Worst Directors List

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1. Charles Chaplin

Worst: A Busy Day (1914), Dough and Dynamite (1914), Face on the Barroom Floor (1914), A Fair Exchange (1914), The Good for Nothing (1914), Laffing Gas (1914), Mabel's Married Life (1914), The Masquerader (1914), Musical Tramp (1914), The New Janitor (1914), Recreation (1914), The Rival Mashers (1914), The Rounders (1914), A Burlesque on Carmen (1915), By the Sea (1915), The Champion (1915), His New Job (1915), In the Park (1915), A Night in the Show (1915), A Night Out (1915), Shanghaied (1915), The Tramp (1915), A Woman (1915), Work (1915), Behind the Screen (1916), The Count (1916), The Fireman (1916), The Floorwalker (1916), One A.M. (1916), The Pawnshop (1916), The Rink (1916), The Vagabond (1916), The Adventurer (1917), The Cure (1917), Easy Street (1917), The Immigrant (1917), The Bond (1918), Shoulder Arms (1918), Triple Trouble (1918), A Day's Pleasure (1919), Sunnyside (1919), andThe Great Dictator (1940)
Outstandingly Bad: Twenty Minutes of Love (1914) and Police (1916)
Dishonorable: The Kid (1921)
Opinion: Look at the list again because it's staggering! Nobody has that many terrible films in his oeuvre. Hence, Charlie Chaplin is the worst director ever lived. It's not even close. People love him, but have they ever seen his stuff, especially from the 1910's? Almost every film has been mindless, sadistic, and unfunny. It didn't get better when he made the switch from silent to sound. Marlon Brando once said, "Chaplin was probably the most sadistic man I'd ever met. He was an egotistical tyrant and a penny-pincher." Chaplin: "The cinema is little more than a fad. It's canned drama. What audiences really want to see is flesh and blood on the stage."

2. Jules White

Worst: Calling All Curs (1939), Back from the Front (1943), Dizzy Pilots (1943), No Dough Boys (1944), G.I. Wanna Go Home (1946), Three Loan Wolves (1946), Uncivil War Birds (1946), and Three Dark Horses (1952)
Outstandingly Bad: Boobs in Arms (1940), Dizzy Detectives (1943), and Hokus Pokus (1949)
Dishonorable: None
Opinion: What makes Jules White unbelievable is that he didn't have a Three Stooges short film that's rated higher than '3' except for two which received '4' and '5' from me. None of them was funny. When a different director was used, they were finally better, thus earning higher ratings from me.

3. Wes Craven

Worst: The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988), New Nightmare (1994), and Scream 2 (1997)
Outstandingly Bad: Swamp Thing (1982), The Hills Have Eyes Part II (1984), Shocker (1989), and Scream 3 (2000)
Dishonorable: The Last House on the Left (1972), Deadly Friend (1986), The People Under the Stairs (1991), Vampire in Brooklyn (1995), Cursed (2005), and Red Eye (2005)
Opinion: Wes Craven is the Master of Suck. When the hack thought he was making a horror movie, he was actually making crap. The only creative output of his career is A Nightmare on Elm Street. That's it although The Hills Have Eyes is kind of wretched. The rest has been rubbish, full of logic problems, and not scary at all. If we must compare, John Carpenter made intelligent horror pictures that went on to be classics.

4. Spike Lee

Worst: Do the Right Thing (1989), Mo' Better Blues (1990), Crooklyn (1990), and Inside Man (2006)
Outstandingly Bad: None
Dishonorable: Malcolm X (1992)
Opinion: I hate Spike Lee, and I hate his movies. Racism is the name of the game. All he does is put it in front of my face all day long. He never stops doing it in every single damn movie. Do the Right Thing is the most overrated picture of Spike Lee's career with Malcolm X coming in a close second. As for the latter, he was the wrong director, having failed to understand the man himself. John Singleton did better movies, and nothing Spike Lee ever did came close to the power of Boyz n the Hood. Then, there's a 19-year-old fella by the name of Matty Rich who blew him out of the water when he made Straight Out of Brooklyn.

5. John Landis

Worst: National Lampoon's Animal House (1978)
Outstandingly Bad: The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977), The Blues Brothers (1980), An American Werewolf in London (1981), Spies Like Us (1985), and Innocent Blood (1992)
Dishonorable: Beverly Hills Cop III (1994)
Opinion: John Landis is infamous for what happened on the set for Twilight Zone: The Movie. Prior to Vic Morrow and two Asian child actors being killed when the helicopter crashed on them, the director didn't care about the imminent danger, preferring to keep going with the shooting of the scene. Hence, it's a surprise that he was allowed to work afterwards, but then again, Hollywood worships money.

6. Sydney Pollack

Worst: None
Outstandingly Bad: Castle Keep (1969), Bobby Deerfield (1977), The Electric Horseman (1979), Havana (1990), and Sabrina (1995)
Disonorable: The Way We Were (1973) and Out of Africa (1985)
Opinion: Sydney Pollack? Yep. So far, I have seen 18 films of his, and many of them are decidedly bland. There are several reasons why. One, the writing is often not that good, resulting in boring, talky dialogue. Two, his films may have been hits at the time of release, but they simply don't stand the test of time. Three, the casting choices have been poor, causing his characters to be more unlikeable than likeable. I regard Out of Africa among the most overrated of all time, and it shouldn't have beaten The Color Purple in a lot of categories at the Oscars.

