One hit wonder directors
 

Who are the directors that only have one critically acclaimed film? Disregard personal favourites.

Directors I can think of on the top of my head would be Tony Kaye with American History X, Richard Kelly with Donnie Darko, and M. Night Shyamalan with The Sixth Sense. Although I enjoyed Shyamalan's The Village is was not as successful as Sixth Sense. What other directors out there fit this description?

Re: One hit wonder directors
 

Charlie Laughton - Night of the Hunter

Re: One hit wonder directors
 

Neill Blomkamp. District 9 is great, Elysium....not so much.

Re: One hit wonder directors
 

Richard Kelly - Donnie Darko
Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez - The Blair Witch Project
Tony Kaye - American History X

Re: One hit wonder directors
 

I can't believe anyone would credit The Blair Witch project as a hit, that movie bored the hell out of me but I totally agree

Re: One hit wonder directors
 

It was big at the time, as I recall...

Re: One hit wonder directors
 

The Blair Witch is my most hated movie of all time. That was never good.

Signs is Shyamalan's best movie.

Re: One hit wonder directors
 

He only ever made 1 movie. Doesn't count.

Re: One hit wonder directors
 

Tony Kaye - American History X (my favorite movie)
Sean Penn - Into The Wild (director)

Why not?

Re: One hit wonder directors
 

Boaz Yakin: Remember the Titans
Michael Bay: The Rock (not sure if he counts since I think the first Transformers movie got pretty good reviews)
Michael Gondry: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

I agree, i also thought Unbreakable was quite good. I wouldn't say he is a one hit wonder for me at least since the only 3 movies of his i've seen i enjoyed.

To be a one hit wonder, in my opinion, would mean that you tried to make another film and it failed. You've only had one hit in your career. That one film was his career, in a directing sense anyway. He has nothing else in his directing career to compare it to. That's what it comes down to, comparing your work.

So in my books, it doesn't count.

Re: One hit wonder directors
 

Paul WS Anderson... Mortal Kombat was close, but his one and only genuinely decent film is Event Horizon.


Eli Roth for Cabin Fever. He wrote, produced, acted and directed it and though it wasn't great, it looks like a masterpiece next to his other stuff... the rest of Roth's work has been utter crap, nothing more nothing less... complete and utter crap... whether directing, writing, acting or producing, the guy is on a par with Uwe Boll. Cabin Fever is the one and only decent thing this guy has spewed out.
The one and only reason he gets work is because he sniffs around Tarantino.
Reminds me of Andrew Ridgeley.

I don't think Michel Gondry counts. The Science of Sleep got good reviews and Be Kind Rewind got decent reviews.

Re: One hit wonder directors
 

Guess I should have checked Wikipedia or IMDB first since I'd never head of Science of Sleep. :o

I like it better than Eternal Sunshine.

Re: One hit wonder directors
 

I'm confused...

Re: One hit wonder directors
 

Confused about what?