fun. Val Kilmer is pretty great. The battle scenes are big and in parts, bold. The music by Vangelis is excellent. And there are moments where the film's epic nature really shines. But for the most part, this movie is a big fat, two-week-old turd. It doesn't smell half as much as you would think -- it being, you know, a turd. So even as a turd it ranks as a disappointment. Colin Farrell is miscast. Anthony Hopkins will probably put you to sleep. On the whole, the film fails to really capture the greatness of one of the world's most fascinating historical icons.

3. The Doors
I always wanted to like this film, mainly because Val Kilmer is so damn good in it. But alas, even after multiple viewings I cannot find any trace of Stone's genius. His madness, yes. God, yes. And Native Americans. And some bad wigs. And Johnny Drama. But genius? Look elsewhere.

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