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.

24 of 31

Brad Silberling

Another filmmaker who has had more success on the small screen than the big one, Silberling has directed for such acclaimed TV shows ranging from NYPD Blue to Jane the Virgin. (Oh, and Cop Rock.) But his feature film best is the passable 2004 adaptation of A Series of Unfortunate Events, though he isn't involved with the current (and superior) Netflix series based on the same material.

Silberling's latest film, the Ben Kingsley drama An Ordinary Man, opened a few days ago. At press time it, too, is a disappointment, with a score of 46.

The one good film:
62 Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004)

Everything else:
49 Casper (1995)
54 City of Angels (1998)
59 Moonlight Mile (2002)
54 10 Items or Less (2006)
32 Land of the Lost (2009)

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