Film's One-Hit Wonders: 30 Directors With Only One Good Movie

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – April 15, 2018

Even the worst directors have one good film in them. Well, at least some of them do. In the gallery above, we've identified 30 filmmakers from the past four decades who have directed at least five features but have managed to receive positive reviews for just a single one of their films.

Todd Phillips

A prolific writer and director of comedies (and a few documentaries), Phillips actually has an Oscar nomination on his resume, for co-writing the 2006 classic Borat. But he didn't direct that film—and of the 10 he did direct, only the first of the three Hangover films managed to collect positive reviews. Up next for the director could be a DC Comics film centering on the Joker, who may be played by Joaquin Phoenix.

Note that we don't have a Metascore (due to a lack of reviews) for a 1993 documentary feature, Hated: GG Allin and the Murder Junkies, that Phillips shot (as his debut) while in film school.

The one good film:
73 The Hangover (2009)

Everything else:
55 Road Trip (2000)
47 Bittersweet Motel (2000)
54 Old School (2003)
55 Starsky & Hutch (2004)
44 School for Scoundrels (2006)
51 Due Date (2010)
44 The Hangover Part II (2011)
30 The Hangover Part III (2013)
57 War Dogs (2016)

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