Six Directors Who Were One-Hit Wonders

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By Matt Prigge

Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted Feb. 20, 2009

PostGreen artist rendering of the 100K House

Peter Bogdanovich: In Trainspotting Jonny Lee Miller theorizes that anyone who achieves greatness will eventually lose it. Few prove this better than Bogdanovich, who hit a hot streak with The Last Picture Show, What's Up Doc? and Paper Moon then suffered a nearly apocalyptic backlash, first with Daisy Miller and then At Long Last Love, a retro-musical with Burt Reynolds and Cybill Shepherd.

Mathieu Kassovitz: Though most recognizable as Amelie's boyfriend, Kassovitz was once a very promising director, thanks to 1995's scrappy and charged La Haine. But then he made an asinine thriller (Crimson Rivers), an even more asinine Hollywood debut (Gothika) and just recently a Vin Diesel flick so bad he publicly disowned it (Babylon A.D.).

Neil LaBute: When it first emerged, In the Company of Men seemed sui generis, but LaBute's subsequent films have been a combination of diminishing returns and the emperor wearing no clothes. When he's not wading in his own misanthropy LaBute likes to hire himself out to tarnish the good name of The Wicker Man or do the scary-black-man thriller Lakeview Terrace.

Jim McBride: A landmark in '60s art cinema, the sneaky faux-doc David Holzman's Diary promised an exciting new talent. Alas, McBride amounted to little besides TV and the wan Great Balls of Fire! (His strange 1983 remake of Breathless with Richard Gere is kind of awesome, though.)

John McTiernan: This man once made Die Hard. He also made Medicine Man, Last Action Hero, The Thirteenth Warrior, Rollerball and Basic. But he also once made Die Hard.

David Zucker/Jim Abrahams/Jerry Zucker (tie): Airplane's a masterpiece. Ditto Police Squad, Top Secret and at least the first Naked Gun movies. Few complaints with Ruthless People. But since then the three have, separately or together, desecrated mightily on the altar of comedy. Jane Austen's Mafia? Rat Race? The upcoming "conservative comedy" An American Carol?!