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.

7 of 31

Roland Emmerich

Sort of a German version of Michael Bay (but not quite matching Bay's extraordinary box office numbers), Emmerich specializes in disaster films and other popcorn fare—though a bag of popcorn is likely more intellectually stimulating. While that sometimes translates into a fun few hours in a theater, it certainly doesn't bring glowing reviews; Emmerich's career average is 43. His one decent score comes for his Mel Gibson-starring Revolutionary War drama The Patriot.

Note that Emmerich's 1980s films, including Ghost Chase and Making Contact, were barely (if at all) released in the United States and don't have enough reviews to generate a score. The same goes for his very early German-language pictures.

The one good film:
63 The Patriot (2000)

Everything else:
39 Moon 44 (1990)
35 Universal Soldier (1992)
42 Stargate (1994)
59 Independence Day (1996)
32 Godzilla (1998)
47 The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
34 10,000 BC (2008)
49 2012 (2009)
50 Anonymous (2011)
52 White House Down (2013)
30 Stonewall (2015)
32 Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)

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