The ten lowest-scoring directors

[martryn]

Kinda fucked up that there are people in the world that would rank both Aronofsky and Nolan as bottom ten directors. I think both have an entry on my list of top 10 favorite films. I realize different tastes and all, but I can't help but get a strong scent of pretentiousness.

I shall continue with my list just the same.

10. Paul W.S. Anderson, 5 films, 51.2
Best film - Event Horizon (66)
Worst film - AVP: Alien vs. Predator (43)

9. Roger Spottiswoode, 6 films, 49.8
Best film - Tomorrow Never Dies (58)
Worst film - Stop! or My Mom Will Shoot (27)

8. Randal Kleiser, 6 films, 49.33
Best film - Flight of the Navigator (68)
Worst film - Honey I Blew Up the Kid (24)

7. Peter Segal, 4 films, 49.25
Best film - Get Smart (64)
Worst film - Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (18)

6. Jon Turteltaub, 6 films, 48.83
Best film - Cool Runnings (62)
Worst film - 3 Ninjas (23)

5. Stephen Herek, 6 films, 48.5
Best film - Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (70)
Worst film - 101 Dalmatians (23)

4. Tom Shadyac, 7 films, 48.29
Best film - Liar Liar (66)
Worst film - The Nutty Professor (23)

3. Frank Coraci, 4 films, 48.25
Best film - The Wedding Singer (68)
Worst film - Click (18)

2. Amy Heckerling, 4 films, 41.25
Best film - European Vacation (61)
Worst film - Loser (18)

1. Brian Levant, 5 films, 25.4
Best film - Jingle All the Way (30)
Worst film - Snow Dogs (21)

[Ramy]

10. Robert Rodriguez (6) - 63.33
9. Francis Lawrence (3) - 63.33
8. M. Night Shyamalan (4) - 62.50
7. Marc Foster (4) - 60.00
6. Wilson Yip (3) - 58.33
5. Brett Ratner (4) - 56.25
4. Michael Bay (4) - 53.75
3. George Lucas (4) - 51.25
2. Darren Lynn Bousman (3) - 40.00
1. Paul W.S. Anderson (4) - 37.50

[MacSwell]

10. Zack Snyder, 3 films, 45.00
Best film: Watchmen (90)
Worst film: 300 (5)

9. Renny Harlin, 3 films, 41.67
Best film: Cliffhanger (60)
Worst film: Deep Blue Sea (30)

8. Stephen Sommers, 3 films, 41.67
Best film: The Mummy (80)
Worst film: The Mummy Returns (15)

7. Rob Letterman, 3 films, 40.00
Best film: Monsters vs Aliens (50)
Worst film: Gulliver's Travels (30)

6. George Lucas, 5 films, 39.00
Best film: A New Hope (90)
Worst film: Phantom Menace/Attack of the Clones/Revenge of the Sith (10)

5. Brad Silberling, 3 films, 36.67
Best film: Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (45)
Worst film: Land of the Lost (30)

4. Shawn Levy, 3 films, 30.00
Best film: Night at the Museum (45)
Worst film: Cheaper by the Dozen (10)

3. Roland Emmerich, 3 films, 28.33
Best film: The Day After Tomorrow (35)
Worst film: Godzilla (20)

2. Raja Gosnell, 3 films, 23.33
Best film: Scooby Doo 2 (35)
Worst film: Home Alone 3 (5)

1. Keenen Ivory Wayans, 3 films, 18.33
Best film: White Chicks (40)
Worst film: Scary Movie (5)

A third film for McG, Dwain Esper, Simon West, Frank Coraci, Frank Miller or John Hillcoat could land any one of them in here.

[VinegarBob]

10. Wolfgang Petersen 7 films, 30.00
Best film: Das Boot (90)
Worst film: Tie: Air Force One / Outbreak / Troy (0)

9. Paul Verhoeven, 5 films, 30.00
Best film: Robocop (80)
Worst film: Showgirls (0)

8. Joel Schumacher, 7 films, 29.29
Best film: Flawless (65)
Worst film: Tie: Batman Forever / Batman and Robin (0)

7. Chris Columbus, 4 films, 28.75
Best film: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (65)
Worst film: Tie: Mrs Doubtfire / Home Alone (0)

6. Ron Howard, 11 films, 24.55
Best film: Parenthood (60)
Worst film: Tie: Angels & Demons / Backdraft (0)

5. Joe Johnston, 4 films, 17.50
Best film: Jurassic Park 3 (40)
Worst film: Tie: Captain America The First Avenger / The Wolfman (0)

4. M. Night Shyamalan, 4 films, 15.00
Best film: Unbreakable (60)
Worst film: Tie: The Sixth Sense / The Village / The Happening (0)

3. Wes Craven, 4 films, 12.50
Best film: A Nightmare on Elm Street (40)
Worst film: Tie: The Last House on The Left / Scream (0)

2. Jon Turteltaub, 6 films, 11.67
Best film: Instinct (30)
Worst film: The Sorcerer's Apprentice (0)

1. Michael Bay, 5 films, 5.00
Best film: The Rock (15)
Worst film: Tie: Transformers / Armageddon / Pearl Harbor (0)

Not too surprised by most of this list though tbh. What does disturb me a little is how many films I've seen by the likes of Ron Howard, Joel Schumacher and Michael Bay - directors I obviously have no time for. Most of these movies I saw at a time when I made a point of going to the local multiplex every week. I suppose it just goes to show how little there is to choose from at these places a lot of the time.