7. Richard Lester

Worst: Petulia (1968) and Superman III (1983)
Outstandingly Bad: The Three Musketeers (1973) and The Four Musketeers (1974)
Disonorable: None
Opinion: Remember the horrible Superman movie with Richard Pryor? That was directed by Richard Lester. How about the one which starred Julie Christie called Petulia? Zzzzzz...... I knew he never read the book after I saw his two films, The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers, because he almost got every single thing wrong. Once Lester had the chance to redeem himself through A Hard Day's Night, he managed to ruin it by including the old man. In other words, Richard Lester had bad instincts and no feel for quality filmmaking.

8. Amy Heckerling

Worst: Clueless (1995)
Outstandingly Bad: Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), Johnny Dangerously (1984), and Loser (2000)
Dishonorable: None
Opinion: Amy Heckerling has never been good at her craft. All of the comedies she did are bad and not funny for the slightest bit. They are also crude and hard to get into due to unlikeable characters. A couple of comedy directors did better stuff during the 80's and 90's that were subtle and timeless, and they're Rob Reiner and John Hughes. She even managed to ruin the sequel to National Lampoon's Vacation. Oh, yeah...forget Clueless; I hated it.

9. Michael Lehmann

Masterpiece: Hudson Hawk (1991) and 40 Days and 40 Nights (2002)
Outstanding: Heathers (1988)
Honorable: None
Opinion: Michael Lehmann? I had never heard of him and didn't know who he was until I looked up his oeuvre to refresh my memory. Now, I see this is the guy who did Hudson Hawk. It's a film that will ruin anyone. I'm surprised Bruce Willis survived the debacle. Michael Lehmann has made a career out of directing unlikeable pictures. Heathers was done in bad taste while 40 Days and 40 Nights was unbearably annoying because of the theme and, most of all, Josh Hartnett. With the exception of two in 2007, his career of directing feature length films was over afterwards.

10. Joel Coen

Worst: None
Outstandingly Bad: Blood Simple (1984) and The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
Dishonorable: Miller's Crossing (1990), Fargo (1996), and O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
Opinion: I can't stand the writing in all of Joel Coen's films, causing a slowdown in the pace. It's so pretentious and not believable. Here's a strange combination: throughly dumb and obnoxious characters who are able to speak so well and be witty. They also get involved in stupid, outlandish situations. A case in point: Raising Arizona. It'll never happen in real life. By the way, Joel Coen collaborates with his brother, Ethan, so he should be thought of the same way, too.

11. Walter Hill

Worst: Undisputed (2002)
Outstandingly Bad: The Warriors (1981) and 48 Hours (1982)
Dishonorable: Another 48 Hrs. (1990)
Opinion: Never mind that Walter Hill directed Southern Comfort, which is the best movie of his career. Everything else he had done has the feel of an eight-year-old boy who fancies himself playing with action figures while living in a fantasy world. The Warriors is a good example of this, the most laughable movie I've seen from him. Any time I see a Walter Hill film, I always have to suspend a large amount of disbelief, but it's difficult not to be overwhelmed by the sheer stupidity.

12. Herbert Ross

Worst: Steel Magnolias (1989)
Outstandingly Bad: The Goodbye Girl (1977) and My Blue Heaven (1990)
Dishonorable: Footloose (1984)
Opinion: Herbert Ross' films are old and dated. All anyone needs to confirm that is watch Footloose. The dialogue never sounds interesting or gripping. There's no style, either. California Suite would have sank further if Herbert Ross didn't have Michael Caine. The Goodbye Girl never impressed me, and I couldn't believe that Richard Dreyfuss beat out Richard Burton for Equus. Don't get me started with Steel Magnolias; I really, really, really hate that movie.

13. Sergio Leone

Worst: None
Outstandingly Bad: Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo (1966), C'era una volta il West (1968), and Duck, You Sucker (1971)
Dishonorable: For a Few Dollars More (1965)
Opinion: If there's anybody who has the ability to kill me with his films, it's Sergio Leone. Boring, boring, boring! And very, very, very slow! If there will be a study whether watching movies can cause Alzheimer's disease, may I present his stuff for the first trial? I can imagine each scene with Sergio Leone going, "Zoom in. Stop. Let the character think for a minute. The eyes. Zoom back a bit. Stop. Let him think for another two minutes. Slide the camera over. Stop. Look at the eyes. Let him think. Zoom in. The eyes. Zoom out. Zoom in. Let him think. Zoom in. Stop. The eyes."

14. John Glen

Worst: Octopussy (1983)
Outstandingly Bad: For Your Eyes Only (1981)
Dishonorable: Living Daylights (1987) and Licence to Kill (1989)
Opinion: Is there any surprise that John Glen mostly directed James Bond pictures? They weren't even that good. He had the chance to make a star out of Timothy Dalton, but it didn't work, lasting for only two films. When John Glen tried to venture out, the result was a major box-office bomb as evidenced in Aces: Iron Eagle III and Christopher Columbus: The Discovery, signaling the end of his directorial career.

15. Ken Russell

Worst: Gothic (1986)
Outstandingly Bad: Women in Love (1969)
Dishonorable: Billion Dollar Brain (1967), Altered States (1980), and The Lair of the White Worm (1988)
Opinion: No Worst Directors list can be complete without including the madman from Britain: Ken Russell. This guy is the worst, and his movies are stupid and mindnumbingly boring. His film might start out okay, and then, he found a way to sabotage it. If Altered States had been handled more professionally, it would have worked. But nope...he ruined everything for fun. At least, Ken Russell got it right for The Devils.