It is very easy pointing out BAD directoers.

That's sort of the point, though, innit? A top ten of the worst directors would take forever just to get the short list.

It's just a rule of the entertainment--people like complaining more than they like appreciating good work, and a certain class of person hates to admit to enjoying something unless there's some sort of evidence or style guide they can cite for why it's okay to like it.

Anyway, my favorite directors are mostly bad directors. Their movies might be totally flawed, but there's so much humanity in the stuff--you can really see those directors in the flaws. I guess it's like the whole "gesture of the artist" thing that they like to talk about in art history classes. So anyway, in no particular order I like Tarantino and Kevin Smith and Joss Whedon and Aaron Sorkin and Charlie Kaufman.

Or to give a separate list that I probably like just as much: Gendy Tartakovsky, Paul Dini, Giancarlo Volpe, Kazuya Tsurumaki, and Watanabe Shinichi.

oh man i know OPINIONS and everything but this just can't go down

i mean starship troopers was pretty cool as a goofy satire but this guy did SHOWGIRLS.

and that is simply unforgivable

in other words your opinion is incorrect

He also did Total Recall, Robocop, Basic Instinct...well rated movies. Every director is allowed a few blips :P I mean, even Hitchcock made a few pretty crap movies, like Topaz, and he's generally regarded as the best director of all time.

Touché, Esh. Looks like that movie was a major slip up. I actually missed a director that would probably knock Paul Verhoeven off my list, and that's Robert Zemekis.

Not enough essential cinema in here for my tastessss....

1) Federico Fellini, I prefer his earlier work more than his later. I have a thing for neo realism.
2) Akira Kurosawa, and I enjoy his contemparary Japan stuff more than his feudal.
3) Jean Renoir. Renoir is the shit.
4) John Cassavettes. I don't know what to say. Watch Faces it's great.
5) Louis Malle, because he's the only guy who can make a kid have sex with his mom seem like love and not incest. The pervert....

Libraries are the best place to borrow movies.

1) Sergio Leone (Why has no one mentioned him yet? The good the bad and the ugly, Once upon a time in the west, Once Upon a Time in America (better than Godfather).)
2) Jean-Pierre Jeunet (I've only seen Amelie, but wow. AND, he's directing Life of Pi!)
3) Tim Burton (I mostly give him credit for Big Fish, I loved that film.)
4) Martin Scorsese (Good Fellas, The Aviator, Taxi Driver)
5) Guillermo del Toro (Pans Labyrinth)

I don't know if these are my all time favorites, but they're the ones off the top of my head. Although, I'm sure Leone is my favorite director, I consider every movie he's directed a masterpiece. He directed both my favorite western (Once upon a time in the West) and my favorite mobster movie (Once upon a time in America). If you're going to watch Once in  America, make sure you find the full version, which is close to four hours long.

My list in no particular order:

Sergio Leone(The Good, The Bad and the Ugly/For a few dollars/ A few dollars more)

Sam Mendes(American Beauty, Road to Perdition)

Chris Nolan(Memento, The Prestige, Batman Begins)

Zhang Yimou?(Hero, Curse of the Golden Flower, House of flying Daggers)

Stanley Kubrick(2001)