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), and The 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 10'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 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 higher ratings.

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 comes 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. 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.

6. John Landis

Worst: National Lampoon's Animal House (1978)
Outstandingly Bad: 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. Before Vic Morrow and two Asian child actors were killed as the helicopter was about to crash on them, the director didn't care about the imminent danger, preferring to keep going with the shoot. Hence, it's a surprise he was allowed to work afterwards, but then again, Hollywood worships money.

7. 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 never 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 are Rob Reiner and John Hughes. She even managed to ruin the sequel to National Lampoon's Vacation. Forget Clueless; I hated it.

8. 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. Yeah, 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.

9. Walter Hill

Worst: Undisputed (2002)
Outstandingly Bad: The Warriors (1981), 48 Hours (1982), and Last Man Standing (1995)
Dishonorable: Another 48 Hrs. (1990)
Opinion: Never mind 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 an unbelievable amount of disbelief, but it's difficult not to be overwhelmed by the sheer stupidity.

10. Ken Russell

Worst: Gothic (1986)
Outstandingly Bad: Women in Love (1969)
Dishonorable: 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 Ken 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.