[MacSwell]

Wow, Rumple, that's a lot of zeros!

[VinegarBob]

Wow, Rumple, that's a lot of zeros!

Yeah, I noticed that too.

I'm not sure what's to be done though. Like I mentioned in that other thread there's not really anywhere to go once you give a movie a 0. If you rate a movie 0 then see another one that's worse, about all you can do is bump the first one up to 1 then put the latest one at 0. Trouble is once you do that a few times everything gets pushed up, then the next thing you know a movie you think is atrocious ends up with a 40 score! Conversely it does no good avoiding the 0 score. It just means your current score is effectively 0 and 0 is some mythical score that must never be given lest there be an unknown worse movie out there somewhere. It's one of the great unsolved problems of our time.

The best workaround I've come up with is that if I can think of nothing good to say about a film, and lots bad about it I just chuck it in the 0 pile along with all the other worthless movies. There's no point in trying to figure out if say, Batman & Robin is better or worse than The Happening or what have you. They're both just terrible, so give 'em both 0*.

* (Any alternative rating strategy suggestions are most welcome).

[AFlickering]

3 film minimum:
1. Brian Levant 22.00 (3 films)
2. Kevin Smith 22.33 (3 films)
3. Roland Emmerich 28.00 (4 films)
4. Paul Greengrass 28.50 (4 films)
5. Sarah Polley 29.67 (3 films)
6. Guy Ritchie 30.33 (3 films)
=7. Gus Van Sant 33.00 (3 films) - i've deleted a couple 'til i can rewatch, but honestly i doubt he'd rise that much.
=7. Jeff Nichols 33.00 (3 films)
9. Ki-duk Kim 34.00 (3 films)
10. Robert Zemeckis 36.20 (5 films)

the likes of zack snyder, john hillcoat, danny boyle, david o. russell, tim burton, michael bay and shyamalan are in the next 10.

[Caracortada]

My bottom 10 with their worst film:

10. Todd Phillips 2.20 - The Hangover II
9. Guillermo del Toro 2.20 - Hellboy II
8. Gore Verbinski 2.00 - Pirates of the Caribbean II
7. Sylvester Stallone 2.00 - Rocky III
6. George Lucas 2.00 - Star Wars III
5. James Cameron 1.50 - Terminator II
4. Guy Ritchie 1.50 - Sherlock Holmes II
3. Michael Bay 1.43 - Transformers III
2. Bryan Singer 1.00 - X-Men II
1. David Yates 1.00 - Harry Potter VIII

You've probably already guessed, but I'm not the biggest fan of sequels.

[chmul_cr0n]

Will Gluck 41.75 (4)
David Ayer 41.25 (4)
Michael Winner 40.67 (3)
Jason Friedberg 40.00 (3)
Aaron Seltzer 40.00 (3)
Duncan Jones 38.67 (3)
Paul W.S. Anderson 34.80 (5)
Eli Roth 33.00 (3)
Jon M. Chu 33.00 (3)
Neil Marshall 15.67 (3)

[Moribunny]

January 2020

An aside:
Someone was gravely butthurt last time because Nolan and Aronofsky made my bottom ten directors. There is an explanation, though that person may not like it: I usually won't bother to watch more than 1-2 films by a clearly awful filmmaker (for instance, I only watched 2 by Brian Levant, his #1 bottom director). For the likes of Nolan and Aronofsky, who are very popular and whose every film is hyped to the extreme, I actually make a favorable exception -- which guarantees that they will make the cut when other terrible directors don't. Sadly, though "The Wrestler" and "Interstellar" weren't strictly godawful, I haven't seen a single decent film by those two.


4 film minimum, I'm listing 15 this time:

=1. Bong Joon-ho............. 18.75 (4)
=1. Darren Lynn Bousman... 18.75 (4)
3. James Wan................. 22.50 (6)
4. Paul Feig.................... 25.00 (4) ..(I decided to count complete TV series as single films)
5. Christopher Nolan......... 26.13 (8)
6. Darren Aronofsky.......... 27.00 (4)
7. James Cameron............ 28.00 (6)
8. Robert Rodriguez.......... 29.00 (5)
9. David O. Russell........... 30.00 (4)
10. Wes Craven............... 30.20 (10)
11. Renny Harlin.............. 31.25 (4)
12. Clint Eastwood.......... 32.20 (10)
13. John Carpenter.......... 32.60 (10)
14. Farrelly Brothers........ 34.72 (4.5) ..(did an average here cuz 1 film wasn't in common)
15. Joel Schumacher......... 35.67 (6)

If I were to do a 3 film minimum, the leading 7 would be: Michael Bay, Zack Snyder, Lucio Fulci, Christopher Guest, Alex Proyas, Michel Gondry and Ang Lee.