Some visionary auteurs weren't always seen that way by critics, and some of the greatest directors of all time have tons of movies rated "rotten" on Rotten Tomatoes. British director Guy Ritchie has already released two movies this year, and their Rotten Tomatoes performances perfectly sum up the filmmaker's relationship with the website. One of his 2023 movies is the "rotten" Operation Fortune, and the other is the "fresh" The Covenant. Not only is The Covenant rated "fresh," but at 83%, it's the highest score Ritchie has ever gotten. The score is vindication for the hardworking director, but Ritchie isn't the only great filmmaker who has tons of "rotten"-rated movies.
Rotten Tomatoes rounds up the reviews from professional critics and gives an average score to each movie. If the score is under 60%, it's officially branded "rotten," and a large number of truly great filmmakers have a surprising amount of rotten movies. Academy Award-winning directors and action auteurs have all struggled with critics on a number of occasions, even if their audience scores say otherwise. Whether it's their best films that didn't get the credit they deserve, or several bad films in huge, prolific filmographies, these directors are recognized as being the very best of their profession despite so many "rotten" movies on the review aggregate website.
10 Ridley Scott
Ridley Scott is one of the most prolific filmmakers working today, often releasing two movies in a single year. The director mostly directs epic period movies like Gladiator, which is the most revered swords-and-sandals movie ever, but for every Gladiator, there's a Kingdom of Heaven. He has directed classics like Alien, Blade Runner, and Thelma & Louise, and modern classics such as The Martian, proving that he's adept at absolutely any genre. However, critically panned movies such as The Counselor, Exodus: Gods and Kings, and Robin Hood significantly pull down the consistency of his output. But Scott's upcoming Napoleon biopic looks typically epic, and it could mark his best movie in over 20 years.
9 Michael Bay
Where Scott is a great director who has several bad movies, it's Michael Bay's "rotten" films that are so great. Arguably than any other major director, Bay never set out to appease critics' opinions, as the director makes absolute audience pleasers with mass appeal. Of the 15 movies Bay has directed, only two of them are rated "fresh," which are 2022's Ambulance and 1997's The Rock. However, while it's hard to defend any of the five Transformers movies he directed, his movies from the 1990s and 2000s deserve some retrospective reviews. Bad Boys and Armageddon have become classic action movies, even if they aren't intellectually challenging.
8 Tony Scott
Tony Scott, Ridley Scott's brother, was the go-to director for fast-paced action movies before he passed away in 2012. In the '80s and '90s, Scott's filmmaking style couldn't have been more different from his brother's, as Tony Scott's movies were cool-looking, action-packed popcorn fodder such as Top Gun, Days of Thunder, and The Last Boy Scout. Surprisingly, all those movies are rated "rotten" and Scott didn't get a "fresh" score until his seventh movie, 1993's True Romance. Ironically, while Top Gun is rated "rotten" the sequel was a phenomenal success and scored a "fresh" 96%. That could be a sign that critics have changed more than anything, as Top Gun: Maverick is extremely similar to the original.
7 Spike Lee
Spike Lee has such a unique filmography, having directed several documentaries and concert films, which is a perfect match with his vibrant, colorful, music-oriented style and has led to his highest Rotten Tomatoes scores. But when it comes to his theatrically released movies, Lee's style hasn't always been met with so much acclaim. Lee uses his exciting movies full of fun characters as vehicles to commentate on race relations in America, which was perfectly balanced in films like Do The Right Thing. But his messages can sometimes be too heavy-handed in movies such as Red Hook Summer and Bamboozled, and his Oldboy remake was criticized for turning the classic into a political message.
6 Brian DePalma
There are two sides to Brian DePalma's filmography, as the director made mainstream box office hits such as Scarface and Mission: Impossible, but he also made smaller, more suspenseful and psychological movies like Blow Out and Carlito's Way. Neither of those sides of him was particularly criticized more than the other, it's just that there was a significant drop-off in quality at the turn of the century. DePalma has some bad movies, but it started with 1998's Nicolas Cage-starring Snake Eyes, and not one of the filmmaker's movies has been "fresh" since. However, while John Wick: Chapter 4 is being praised for its 5-minute top-down scene, Snake Eyes did it first, highlighting De Palma's ingenuity.
5 Sam Raimi
It's hard to believe that Sam Raimi has a wealth of "rotten" movies, as he's best known for creating the beloved Evil Dead franchise and directing the 2000s Spider-Man trilogy. Raimi's first two Spider-Man movies are often considered among the greatest superhero films of all time, and ironically, even the universally hated Spider-Man 3 is rated "fresh" on the review aggregate website. However, it's easy to forget that Raimi became a director for hire in the 90s and often took jobs that were way outside of his comfort zone. Besides the great A Simple Plan, Sam Raimi's personal favorite movie, that era saw him direct the mystery movie The Gift, the western The Quick and the Dead, and even the sports movie For Love of the Game.
4 The Wachowski Sisters
The Wachowski sisters have more great films that they're given credit for. Outside of The Matrix, their directorial debut, Bound, is a thrilling neo-noir movie, Speed Racer is a fun popcorn flick, and it's heavily rumored that they ghost-directed the fantastic V for Vendetta. Even the Matrix sequels have some innovative moments. However, because of the complex concepts of their films and their style-over-substance approach, some of their movies haven't gotten the critical acclaim that was expected. And opposite to Michael Bay, if their movies were to be retrospectively reviewed, more of them would likely drop into "rotten" territory.
3 Guy Ritchie
No director as prolific as Guy Ritchie will ever have a 100% success rate, as the filmmaker has directed 14 movies, and he covers such a broad range of genres and target audiences. Ritchie's Rotten Tomatoes scores tend to be negative when he strays too far from what he's known for. Ritchie grew a huge fanbase of both general audiences and critics for his over-the-top comedy violence and vulgar one-liners, so its no surprise that his "rotten"-rated movies are the likes of the romantic comedy Swept Away and the live-action Disney remake Aladdin. However, given that The Covenant has none of Ritchie's trademark humor and is deadly serious, the 2023 movie might have broken that trend.
2 Robert Zemeckis
Robert Zemeckis has directed some truly classic movies, including Back to the Future, Forrest Gump, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The director is also extremely technically innovative, especially with the latter, as mixing live-action and animation had never been achieved so successfully before the 1988 movie. Even the director's "rotten" movies were technically advanced and hugely innovative. The Polar Express has a "rotten" 56%, but that's watched by millions of households annually, and its motion-capture computer animation was so influential at the time. But there's no forgiving Zemeckis for Pinocchio, which was the worst Pinocchio movie of 2022, even worse than a Russian direct-to-DVD Pinocchio.
1 Ron Howard
Though Ron Howard started out as an actor, starring in George Lucas's American Graffiti, he became an even more celebrated filmmaker than the Star Wars creator who directed him. The filmmaker started out making high-concept movies that were equally campy and fantastical, such as Splash and Willow. He also directed political dramas and biographical epics with high Rotten Tomatoes scores like Frost/Nixon and Apollo 13. However, his melodrama and campiness can sometimes be too much. Between something as overly-dramatic as The DaVinci Code and over-the-top goofy movies like How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Howard's sweet spot is somewhere in the middle.