At first it seemd like my praise was too strong but I tried to think of directors I love more consistently, and they're not many in number. Kurosawa, Ridley Scott before the 2000s (though American Gangster was pretty sweet), Hitchcock, Tarantino (sans Jackie Brown)...

Note that I'm not saying Eastwood is the most influential or anything, god no, he's no Bergman or Kubrick or whatever. Just that of the people making movies today, his stuff seems to be what I enjoy the most, most reliably.